Hewlett Packard has introduced a plan to do for used computer systems what CARFAX did for used automobiles: present a verifiable report into whether or not you are about to purchase a cut price or a lemon, due to what it’s calling “PCFax.”
“When shopping for a used automotive, dealerships and particular person patrons can entry every automotive’s explicit CARFAX report, detailing the automobile’s utilization and upkeep historical past,” HP’s Abu Baker, Sal Vasi, Barbara Spitzer, and John Hong clarify in an announcement written for IEEE Spectrum. “Armed with this data, dealerships can carry out the required fixes or upgrades earlier than reselling the automotive. And people can determine whether or not to belief that automobile’s efficiency. We at HP realized that, to forestall pointless e-waste, we have to acquire and make out there utilization and upkeep knowledge for every laptop computer, like a CARFAX for used PCs.”
HP is seeking to carry CARFAX experiences to the second-hand PC market with “PCFax,” as a result of start rolling out subsequent yr. (📷: Hewlett Packard)
The issue of digital waste is one which is not going to be solved any time quickly. From common company improve cycles and shopper demand for the latest-and-greatest, the growing computational necessities of on-device machine studying and synthetic intelligence workloads, and Microsoft’s transfer to dam a swathe of perfectly-usable desktops and laptops from upgrading to its Home windows 11 working system whereas ceasing safety updates for Home windows 10, the piles of scrapped electronics develop inexorably bigger.
One answer to assist gradual that development, if nothing else, is to encourage a second-user marketplace for older however nonetheless usable units. It is right here that HP hopes to assist with “PCFax,” a CARFAX-like service that takes knowledge from present sensors — common and peak working temperatures, battery capability and cost cycles, arduous drive unhealthy blocks and browse errors, flash storage put on, and so forth — and presents it to would-be patrons.
The gathered system well being knowledge could be written to a locked-off part of the system’s solid-state drive, accessible solely to licensed firmware parts. To assist this, HP has developed a “safe telemetry protocol” — which, sadly, depends on endpoint safety controller {hardware} unique to HP’s business-class units, which means that consumer-grade and third-party {hardware} will probably be locked out of the PCFax service.
The system would depend on {hardware} solely current in HP’s top-end enterprise units, with no phrase but on assist for third-party machines. (📷: Hewlett Packard)
“For IT groups inside organizations, we hope the PCFax will carry simplicity and provides alternatives for optimization,” HP’s workforce explains in its announcement. “We additionally hope that, a lot because the CARFAX offers folks confidence in shopping for used automobiles, the PCFax can encourage resale of used PCs. For enterprises and customers buying second-life PCs, it gives detailed visibility into the entire service and assist historical past of every system, together with any repairs, upgrades, or efficiency points encountered throughout its preliminary deployment.”
HP has confirmed plans to start rolling out the options behind PCFax, if not the service itself, beginning early 2026. Extra data is out there in HP’s announcement on IEEE Spectrum.
