What are ways to figure out how old my computer is?

Ronny Brendel

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 261

Try finding receipt or something. If there is warranty check in manufacturers site, you can use that to find it out. – Olli – 2011-02-28T09:55:26.077

I got that from my employer. No nothing attached. I think in general it's an interesting question. – Ronny Brendel – 2011-02-28T09:57:35.963

34you could use carbon dating – barlop – 2011-02-28T10:00:17.133

2What is your mental model of "my computer"? Do you think there is a special date it was born? Do you need the date of the first component that was built for constructing the final set of components that eventually resulted in a complete entity one would call "a computer / a desktop pc / a server"? Or do you need the date the entity first came in contact with electricity? – initall – 2011-02-28T10:18:30.057

something, anything :) – Ronny Brendel – 2011-02-28T14:14:21.890

@barlop Ask the Doctor to go back in time and check would be a more plausible option IMHO... – BloodPhilia – 2011-02-28T14:24:49.400

I think you should be more specific, because I took your question as "how old is my hardware" and thought about the BIOS banner that often gets displayed at startup and contains a date. – vtest – 2011-02-28T14:38:27.400

3I don't understand this question... you know the hardware has labels that tell you when it was built right? You could also pull product numbers and search them in google. How is it possible for us to tell what you have when we cannot see it? – Supercereal – 2011-02-28T15:41:21.753

I usually do something similar to what Shark does.. If it is a name-brand PC, look up the brand/model of the PC, and look for an old review or release date. That's the best way to determine approximate age you'll get. – Mr. Chameleon – 2011-02-28T17:19:11.747

Check your invoice – Jakub Konecki – 2011-02-28T21:22:04.690

Answers

There is no definite way know when was the first time someone booted the machine , but what you can do is download CPU-Z and check the motherboard model no.
Then find its release date and if you can get the date for when the manufacturer stopped making the model you have a date range for the machine .
Usually people don't really change the motherboard so this is your best bet .
In case you are using a branded machine you can always contact the manufacturer with the machine's serial number and they might provide you the manufacturing date.

Shekhar

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 4 815

Are you running Windows? Go to command prompt and enter "systeminfo | more". Then look for the line items that have Original Install Date for when the OS was installed, system manufacturer, system model, processor type, BIOS version, etc. Depending on exactly why you want to know how old your computer is, the above information should be able to provide it or a sufficient enough answer by getting further information from the manufacturer (e.g. processor was initially released in Month/Year).

Bye

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 301

2How does the "Original Install Date" work? Wouldn't the "original" install date change whenever a reformat is done? – Pacerier – 2015-01-12T08:16:32.840

2My Original Install Date is about 4 years after my BIOS Version date. The Original Install Date is definitely off; it looks like that was probably when I installed the free Windows 10 upgrade. The BIOS Version date is much more likely to be more accurate. You could use systeminfo | findstr "BIOS Version" for this. You could also view this value in Start=>Run=>msinfo32 – Andrew – 2017-09-17T20:01:02.983

6systeminfo | findstr "Original Install Date" returns the installation date of Windows directly. – Oliver – 2014-03-11T22:06:23.970

Depending on your BIOS, you may have a date that it was installed on the system, this is essentially the "birth date" of your computer. I think most IBM clone machines (ie. non-mac) use Phoenix BIOS now, the date is the very last line on the POST screen.

If you are using Windows, this will also work (it says Win2k, but it works on XP): HOW TO: Determine BIOS Date on a Computer Running Windows 2000

Hydaral

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 1 674

@Oliver, The value on my machine says HPQOEM - 1 F.09 INSYDE Corp. - 10000001. What kind of date is that? – Pacerier – 2015-01-12T08:18:40.633

@Pacerier: Unfortunately, I have no idea. – Oliver – 2015-01-12T20:38:59.803

@Oliver, What does your OS say? – Pacerier – 2015-01-16T06:34:59.020

@Pacerier: it says 12/01/11. It's a Dell specific BIOS. – Oliver – 2015-01-16T22:35:18.200

3On Windows Server 2008 R2, you'll find the BIOS date under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System under the name SystemBiosDate. – Oliver – 2014-03-11T22:10:19.987

If your computer was purchased from one of the major PC manufacturers (ie: Dell) then you can type in your service tag/serial number to find out when the computer was purchased.

As others have mentioned, this doesn't take into account any newer upgrades or pieces installed post-purchase, but would give you a good place to start with.

Jacob Hume

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 421

If you have not reinstalled windows, you can always run:

wmic os get installdate

David

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 6 593

On Apple machines it seems to be a matter of analyzing the Serial Number, as seen in Ask Different's Where to find factory list in Apple serial number:

_{Original article that contains the image at the Internet Archive: How do I decipher the entire Apple serial number on my Mac? What does it mean?}

brasofilo

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 223

1Need more upvotes. – Pacerier – 2015-01-12T08:20:21.810

Download & install a program called Soluto. I have used it for the past couple of years since it was created, initially to select which programs start up at boot, thereby reducing boot time. Since being first introduced it keeps adding new features.

One of the features is that it tells me how old my computer is.

More info:

https://www.soluto.com/

Simon

Posted 2011-02-28T09:53:08.947

Reputation: 4 193

1How did that program find that date? – Pacerier – 2015-01-12T08:19:44.187