YoWilykat
24055
29
5
My old authenticator fob are dying
First introduced in 2008 to fight account hijacking, Blizzard offered these for a small price. Later they offered mobile phone app for free. I switched to mobile phone many years ago because these weren't expected to last long. 16 years is longer than I expected.
Blue one, my first one, is dead. Diablo 3 and WOW Corehound are both showing battery warning, they probably won't last much longer.
No they can't be fixed, they are programmed with accurate clock at factory and when the battery dies or is removed, it is wiped and can't be accurately reprogrammed at home.
Mohareb
Oh it's nice it shows the battery warning. Got mine back in Cata and have wondered what happens when it runs out
killertomato842
i actually found my corehound fob going through a box last night, i pushed the button and it gave me a code, i was like damn... how
VCJunky
I have the same one for Diablo!!
ilhares
My SWTOR fobs made it to last year. I had been hoping for a few more months out of them, but no luck.
irisewithredeyes
Heh, I got one of those. But moved the authenticator on my phone.
UncleSlam123
I had one of these for StarCraft 2! Fun trip down memory lane
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UserNamesArentEasy
Damn I should check mine I have one floating around as I gone to the app as soon as it was an option.
widiwi
Open up the dead one, see if you can add a battery in parallel to the original one without removing the original one and also check if there's a tamper switch/sensor for when the device gets opened.
That would be a possible way to extend the lifetime.
killertomato842
unfortunately I don't think they can be opened without damaging them. I could be wrong, as i've never tried, but still.
widiwi
I recently opened one of those 2FA RSA dongles with the sole purpose of looking what's inside it because it appeared to be dead. After opening, I found that everything was potted, and while trying to free the battery, it turned back on, offcourse it lost whatever data it was holding but it still was odd to see it turn back on. Probably had a bad battery contact/solderjoint/pointweld. So yes, it won't be easy, but it might be possible :-)