Member Avatar for phoenix_2000

Hello people,

Fist of all, forgive me if this is the wrong part of the forum.
I thought this would be the most appropriate place to place a BIOS related question.

My problem is this: We (as in me and the company i'm working for) have 2 AOpen DE7000's touch screen computers delivered from Prestop.
The machines are COMPLETELY identical, same hardware, same screen and... same BIOS serial.

This is giving us quite some networking problems, especially when both machines are on.
Which is like, always.

So far i've only found tools that can show me the MB serial, and not change them. I heard that some companies like dell have tools like that which they give to their support engineers.
I contacted both AOpen and Prestop, but none of both could help.
Prestop did warn that changing a MB serial could break windows, but since we're going to upgrade them soon, that's ok.

If anyone has any idea how to solve this problem: much appreciated :)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by phoenix_2000
Member Avatar for flagstar

Hi and welcome to Daniweb.

Switching MB serials does break your Windows if your windows was OEM version. But weird thing is this is the first time I heard it uses identical motherboard serials although in most cases it should be different. Are you sure both motherboard serials were identical?

Member Avatar for phoenix_2000

absolutely, and it sounds odd to me to.
I would thin think that would be an automated process
anyway, i used the cmd command wmic bios get serialnumber.
on both machines it returned 91.AED01.70XX

Member Avatar for flagstar

For this, I would say send one of it to the supplier (Prestop in this case) for new replacement. Changing motherboard serial numbers is too risky. Done it wrong and it would be a brisked motherboard with warranty void.

You just got it and it's their fault for that. It's better to play safe than take chances...

Member Avatar for phoenix_2000

After reading your post, i discussed it with my boss (the head of the IT departement here).
It turned out the computers didn't completely come through prestop after all.
Those pc's came with a webapplication for tutoring new employees.
The company where we bought those pc's apperently also delivered these computers.

I'm slightly frustrated to say he won't send them away now.
On a more positive side: warranty isn't a problem.
(besides, i have the codes what the serials SHOULD be from the AOpen support)

Member Avatar for caperjack

what kind of network problems are you experiencing when both computers are on,do the computer have different names [you know the name given the computer when windows is installed ] ,not sure but i dont see what the bios serial #,or the motherboard #. would have to do with networking ,what i read it just tell the chipset used on the MB,the board maker,ect ect .
maybe ,depending on the networking problems you are having ,you might just change the name [of one computer ] given to the computer when windows was installed

Edited by caperjack because: n/a
Member Avatar for phoenix_2000

We've given the computers 2 different names.
Also, when both computers are on, only one of them actually shows up, and they switch.
We figured that, since the bios serials are identic, that would be the problem.
I already looked up the error message, but the only thing i'm getting refers to the windows 7 oem preinstallation kit (w7_opk). which we don't have.

In order to download it, you need a microsoft oem alliance account... which we don't have either :)

We got these computers with a web application and not directly from AOPen or Prestop. We need them, so sending it back isn't really an option.

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