A method for preventing counterfeit of a hardware device is disclosed. The method comprises determining whether a first indicator for a hardware device is set, wherein the first indicator when set indicates that the device is not a counterfeit device, and if the first indicator is not set, then activating a counter, setting a second indicator when the counter expires, and operating the hardware device in a counterfeit mode when the second indicator is set, wherein the counterfeit mode identifies the hardware device as a counterfeit device. Other embodiments are also disclosed.