Pirated Centrino notebooks?

Darius Chang | Apr 27, 2007

If you think that only software can be forged, think again. It seems there could be a run of fake Centrino systems floating around in the second-hand market, thanks to a "budding entrepreneur".

According to local reports, an online auctioneer using the nick " woofeoinke" has been selling Intel Centrino and Centrino Duo logo stickers for the past four months. The Centrino branding requires that three essential components--processor, wireless card and mainboard--must come from Intel. Notebooks with this badge of approval may fetch a higher price on the open market.

For the unsuspecting, this may translate to paying hundreds more for a fake Centrino notebook, though it may still function similarly if it has a wireless card installed. Things get iffy if a single-core laptop gets slapped with a Centrino Duo sticker, as the latter is supposed to be proof of a dual-core chip inside.

All auctions by the user have since been closed. However, for those in the market for a used notebook, they should take 3 minutes and check the authenticity of the Centrino badge with the following steps.

1. Right-click Computer in the start menu and select Properties
2. Check to see if the processor is an Intel chip
3. Select the Hardware tab
4. Click Device Manager
5. Expand System Devices and make sure it's an Intel mainboard
6. Choose Network Adapters and ensure that the wireless module is from Intel

Images:
Centrino logo | Centrino Duo logo