It survived the Millennium Bug unscathed - but the Leap Year proved one strange date too many for Gordon Harrison's computer.

The publicity officer for Minster Lions was horrified when he switched on his computer yesterday and the date March 1, 2094, appeared on screen.

"I actually installed the Y2K update last September and had no problems on January 1," said Mr Harrison, of Haxby.

"I tried four or five times to sort out the problem through the set-up mode, but the computer would not accept the date. I then tried to re-boot it and it has actually worked so far, so I kept the computer switched on until I finished my work!"

He said he expected the problems to continue, and he planned to upgrade the whole computer, comparing it to a steam engine which needed an overhaul.

His problems appeared isolated, with no rush of callers to York's computer repair shops and Nestl and CGU reporting no computer problems.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.