[SOLVED] Does psus and water coolers/aio have hardware ids

[skrrtpc]

I see many people talking about hardware id-s and that it gets all your components together and creates one special hardware id which is to identify the computer.
i have been trying to search up if water coolers and psus have hardware ids. and can not find out anywhere, i also tried to check if there was any program who could detect my psu/cpu water cooler but there was noone.

 

[Eximo]

Any device that communicates to the hardware, sure. That would include the very few all digital PSUs and pump headers with RGB. They will have some identifying data that will make it into the registry, perhaps. USB devices will have a device id, in other words.

If you are thinking those values are used to identify your system, no, they are not. Common fingerprints are in the BIOS, hard drive, and network adapters that get pulled out for licensing purposes. Depends on the software how it treats that data, but many will pull values it deems significant, and run an algorithm to make a unique identifier to store somewhere.

 

[skrrtpc]

Thank you so much for your answer
Im now using an x52 kraken nzxt cooler and a corsair rm750x 750w psu.
As i understand they would make it into the registry, but they do not participate in registrering my hardware id (computer id number)
I use a usb for RGB on my aio cooler, so i guess it gets into the registry.

 

[digitalgriffin]

Usually its cpu, network mac, gpu id. Storage serial and sometimes mb id.

Windows will continue to work if you swap out one or two components. After that you might have to reactivate it. (That's the way it was with windows 7. I don't know for sure windows 10 behaves the same.)

 

[Karadjgne]

Psus, no. Except a very few. Part of the requirements for any sort of id is a way to communicate with the motherboard. A psu is simply a power source, it has no USB or pcie or Sata hookups, just power leads. So 99% of the software that does find id's, isn't going to bother looking for a psu. That includes bios.

There's only one company I can think of that has any interest whatsoever about collecting hardware ids, and thats Microsoft. And only since registration keys became digital media with Windows 10. That key is not assigned you you personally, but to your pc. Its designed to prevent multiple pc's using the same registration. The hardware id's become Microsoft's way of identifying your pc in particular. Supplemental ids like gpu and cpu can be changed, the important I'd is the motherboard. Changing that, Microsoft thinks it's a different pc, so flags/suspends the key.

 

[skrrtpc]

Thank you guys for the amazing help, A++++

 

[Eximo]

Microsoft, at least, collects more information. You get reactivation notices when you change a few things, doesn't have to be motherboard. Usually they will go through and a new signature is made, but if you keep doing it, they will eventually cut you off. Unless you have registered to a MS account, then you can keep re-using it as far as I know.

In the world of software licensing, MAC address and annoyingly hard drives are used quite often. Some software is non-transferable, and you end up having to call up companies and tell them directly of drive or board failure to get a replacement software key (They are usually quite stingy, seems like they are stuck in the past). Assuming you don't have a physical license key or license server instead.

As they say, legitimate businesses will pay to keep from getting audited and penalized, less scrupulous people won't pay in the first place. So their DRM really only harms their valid customers. The age old debate.

I would not put it past some malicious software to send out your MAC address and things to build up a library of potential targets. And I'm sure there are applications out there that politely ask you to send everything to some database when you click through the license agreement. All those data mining companies get it from somewhere.