Patent ID: 7590883

Claim:
In a data handling system capable of comprising at least one replaceable unit, a vital product data system comprising: memory configured to store vital product data relating to said at least one replaceable unit, said vital product data comprising at least a date of first use and a device state field, said device state field comprising an identifier representing one of the states: “new”, “recertified”, and, “in-use”; and a management control configured to, in response to newly sensing a replaceable unit, detect a device state field of said sensed replaceable unit, and if the detected replaceable unit device state field is set to said “new” state, reset said replaceable unit device state field to said “in-use” state, set the date of first use to a current date, and store said device state field and date of first use for said replaceable unit in said memory; and if the detected replaceable unit device state field is set to said “recertified” state, reset said replaceable unit device state field to said “in-use” state, and set the replaceable unit date of first use of said replaceable unit to the date of first use stored in said memory for the previous replaceable unit at the same location.