Cheted By Chips

[MSNwar]

Cheated by Chips

Source: http://rss.com.com/2009-1040-253289.html

That bargain PC you picked up at the swap meet is starting to act funny, spitting out bad data, making odd noises and emanating a smell reminiscent of an overworked model train.

Congratulations: You've fallen for one of the oldest scams in the PC book. Tech-savvy con artists known as "re-markers" overclock and alter the appearance of processors to pass them off as speedier, more expensive models. Re-marked chips most often end up in budget no-name PCs sold at flea markets, small Web operations and other hard-to-trace places.

The practice is almost as old as the PC itself and may have reached a peak several years ago, amid feverish computer sales growth and soaring processor prices.

However, Intel spokesman Manny Vera estimates that re-marked chips now account for way less than 1 percent of the 150 million processors that went on the market last year, thanks partly to techniques used by Intel and other chipmakers to thwart widespread overclocking.

"Some of the technologies we've been implementing in our processors have made it a lot more difficult to overclock," Vera says. "It's like everything else: If you really want to break it, you'll find a way. But if we slow them down so that it takes the re-markers a couple of months to figure out how to do it, you really cut down the opportunity for them to make money doing this."

Advanced Micro Devices has made changes in its manufacturing process that make it nearly impossible to alter the appearance of the chip, spokesman Drew Prairie said. "We take a laser and we mark the frequency and the product name on the die, so it's virtually impossible for someone to alter that writing," he said.

Vera also credits increased cooperation between law enforcement agencies and chipmakers and the availability of tests such as Intel's Frequency ID Utility, which lets consumers quickly know if a chip is running at its rated speed.

Still, determined crooks have found ways to circumvent just about every anti-re-marking measure imposed by chipmakers, leaving much of the responsibility with consumers to make sure they're getting genuine goods. Consumers should be suspicious of any deal that sounds too good to be true, advises Sgt. Nick Muyo, the San Jose, Calif., Police Department's representative on REACT, a multi-agency task force targeting computer crime.

And know whom you're buying from, Muyo warns. Problems with re-marked chips often don't appear until after a PC has been in use for a year or longer, giving crooks a lengthy head start.

"A little bit of common sense goes a long way," Muyo says. "For starters, don't buy from someone where the only contact you have is a Hotmail address. You'd be surprised how many people do that."

-DB

[Guest]

I shuda tried that....