Member Avatar for chand.

Hi everyone, If anyone knows that how we can find that when was the first job done by our processor. Actually I want to find that my laptop is used or brand new, because I pay for brand new, but I have doubt on the dealer and some guesses that I got from laptop condition, which looks normal as new but if you give some attention one can find some clues from where one can know that it is used. Is there any engineer who reads my post, please give me some tool or tell me some commands if any, of assembly programming language or Debug or some low level C.

I really appreciate your time that you give me by reading this post.
Please help if you know, I'll be very grateful to you.

Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

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Short expert summary for : the processor itself does not keep a user‑accessible “first run” timestamp. Software traces can help, but are easy to wipe. The most reliable signs come from hardware and firmware counters (drive S.M.A.R.T., battery firmware, BIOS/manufacturer records) and from cross‑checking them against any OS install dates. The advice given by , and about software traces is valid as far as it goes, but the following hardware checks add stronger, harder‑to‑forge evidence.

Quick, practical checks (Windows and Linux examples)

# BIOS / serial (Windows)
wmic bios get Manufacturer,SerialNumber,SMBIOSBIOSVersion,ReleaseDate

# Windows install date (works even if systeminfo is localized)
wmic os get InstallDate

# Battery report (Windows 8/10+)
powercfg /batteryreport /output "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\battery-report.html"

# SMART (Linux)
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
sudo smartctl -a /dev/nvme0n1 -d nvme

# NVMe (Linux nvme-cli)
sudo nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0

How to interpret results and limits

  • S.M.A.R.T. “power‑on hours” on HDD/SSD gives cumulative powered hours; it is strong evidence of prior use but formats and attribute IDs vary by vendor.
  • Battery firmware can show manufacture date and cycle count; a new laptop should have near‑zero cycles and a recent manufacture date.
  • BIOS/UEFI release date and the motherboard serial can be used to check warranty/service records with the OEM (warranty lookup on the manufacturer site will show original registration/ship dates).
  • An OS install date or browser history can be faked or erased; treat them as secondary corroboration only.

Recommended workflow

  1. Record serial numbers (BIOS) and take photos.
  2. Pull SMART and battery reports, note power‑on hours and cycle counts.
  3. Compare to OS install date and any visible paperwork/packaging dates.
  4. If the data conflicts with “brand new” claims, contact the seller and the manufacturer with the documented evidence.

Caveat: none of these is absolutely proof on its own; use multiple checks together.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Chaky

There are several ways you could investigate the past usage:
(this applies only if the OS wasn't reinstalled in the meantime)

- Logs in event viewer (part of administrative tools). Every boot-up is logged there. You can check the dates to see if it was used before you bought it. You should know that windows needed to be installed before you bought it, so there should be couple of entries dated before the purchase. If you find dozens of entries, then you could be pretty certain that it was used.

- Internet explorer history.

- search HD for any files and sort the list by file access date (you might need to add the "access date" column. Rightclick on the row where you see "name" "in folder" "size" etc and choose "more". There you'll see, among all others, "access date")

Member Avatar for sumra

as far as i think u should go to ur internet explorer history. its the best way and also reliable

Member Avatar for caperjack

as far as i think u should go to ur internet explorer history. its the best way and also reliable

IE ,history and temp file both can be set to delete when you close the browser !just go to tools and internet options,also computer are used for a lot more than accessing the internet .
I was going to suggest same info posted by Chaky

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