Dell date codes
Based on a wiki update posted by Zilog Jones, Dell keyboard serial numbers are reported to take the following form:
CC-PPPPPP-aaaaa-YMD-bbbb
CC is the country code (CN for China, KR for Korea etc). PPPPPP is the Dell part number. Y is the final digit of the year; the decade is not recorded, as this digit wraps every ten years. M is the base 36 hexadecimal month number, and D is the base-36 day number.
The most useful example cited by Zilog Jones (as it shows the use of base-36) was this one:
Serial: CN-0W7657-37172-59D-019Q
PCB dates of 0529 and 0536
Zilog Jones reports this as being 13th of September 2005, and this is a close match for the date codes printed on the controller PCB.
From some currently otherwise unpublished photographs of a Primax Electronics Ltd KB4021 (Dell KB212-B):
Serial: CN-0DJ491-71581-3AI-0250
PCB dates of 1335
“3AI” would be the 18th of October 2013. Here, you can see that the year digit has wrapped around. The serial number date is a match not only for the PCB (week 35 of 2013 occurred in August) but also the date of manufacture presented on the label itself.
My Logitech-made Dell KB522 multimedia keyboard is another match: the box label reports a manufacture date September 2012, the case is marked “12” internally via a wheel, and the serial number is “CN-02H8RN-75131-294-00VW”.
Lookup tables
Year
- 0
- 2000/2010/…
- 1
- 2001/2011/…
- 2
- 2002/2012/…
- 3
- 2003/2013/…
- 4
- 2004/2014/…
- 5
- 2005/2015/…
- 6
- 2006/2016/…
- 7
- 2007/2017/…
- 8
- 2008/2018/…
- 9
- 2009/2019/…
Month
- 1
- January
- 2
- February
- 3
- March
- 4
- April
- 5
- May
- 6
- June
- 7
- July
- 8
- August
- 9
- September
- A
- October
- B
- November
- C
- December
Day
- 1
- 1st
- 2
- 2nd
- 3
- 3rd
- 4
- 4th
- 5
- 5th
- 6
- 6th
- 7
- 7th
- 8
- 8th
- 9
- 9th
- A
- 10th
- B
- 11th
- C
- 12th
- D
- 13th
- E
- 14th
- F
- 15th
- G
- 16th
- H
- 17th
- I
- 18th
- J
- 19th
- K
- 20th
- L
- 21st
- M
- 22nd
- N
- 23rd
- O
- 24th
- P
- 25th
- Q
- 26th
- R
- 27th
- S
- 28th
- T
- 29th
- U
- 30th
- V
- 31st