Thinkpads Forum

Is there any Software to Check the Originality of the Thinkpad Hardware including the FRU of the hardware?

I want to use that software when i bought a used Thinkpad.

Best Regards

No such software exists.

What are you being afraid of? BIOS will tell you all you really need to know...and moninfo can help you identify the screen, but that's really about it.

Good luck.

ajkula66 wrote:No such software exists.

What are you being afraid of? BIOS will tell you all you really need to know...and moninfo can help you identify the screen, but that's really about it.

Good luck.

I have been misguided by a thinkpad seller in my country when i bought two R400 thinkpad. He said that all of the hardware is original from lenovo. But, after 2 month the the display is blank. And when i take apart, i found that the lcd have been replaced with NOT original Lenovo LCD.

That why i am asking and affraid of.

You need to have a little bit of trust between buyer and seller. Fortunately most of the buyers I've dealt with have been pretty good. Machines that I bought via the local classifieds are thoroughly checked with the seller in person. Of course it would be difficult to check FRU numbers in person at a local coffee shop but I can check the screen resolution to what is expected. In Win 7 if you right click on screen resolution, it will say "Thinkpad" or "Flexview" screen or something along that line. Machines/parts bought on Ebay are thoroughly inspected and tested before feedback is provided.

At least Lenovo offer a service to at least check out machine type. Try looking for what shipped with a particular Dell 630 for example and you'd appreciate this service. To go beyond that would be a lot of work for very little gain. A machine can sometime ship with 2,3,4 or more compatible FRU for a particular component. To keep track of all of this would require some clerical and database resources for very little gain.

Cigarguy wrote:You need to have a little bit of trust between buyer and seller. Fortunately most of the buyers I've dealt with have been pretty good. Machines that I bought via the local classifieds are thoroughly checked with the seller in person. Of course it would be difficult to check FRU numbers in person at a local coffee shop but I can check the screen resolution to what is expected. In Win 7 if you right click on screen resolution, it will say "Thinkpad" or "Flexview" screen or something along that line. Machines/parts bought on Ebay are thoroughly inspected and tested before feedback is provided.

At least Lenovo offer a service to at least check out machine type. Try looking for what shipped with a particular Dell 630 for example and you'd appreciate this service. To go beyond that would be a lot of work for very little gain. A machine can sometime ship with 2,3,4 or more compatible FRU for a particular component. To keep track of all of this would require some clerical and database resources for very little gain.

Yes. You are right Sir. But, this world is too wild.

What i asked here based on my real experience.

The expert in Lenovo must be thinking about this. And, i know, there is not too difficult to make a software to check the originality of the Thinkpad Hardware included the FRU installed in Thinkpad and can check it automatically in to the lenovo server online.

Yes that would be nice but it costs money to implement something like that. For what return?

Also, not everything that have a FRU can be read by software. How do you code software to return a FRU code from something such as a heatsink fan or bezel for example.

P/N or FRU, followed by a Serial Number.
But as said above, administration of that would be WAY too expensive, and hardly (if ever) required.
I'm sure the IBM laptops that went up to the Space Station did not even have such an inventory numbers, other than the laptop's S/N on the bottom label.
IBM/Lenovo already offer a fantastic service with their Parts Lookup.