How to determine the age of a computer ?

philo wrote:

saw it in half and count the rings ?


LMAO

Skybuck Flying wrote:

"Edward" wrote in message
...
I meant the date of the bios itself. Not the time the bios keeps.

Hmm interesting... I never heard of such a thing.

See http://www.anderbergfamily.net/ant/biosdate/


--
Ed Guy P.Eng,CDP,MIEE
Information Technology Consultant
Internet:
http://www.guysoftware.com
"Check out HELLLP!, WinHelp author tool for WinWord 2.0 through 8.0,
PlanBee Project Management Planning System
and ParseRat, the File Parser, Converter and Reorganizer"

"db" wrote in message
.. .
philo wrote:

saw it in half and count the rings ?


LMAO


I have done exactly this, only just a bit on one corner so as not to ruin
the mobo.
I counted the rings and hey
presto............................................ .........................



It
was............................................... ..........................
......................................



knackered!

"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message ...
Hi,

This might seem a strange question:

How to determine the age of a computer ?

It would be cool if a programmer could find out how old a computer is. ( For
example processor age, or motherboard age )

Down to a few seconds

It should not be possible for software/users to change the age... it should
be something in the hardware

Bye,
Skybuck.


It's difficult to define the age of a computer, especially when parts
have been changed. You could go for the bios date and hope it's not
been updated.

You could, more adventurously, consider fetching 'key indicators' such
as bios date but also hdd size, ram size & type, video/sound chip and
various other hardware data and creating an 'equivalent age'.

So a BIOS date of 1998 but with a more recent 9gb HDD and 64mb RAM,
yet with a 1996 Matrox video card may indicate an 'equivalent age' of
'June 1998' depending on how you weigh the various factors.

It'd be a bit of fun rather than a seriously useful tool, but might
yield some hints (like - you could use a new video card) in the way
Sisoft Sandra does.

To do this in Delphi i'd suggest using some of the Win32 API calls
that allow for the inspection of hardware and carefully considering a
measurement scheme and weighing scheme to arrive at a realistic date.

Have fun!

Skybuck Flying wrote:

Just out of curiosity...

Is there a windows 32 api function to get the bios date ?

Using asm is scary...

Use the C snippet.


--
Ed Guy P.Eng,CDP,MIEE
Information Technology Consultant
Internet:
http://www.guysoftware.com
"Check out HELLLP!, WinHelp author tool for WinWord 2.0 through 8.0,
PlanBee Project Management Planning System
and ParseRat, the File Parser, Converter and Reorganizer"