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Asked: 2021-10-19T07:42:58+00:00 In:

Solved Replaced Lenovo motherboard-BIOS invalid serial number

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Does anybody know how to set the new Machine Type and Serial Number after a motherboard replacement for an H535?

The motherboard recently failed on my H535 (outside of the Lenovo warranty but still under my credit card’s extended warranty). After a great deal of frustration and time, I was finally able to obtain a replacement motherboard from Lenovo.

I have now installed the motherboard, and it is working. However, upon every boot-up I am getting a POST error with two beeps that reads as follows:
Error 00CE: Machine Type and Serial Number are INVALID
Manufacturing Boot Sequence will be taken if no selection is made

I presume the BIOS on the new motherboard needs to be programmed with the correct Machine Type and Serial Number from my computer.

I have read various things on the Internet about what to do, such as:
– Update the BIOS with a CD-bootable version of the flash utility (I can’t find any BIOS entry under the Lenovo support downloads section for the H535, let alone a CD-bootable version)
– Use WinPhlash to modify the DMI entries of the BIOS (I apparently need some sort of BIOS ROM file to make this work, though, which I do not have)
– Use a Lenovo utility (such as “Hardware Maintenance Disk”) for my model (Apparently, these are only available to Authorized Providers, and nobody in my area does this)
– Clear CMOS by disconnecting power and CMOS battery or using some sort of jumper on the board (That seems unlikely to work, so I am avoiding doing that)

Can anybody help?

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    1. Best Answer
      Well, my BIOS is by American Megatrends, and I discovered that they have a set of utilities that includes one called AMIDEDOS. It is intended for manufacturers to be able to change text strings stored in BIOS for things like the Manufacturer, Product Name, Version, Serial Number, UUID, SKU Number, Family, etc., which is what I needed to do. It is not intended for consumer use, but it is out there, and I was able to get it.

      When I ran the AMIDEDOS “DMIEdit.exe” program (right-clicked and ran as administrator right from Windows 10) and clicked on “System Information” in the list, I saw “Product Name | STRING | INVALID” and “Serial Number | STRING | INVALID”. The other fields seemed to have valid entries. I double-clicked on the invalid fields and changed them to “H535” and my computer’s serial number, respectively, and then clicked on “Update ALL” at the top.

      Much to my surprise, it reported that it had successfully saved the new information. And, perhaps even more astonishing was the fact that, when I rebooted, the double-beep and warning about invalid machine type and serial number had disappeared. In addition, the BIOS showed the new values I had entered, and the “Manufacturing Boot Sequence” option (which I understand can be much slower than a normal boot) had disappeared.

      Again, I am a bit astonished at how simple it was to actually fix the problem once I had the correct piece of software, which neither Lenovo nor American Megatrends apparently provides to owners, and it took hours and hours of research and searching to figure it out. Use this information at your own risk, though, as messing with BIOS apparently can lead to problems that are not easily fixed. That said, the changing of these text strings seems relatively safe.

      I will mention that I also ended up changing the boot method from “LEGACY” to “UEFI” in the BIOS after noticing that selection.

      message edited by splinke

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