Thinkpads Forum

And how would I be able to try it?

Thanks

To answer the question in your title: I don't think so, but see also this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=63569.

To answer the question in the body of your post: what do you mean by "it"? i.e., what do you want to try?

AFAIK your computer is not a cell phone, there is no "cumulative timer" counting minutes in it.

However, if the hard drive has S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, I believe there is a cumulative hour monitor in the DRIVE firmware and the drive maker should be able to tell you how to interrogate that. If the drive is original, the hours on it should be the same as the hours on the computer.

Or did you mean for how long your Thinkpad has been on power (i.e. without having been shut down)

You can tell how many hours hard drive has been powered on, there are utilities for that. But hard drives can be easily switched.

The best way to tell is by receipt and the remainder of the warranty as those are typically 1 year, 3 years and 5 years.

"The best way to tell is by receipt and"
No way. The receipt, the purchase date, all that tells you is how old the machine is--nothing at all about how many hours that computer was used.

I know salesmen who were given company laptops, that were used 8 hours a say IN the office, plus evenings at home and longer days on the road. And, other folks who were given a laptop (or demanded one) but never really used it in or out of the office. Or just used it when on the road, three or four days a month.

The pruchase date means nothing, except to put a maximum number on how loing it MIGHT have been in use.

hellosailor wrote:"The best way to tell is by receipt and"
No way. The receipt, the purchase date, all that tells you is how old the machine is--nothing at all about how many hours that computer was used.

I know salesmen who were given company laptops, that were used 8 hours a say IN the office, plus evenings at home and longer days on the road. And, other folks who were given a laptop (or demanded one) but never really used it in or out of the office. Or just used it when on the road, three or four days a month.

The pruchase date means nothing, except to put a maximum number on how loing it MIGHT have been in use.

And that is precisely the concervative approach you need to take when you don't know.

And that's why he's trying to find out the actual hours. The question was not "how old is it" but "how long was it actually in use" and that's an entirely different question.

read my first post

If there is a way to find out the time, he should go by hard drive uptime. If that information is not available, manufacture date would be the best next approach.