🚀 go-pugleaf

"Skybuck Flying" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<been30$pof$1@news4.tilbu1.nb.home.nl>...
> 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 :D
> 
> 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!