How do you shut off PIII ID number?

erik · Post by **erik** » 29 Aug 2005 2:49 pm

I remember the hubbub when the PIII came out that Intel or was it Wintel allowed a ID number to be logged by web sites. Does anyone recall how to set it to off?

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-johnson

Tom Diemer · Post by **Tom Diemer** » 29 Aug 2005 7:19 pm

Erik, it may be a setting in the bios - depends on the board.

To disable it at the chip level, Intel has a utility for that called "Pentium III Serial Number Utility" - it can be downloaded from their web sight. File name to search for is pseng103.exe .

I can't find the ubb code for inserting a long link in the help file... If you can't find it, I can email you a link to it. Just let me know if you need it. But check the bios first. Many had a toggle on and off in there for the chip ID.

Good luck!

Don Poland · Post by **Don Poland** » 29 Aug 2005 8:39 pm

Try here: http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentiumiii/sb/CS-007582.htm

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1974 MSA D10 7+4
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erik · Post by **erik** » 1 Sep 2005 4:56 am

Well, I downloaded the patch but it doesn't do anything. It came zipped as an .exe when I unzipped it it just sat on my desktop. I don't know how to apply it. If I click on it it just tells me to unzip it again.

Bob Lawrence · Post by **Bob Lawrence** » 1 Sep 2005 6:56 am

erik,

It's a self extracting file. You shoulden't have to unzip it manually. You should beable to download it to your desktop with the ???.exe extension From there you should beable to click on file name and it will run a install program. It sounds like you are doing the steps correctly but you could try the whold process again. If it still doesn't work you can google self extraction problems for you operating system.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 3 Sep 2005 12:38 pm

That ID shouldn't be causing you any problems (advertisers don't use it to identify you, they use your I.P. address).

edited...see my follow-up post below[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 11 September 2005 at 02:15 PM.]

erik · Post by **erik** » 3 Sep 2005 2:50 pm

Donny, maybe i'm paranoid but I don't know who used this processor or what it was used for. I know the seller is of questionable background. Wouldn't want to find out it was used for a porn site and now it can be traced to me. That's my only concern. My package was wrapped with woman's underwear catalog pages.

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-johnson

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 11 Sep 2005 1:14 pm

Erik, rest easy, I asked my computer-guru about the ID, and he said it was never activated on any consumer PIII due to complaints from prospective builders. Intel put the feature in the chip, and then made the mistake of letting it leak to the public. It caused such a firestorm that they turned it off on all shipped product, and it requires a special utility to re-activate it. He also told me that software sites that query your machine read the processor model and family numbers right from the bios, so what I told you earlier about them using the ID for software compatibility wasn't correct, and I'm editing that out of my post.

You learn something every day.