Patent ID: 7047565

Claim:
A method for recording an in-service date associated with an electronic device, comprising: establishing an initial valid date as the current date for the device and maintaining the current date thereafter; responsive to determining that the device is in service and that no in service date has been stored previously, storing the current date as the in-service date; and performing an action selected from: periodically monitoring the current date of the device to determine if the valid date has been altered after storing the in-service date; and obtaining the in-service date from the non-volatile device with an external readout machine connected to the non-volatile storage; responsive to determining that the initial valid date has not been established, generating a valid date error message before transitioning to a normal operating mode in which the user is enabled to operate the device; and responsive to determining that the in service date is after the current date, issuing an in service data error message before transitioning the system to a normal operating mode.