MacBook Serial No.

MACHEAD

We have a white MacBook in work which had it's logic board replaced last year (under warranty). It's being issued to a new member of staff in a few weeks, so I wiped the HDD and reinstalled the OS, app's etc, when I noticed in the system profile that the serial number was blank. Apparently this is common, the Tech is meant to flash the machine's serial No. on to the new board, but forgets to do so. Anyhoo what I'd like to know is if anyone knows where I can get my hands on copy of Apple's 'Blank Board Serializer'. It's the utility used to input the serial number on to a new logic board. It would be just too much hassle to send it back to the AASP, and if I could get hold of the little utility I can do it myself.

Thanks.

pvik00

MACHEAD wrote: »

Anyhoo what I'd like to know is if anyone knows where I can get my hands on copy of Apple's 'Blank Board Serializer'.

Get it from here:
http://kaynesiler.com/tools/Blank%20Board%20Serializer/_ssps_063-6904-A.dmg

Do NOT open the .dmg, burn it straight to a CD without mounting it. You need to boot this CD in order to use the serializer.

Please note that this utility is meant to be used by Apple Support and any damage you do by using it is your own responsibility.

bluemachaveli

Never mind, should have read the full thread first

MACHEAD

pvik00 wrote: »

Get it from here:
http://kaynesiler.com/tools/Blank%20Board%20Serializer/_ssps_063-6904-A.dmg

Do NOT open the .dmg, burn it straight to a CD without mounting it. You need to boot this CD in order to use the serializer.

Please note that this utility is meant to be used by Apple Support and any damage you do by using it is your own responsibility.

Thanks for that link pvik00, I'd been 'Gogleing' for that for a while! I burnt the disk image to a CD as you advised, but the machine won't boot from it. It's not even appearing as an option to boot from. It's probably not seeing as a bootable disc. Any tips/ideas?

Cheers,
Machead.

pvik00

MACHEAD wrote: »

I burnt the disk image to a CD as you advised, but the machine won't boot from it. It's not even appearing as an option to boot from. It's probably not seeing as a bootable disc. Any tips/ideas?

Cheers,
Machead.

To boot from CD you need to press and hold 'c' once you hear the boot chimes.

MACHEAD

pvik00 wrote: »

To boot from CD you need to press and hold 'c' once you hear the boot chimes.

It ignores the 'c' command and boots from the HDD, also ignores 'd' at start up when I hold down option to 'boot choice' only the HDD is visible. Tried booting from the Leopard DVD, and it'll do that no problem. The CD I burnt with the .dmg image just isn't being recognised as a 'bootable disc'.

pvik00

Too bad. I just found it with google, so I guess it can be a bad image. It has all the required files, so I guess someone has messed it up before uploading.

If you have an apple id you can try to get it here (or if you don't just register for one):
http://spftp.info.apple.com/Disk_Images/Diagnostics/Apple_Service_Diagnostic/?M=D

MACHEAD

I have an ID ok, even have an Apple Tech ID, what I don't have is a valid AASP ref no. or ACST no. Getting into the GSX site is like trying to get into the NSA's central data base! Oops, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the NSA, in fact as I type this there's probably a black helicopter hovering nearby!!

pvik00

The search goes on. I didn't find any other traces of it.
Maybe someone from apple (or an authorized partner) reads this forum.

How did you burn that CD? It may be worth re-trying at the lowest possible speed, first downloading the image again if you mounted it already.

MACHEAD

Yeah I'll have another go at that. I'll disable the 'automaticly open safe files when downloaded' in Safari prefs, just in case it can't be used again after it's been mounted. When I downloaded yesterday it mounted straight away, of course I closed it immediately but you never know! Could end up with a nice collection of shiny coasters here.

Thanks pvik00!

pvik00

MACHEAD wrote: »

Yeah I'll have another go at that. I'll disable the 'automaticly open safe files when downloaded' in Safari prefs, just in case it can't be used again after it's been mounted. When I downloaded yesterday it mounted straight away, of course I closed it immediately but you never know! Could end up with a nice collection of shiny coasters here.

Thanks pvik00!

Yeah I think that's the way to go. Mounting the image often renders it non-bootable, so you better give it another go.

MACHEAD

Well tried it again, but still no luck. On another forum I found a method of doing the same thing using an Apple script in 'Developer Tools', but it only works in tiger. Don't think I want to go to the bother of back converting to tiger just for this. The serial not appearing in the system profiler isn't really all that serious, I mean it's not going cause a major breakdown in the economy or anything........ Eh! what do mean it has!

MACHEAD

Further update! Whey hay! Finally got it. I think the problem may have been the way I burnt the CD. I just copied the .dmg image to the disc and used 'finder' to burn it. What I should have been doing was open 'Disc Utility' and in the 'images' menu choose 'burn' then navigate to the location where the disc image is and click 'burn'. I started up the MacBook while holding down 'd' and popped in the CD. After about 10 - 15 seconds the machine booted up up in an interface very similar to 'classic mode' (i.e. OS 9 and earlier). A dialog box opened with a field to enter the data, I entered the data, clicked proceed and wham bam thank you mam it was done. I found another link to the utility on another Mac forum. I'll paste it here for anyone who's interested. BTW this is for intel based Macs only.

http://redirectingat.com/?id=292X457&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjamsoft.org%2Fhosted_files%2FSysSerNum_cd.zip

pvik00

Glad that you're sorted.
Now you know how image files work

dr.b

Do you still have access to this file. I recently had to replace the logic board on my MacBook Pro (Nvidia Model) and I would like to add the serial back to the computer. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

MACHEAD

Hi dr. b

Sent the PM before I spoted this addition to the old thread. I see the original link has indeed been taken down. I'll have a look for the zipped dmg file that I downloaded I'm bound to have it somewhere. If I find it I'll send a PM. The unzipped DMG would be too large to email.

jacksonbeats

MACHEAD wrote: »

Hi dr. b

Sent the PM before I spoted this addition to the old thread. I see the original link has indeed been taken down. I'll have a look for the zipped dmg file that I downloaded I'm bound to have it somewhere. If I find it I'll send a PM. The unzipped DMG would be too large to email.

Would you mind sending it to me via PM as well? Thanks.

MACHEAD

Hi jacksonbeats,

PM on the way!

dr.b

Hi, I actually took mine to the Apple Store and they fixed the serial number for me at no charge. I was surprised - I was expecting they wouldn't do it, but they came back two minutes later with the computer and it was all set. I guess I won't need the serial number disk anymore. But should you have it, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a copy Thanks for your help.