What does MFG Date 305 mean?

[jmacavali]

I have an IBM Netvista, Model # 8305. On the bottom is a sticker that has a MFG Date: 305. I'm going to assume the obvious and say it means March 2005, but I'm not sure because I would expect to see 4 digits and not 3. Anyone have any insight on what this really means?


On a side note, I'm trying to find out the age of this (and many other) computers that I have. Is there an easy way to do this or a way you suggest other than looking at the manufacture date?

[foothead]

Most prebuilt desktops have a manufacture date stamped on the motherboard somewhere. If that fails, you can always contact the company and give them the serial.

[jmacavali]

Uh, ok. I have about 500 computers to determine the date of. Contacting the manufacturer is going to be out of the question for that. I was hoping to not have to open them all up, but it looks as if that may be my only option.

[foothead]

If you ask nicely, the manufacturer might tell you what the serial number means. Often, there is a date code hidden somewhere in it.

[berry120]

^ This. It may not be obvious (some form of take the first two digits subtract 10 then reverse the last 2 convert them to octal and squeeze them together may be the case!) but it is often hidden in there somewhere.

[chirkware]

I know this is an old thread, but I am 99% sure that the three digit date code format is YMM, not MYY, so the OP's Netvista with a MFG Date of 305 would be May 2003, NOT March 2005. I venture to say that pulling the hard drive from a few of the machines and looking at their dates will confirm this, so long as the HD is original to the machine.

I guess they figure you can determine the decade easy enough based on the hardware, so no need for two digits for the date. I ran into a Netvista sometime back that was pretty old, and the MFG Date was 212...pretty obvious that was December of 2002, NOT February 2012.

I actually use a similar format for assigning ID numbers to PC's...only had five digits to work with, so I use YMM##, for year, month, sequential number (never purchase more than 12 in a month). This way, I can easily determine the age of a PC by it's ID number. Hopefully, by the time a decade passes, none of those PC's will still be in use.

Of course, the Majority of the Netvista's I come in contact with came from a large purchase my employer made about nine years ago...most all of them say 303, so I am VERY confident they date to March of 2003. LOL

Hope this helps someone...