Question about the FADE/DEGRADE trigger

[NTULINUX]

Hello, I have a valid copy of ArmA II and I re-install my windows system every once in awhile due to motherboard upgrades, new hard drives, nasty viruses, etc and I was wondering; considering you can only have one install per machine otherwise the DRM triggers, how does the game "know" that it's the same system? It basically isn't the same machine, the only thing that stays the same is generally just the computer case itself, and I'm wondering why the DRM hasn't been activated, even though I've re-installed Windows and ArmA many times before, along with changing hardware.

Do two simultaneous installs with the same CD key trigger the DRM? Is that the only way? If so, surely the game must "phone home" to ensure that the CD key has not been used twice at the same time.

The reason I'm asking this is because I don't want to wake up one day and all the sudden have the game act incredibly poorly. It's working fine, and has been ever since I bought it at Best Buy around when it first came out, I just don't want to trigger it, so I'd like to know what NOT to do.

I'm thinking about putting in a new CD-ROM/DVD burner, as the one I am using is a PATA, and I'm upgrading to a SATA CD-ROM drive. This won't trigger FADE/DEGRADE/Whatever other titles this DRM may have, would it?

[Foxhound]

Any discussion about the copy protection is not allowed.

§3) Discussions about copy protection or copying, backing-up, hacking, cracking or reverse engineering of any of BI's products or the products of any other developer will not be tolerated and such discussions will be deleted immediately. Any breach of this rule may result in the poster no longer having access to the forum.

No, you will not get into trouble by reinstalling the game on a newly formatted system or by replacing hardware.