A bizarre bug could affect some Windows 10 users that try to install the latest Windows release on computers where the BIOS date is set to January 19, 3001, or later on AMD or Intel motherboards.
"It seems if your motherboard BIOS (AMD or Intel) allows you to set a date of 1-19-3001 or beyond, Windows 10 1909 will not finish installing, but locks up during the second reboot of the installation process," as Carey Holzman, an IT professional, and YouTuber focusing on computer enthusiasts, told BleepingComputer.
"Furthermore, if the BIOS date is changed, and you restart the computer in an attempt to complete the install of Windows 10, guess what happens next?"
"Windows 10 freezes again and when you check your BIOS date, you’ll find Windows 10 automatically puts the incorrect BIOS date back in your BIOS! If you change the motherboard, then attempt to restart from the failed install, the install will once again freeze and set the incorrect installation date back into the new motherboards BIOS!"
The bug will not go away whatever changes you make to the system's hardware specs as long as you will try to boot off of the hard drive you initially attempted to install Windows 10, version 1909 on.
This issue affects at least the users of Gigabyte H370 HD3 (for Intel CPUs) and Gigabyte x570 Aorus Elite (for AMD CPUs) motherboards since these two were used by our reader during his tests.
How to fix the 'Windows 10 Y3K Bug' The solution to this conundrum is to:
1. FIX the BIOS date FIRST. As long as you make sure that the BIOS date on your motherboard is set to January 18, 3001, or earlier, the Windows 10 1909 will go ahead without any issues.
For this to happen the motherboard vendor has to fail to enforce date rules: in our reader's case, although Gigabyte says that the maximum date is 2099, users can freely change it on their own with this unexpected result.
Microsoft's Windows 10 also has to fail to check if all system requirements including the BIOS date are met before starting the installation process.
Weird Windows 10 issue that most won't ever encounter While this a bizarre Windows 10 bug that no one would normally encounter or care about, it only takes one lucky person who buys an 'open box' motherboard from an online retailer with the wrong BIOS date set by a time traveler.
If they don't know about this issue and set a supported BIOS date, they'll most probably keep rebooting and attempting to change system hardware in the eventuality that one of them is failing.
Those who are more technically inclined might actually attempt to wipe their hard drive or even clean install Windows 10 to make sure that the installation process hasn't failed in any way. It won't work though unless both these two measures are taken.
All in all, even though this issue is as exotic as they come, when an operating system is used by hundreds of millions of customers it's bound for some of its users to encounter it in the end. Case in point, our reader who tipped us on this weird bug.
BIOS date range on Gigabyte MB "I think Gigabyte needs to fix the BIOS on every current motherboard they sell and Microsoft needs to add a reasonable date check during the initial install process," Holzman told BleepingComputer.
To be fair, messing with the system date and especially with the one in your computer's BIOS is known to cause all sorts of issues and unusual behaviors from software not working properly to websites not loading because of 'expired' site certificates. And now, failed operating system installation attempts.
The lesson of the day? Don't touch the date, BIOS or system, if you don't want weird things happening.
When BleepingComputer contacted Microsoft about this bug, we were told that they had nothing to share.
A 48-minute video demo of this issue is embedded below.
VIDEO source 
