READY TO RISE, SHINE EARLIER? TIME CHANGE MAY CONFOUND DEVICES.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD

Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- As the owner of several electronic devices that use clocks and time stamps, Steve Frank fully expects to be annoyed this weekend.

That's when daylight-saving time kicks in -- a full three weeks earlier than usual. And earlier than most of the multitude of devices that have been programmed to automatically adjust their clocks.

Like millions of consumers and businesses across the country, Frank -- a Simi Valley political consultant and blogger -- is bracing to sort through various devices this weekend and manually adjust all of them.

"Even now I have problems periodically with the time change on a normal basis. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to manually redo this (cell phone) Sunday night," Frank said. "It's a little annoyance."

Unlike the usual daylight-saving time switch -- which typically involves just adjusting a few wristwatches and wall clocks -- this one is different.

Calling it an energy-saving measure, Congress last year mandated an earlier "spring forward" -- and a one-week later "fall back" -- to give the country extra hours of daylight.

But millions of electronic devices manufactured before the mandate -- everything from computers and BlackBerrys to clocks and cell phones -- are still programmed for the old schedule.

And experts say that could leave consumers and businesses across the country in some surprising pickles when the time change takes effect at 2 a.m. Sunday.

City precautions

Los Angeles officials on Wednesday worked to assure residents that city government is prepared and urged residents to take their own precautions.

"A couple of years ago, people were concerned about the millennium and Y2K, and we were able to get through that. We are taking the same precautions here," Councilman Tom LaBonge said.

Still, there were no guarantees.

"It's impossible to predict if there's going to be a glitch that day because we're doing all we can to mitigate it," said Cliff Eng, assistant general manager of the city's Information Technology Agency.

"Given the sheer number of devices we have, it's possible that a few devices won't get patched."

The Information Technology Association of America recently warned businesses to check their computer software and hardware, noting that glitches could disrupt security devices, financial services and scheduling.

In Los Angeles, city information specialists have been working for the past month to install software patches on desktop computers, servers, BlackBerrys and other devices.

Eng said any glitches likely won't affect city services, although some city employees who fail to update their scheduling software could end up running late for meetings.

In California state government, most information technology issues are handled by individual departments, so it was unclear this week whether all agencies are prepared.

But officials in several key agencies said they are aware of the problem and have been working on it.

The Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, has already fixed nearly 7,000 desktop computers and several hundred servers and is not expecting any glitches Sunday, officials said.

Functions like scheduling appointments for driving tests through the department's Web site should not be affected.

"We've already implemented software necessary to account for the daylight-saving time ... on all of our peripheral equipment and handheld devices," said DMV spokesman Mike Marando.

Many unaware

In most cases, the daylight-saving shift is seen as a minor inconvenience. But because many consumers and businesses are unaware of the change, the inconveniences could be widespread.

"It didn't really register that much. But I think for a lot of businesses out there, this may catch them off-guard and, in many cases, cause some real problems," said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Kyser, calling himself barely aware of the problem, said the situation might mark a rare occasion when people who aren't heavily reliant on technology have an advantage.

"A lot of people around here print out their schedule for the next day. I'm old-fashioned. I still use calendar books.

"For us old fogies, this is no problem. But for the modern types, definitely a pain."

-- Staff Writer Rick Orlov contributed to this report.

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Daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday

Make sure you weather the daylight-saving time change without missing any appointments. It's not as hard as you think:

Windows computer: If you have Windows Vista, no worries. Otherwise, visit microsoft.com and click "Daylight Savings" to see whether your computer needs to be updated.

Apple computer: If you have Mac OS X version 4.5 or newer, you're fine. If you have Mac OS 9.2 or older, change the clock manually. For in between, go to apple.com/support/downloads/ and search for "Daylight Savings" to get the right upgrade.

Handheld devices: Go to the device maker's Web site, including blackberry.com and palm.com to find downloadable patches.

Cell phones: Verizon and Sprint phones will automatically change three weeks early. T-Mobil, Cingular, SBC and AT&T phones will need to be manually adjusted.

VCRs, DVD players, coffee makers and clocks: Like years past, they need to be changed manually.

DVRs: If you subscribe to TiVo or a similar service, the systems will adjust themselves.

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Daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday (see text)