On Thursday, September 25, 2003, at 01:58 PM, Ken wrote:
My Reply follows quote. On 25/09/2003 11:41 [EMAIL PROTECTED] said:
I've just bought an old Wallstreet (the one with the missing keys).-----------
It's old and cheap, not cheap enough to make it obvious that its
background is dodgy, but there is a sign that point to the possibility
of it being a little than kosher, the lack of serial number. The sticker
has been removed, though that in itself means absolutley nothing.
Anyway, it's not the legality of the machine that is in question as such, its surprise I had when I checked the serial number in Apple System Information...
... blank!
How come ?! Can one actually change this ?
Beats me, though my Wallstreet doesn't show the ser# is Apple System
Profiler (OS9.2) Don't know where this is stored (PRAM, HD?) but a reset
of PRAM or reformatting of the HD would probably wipe out a serial
number. I know mine is ligitimate as I bought it from my daughter. She
did have a hard crash and a friend reformatted the HD for her and
installed a fresh system.
The serial number sticker on the bottom of the machine is also missing,
probably from the way she used it. She often had it sitting on her lap,
wearing shorts, in the summer. The heat of operation of the machine
combined with perspiration and the glue on the sticker just wasn't up to
the "abuse." Maybe she wore it an an inadvertant "tatoo" for awhile!
I own a Wallstreet and the serial number WORE OFF of the sticker on the bottom. Apple replaced it when i sent it in for repairs a couple of years back. I covered the bar code and number with some scotch tape which prevented the ink from rubbing off.
As to the serial numbers, those were stored in a specific part of the boot sector for many machines (pre Quicksilvers, I do believe).
From a post on another technical mailing list (mac-mgrs):
First it looks like the serial number is stored in either the firmware on later NewWorld ROM machines, or in the boot sector on older machines. This is supported by different support articles at Apple.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106529 (indicates the S# is in the firmware)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=21103 (indicates the S# is on the hard drive)
There is a tool to fix the missing serial number issue but it's only given out to authorized service centers.
Phil Burk _______________________________________________________ Systems Support Technician Wiley Publishing, Inc. Indianapolis, IN 317-572-3049
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