Motherboard Tattoo

[Adam Makin]

Amotherboard tattoo is a colloquial term once used to denote an ID code that is written in the basic input/output system (BIOS) of a computer to uniquely identify the computer. The ID code is used to ensure that system restore, or diagnostic CDs will only work with the computer they come with. It is set by the OEM or system integrator.

The motherboard tattoo is stored in the motherboard erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or EEPROM) chip. This also stores the BIOS, computer serial number and component details. If certain hardware components of the system are changed, the original motherboard identifying information may no longer match the original tattoo. If the tattoo does not match the operating system recovery media, it may not be useable.

Equipment manufacturers sell computers with preinstalled licensed operating systems (OSes), such as Microsoft Windows. In the past, these systems would include either an OS restore CD or the ability to create one. The license for the OS was included with the CD. To prevent the restore disk with OS license from being used on another computer the CD would be set to only work with computers with a matching motherboard tattoo.

The use of motherboard tattoos as a form of verification for OS activation has been mostly replaced by online OS activation. Most motherboards now have a universally unique identifier (UUID) and a manufacturer's serial number. Even virtual machines have a UUID associated with the virtual hardware.

For Windows OS, the UUID and other hardware-identifying information are collected and sent to Microsoft as the identifiers for the Windows OS activation. The Windows license is tied to the motherboard's UUID and if it detects that the UUID is changed it will require reactivation.

Many competitive online computer games collect hardware information, including the motherboard tattoo and motherboard UUID. This is used for prevent cheating and griefing (the act of upsetting others in in video games). Violators of the game's code of conduct may have their hardware IDs banned from accessing the game's online features, known as a HWID ban.

Hardware bans are becoming more popular than Internet Protocol (IP) bans as the hardware is difficult for an abuser to replace, while an IP address can be easily changed or may affect innocent users who use the same external IP address.

Changing the motherboard identifying information is generally not required for average use. This information is stored in the motherboard's EPROM, so the exact process depends on the motherboard model.

Old motherboards may require removing the EPROM chip and writing new information to it using a chip programmer. New motherboards may have manufacturer-provided tools that can flash the information to the motherboard from a boot disk or from within the OS.

I have an HP ENVY 17t-3200 CTO 3D Edition which suffered a thermal event from overheat and burn out of GPU. I had to replace the motherboard and it is now functional except for the missing product information in the BIOS at start up. I have my CT number. Help please? Thanks!

@Daniel9483, yes, your situation does sound irritating. Do you mind providing us with the mode and/orl number of the HP laptop as well as the part number of the replacement motherboard so we can research your issue?

The result is better copyright protection and software validation for manufacturers while also allowing OEM systems to have customized pre-installations, drivers, and software packages that fully utilize all of their features.

One of the key uses for motherboard tattoos is to safeguard the computer against potential software piracy and non-genuine hardware installations. When replacing a failed or damaged motherboard, users may encounter issues related to the tattoo if the new component does not possess the appropriate identification code.

This could lead to difficulties in reinstalling the factory-provided operating system or accessing certain licensed software, as these elements may fail to recognize the new hardware as genuine. Consequently, motherboard tattoos act as a security measure to ensure that only authorized components are used in conjunction with the pre-installed software, ultimately promoting a seamless and secure computing experience for users.

Manufacturers use motherboard tattoos to prevent the unauthorized use of system recovery disks on a different computer that might have different hardware configurations. It also ensures that the recovery and backup processes work correctly and with minimal technical issues, reducing the need for support from the manufacturers.

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By the time Harry Potter author JK Rowling had written a 4,000 word essay describing her bigoted views on trans people on June 10, she was already on thin ice. After years of post-textual additions to the series and veiled transphobia elsewhere in her oeuvre, being a Harry Potter fan had become tedious and tiresome. I had already been considering covering up my small tattoo of the deathly hallows symbol, but for me, the June 10 essay cemented it. My relationship to Harry Potter as an adult was already conflicted; now I simply cannot wait to have the marker of my fandom removed from my body. Even the news of an upcoming Harry Potter video game, something I've wanted for years, no longer brings me any joy.

I'm not the only fan who feels this way. There have been viral tweets from others who want to get their Harry Potter tattoos covered up. Artist Molly Ostertag offered to help some fans design their cover ups in return for a donation to a charity for trans women of color.

Laney's tattoo combined the symbol of the deathly hallows, which in the books signals to other people that you're on a similar, specific quest, and a stag, which is Harry's patronus, which protects him from creatures that feed on fear.

"This tattoo started as just a deathly hallows on my shoulder, back in 2011," Laney said. "I was fully on the hype train for the Harry Potter fandom on Tumblr. I was swept up, especially in the movie series ending. I was like, I want to put this on my body forever."

"As I've gotten more critical in my adult years, it's been kind of weird going back," she continued. "It's very, very strange now to have this downward spiral of understanding JK Rowling as an author and also the work as it stands on its own."

There's plenty that's side-eye worthy in Rowling's original text. The goblin bankers of Gringotts are described as greedy, hook nosed creatures that control the Wizarding World's banks, which is antisemtitic even if it was accidental. The series' treatment of non-white characters like Parvati Patel, Dean Thomas, and Cho Chang, who is named Cho Chang, has never been stellar. Laney first started considering getting a cover up for her tattoo when the post-textual additions to Harry Potter started verging from welcome to outright weird.

"I was still in the closet then. That was one of those where I was like, 'Oh my God. It's so cool that she did this.'" Laney said. "Like I was all about it. I was very into it, mostly cause I hadn't really sat with how it felt about my own queerness."

"The one that really made me start going 'okay, hun' was when she started talking about the schools from around the world," Laney said. This information is on Pottermore, Rowling's online encyclopedia of Harry Potter knowledge. "That was the one real like, monkey's paw moment for me, where I was wishing for more content. That doesn't mean that the content is good."

Beyond having just one school for the entire continent of Africa, and her lack of clarity on how Native Americans figure into American wizarding history, the Japanese wizarding School has a name that is grammatically incorrect. Laney had just gotten the stag added to her tattoo when the information about these new wizarding schools had dropped.

"I guess I've lost a bit of an idol," she said. "I was very into her as a creative and it's been extremely disappointing as time has gone on. I'm still kind of grappling with how that affects my view of the series itself."

Jordan was 11 years old when he read the first Harry Potter book, the same age Harry was when he got his Hogwarts letter inviting him to attend the wizard school. Jordan said that, like many Harry Potter fans, he grew up with Harry. Although the books were popular when he was younger, he was among the few people he knew to finish the series.

"Living in the South where, you know, 'it's all witchcraft and evil' and all that kind of stuff, a lot of people dropped it," Jordan said. "I don't really remember any of my other friends reading them the way that I did eventually."

"We were at a venue that we used to go to," Jordan said. "My wife, who was just my girlfriend at the time, was freaking out because I was getting a tattoo in this disgusting old warehouse. But yeah, he did it. He tied a needle to a pencil and tapped it in."

"I started picking up on things, stuff like, 'hey, she writes that slavery is good,'" Jordan said, referring to the series' house elves who refuse to be freed from literal slavery. Jordan also recalled Rowling's additions that the minor character Anthony Goldstein was Jewish, and that wizards didn't use to have plumbing and just shat on the floor and teleported it away. Jordan said that he felt like telling a fan that Anthony Goldstein was Jewish, in order to say that Jewish people went to Hogwarts, felt like picking a name out of a hat. The Wizards pooping everywhere was at least hilarious.

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