the saga continues.... wrong model number after system board replacement [ Edited ]

[VW_Lupo_TD]

dear lenovo community, 

after having my system board replaced at the local service warranty provider 

(if interested see following threads: 

warranty issue, system board replacement, X200 ethernet card not recognized

lenovo part availability for X200 system board )

here is the next drama: 

after the system board was replaced TWICE (on the first one the SATA port was so crooked that you could not put the HDD back in) the service warranty provider did not "adjust / reset" the model and serial number (assuming from reading here that they should have done this). 

So I have been reading up trying to find a way to do this by myself, since I have upgraded the notebook to windows 7 Pro after I got it back and wanted to use the thinkvantage system update tool and it shows me a wrong model number - hence the update tool does not work.

Can anyone help me out here ? 

I also found some answers here

wrong model number

which were unsuccessful.  (renaming 3 folders in the registry)

again thanks in advance for your replies.

[VW_Lupo_TD]

opening regedit as administrator and renaming the 3 folders, i was able to change the ending of the model number to 3EFCCTO, so the last three are good !

the first four are supposed to be 7454 of course, but at least i have gotten this far....

[ajkula66 Guru]

You should bring the machine back to whoever had swapped the planar in the first place and have them correct the numbers for you, since they've obviously forgotten to, and it takes less than five minutes...

[VW_Lupo_TD]

no chance there is a way to do this in regedit temporarily so i can at least use the update tool ?

[VW_Lupo_TD]

so far have modified:

HKLM\HARDWARE\ACPI\DSDT\LENOVO\
HKLM\HARDWARE\ACPI\FADT\LENOVO\
HKLM\HARDWARE\ACPI\RSDT\LENOVO\

update: 

found under 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>HARDWARE>ACPI>DESCRIPTION>SYSTEM>BIOS

edit strings:

BaseBoardProduct

SystemProductName

(these had the same number as shown under update tool with the CTO ending already - so I managed to change that already....)

give me 5 minutes to see if this works in addition to the 3 folders renamed from earlier post,

I will just do a restart and report back if this works.

after restart all values were wrong again other than the CTO ending remained in the BIOS folder.

changing them and opening the update tool directly afterwards without a restart will also show the wrong first 4 digits again followed by the correct CTO letters.

will keep trying and see if there is another point in registry that references to this.

If someone has any insight as to where the update tool looks up the model number, feedback would be appreciated.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>LENOVO>System Update>Preferences>UCSettings>RunTime

edit string (as this jumps right back to old value i also am trying to modify binary data doing restart now)

MTM

hmmm update tool still displays the wrong model number but seems to download package information....

NOPE again no success.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>ControlSet001>Control>SystemInformation

Modify Binary Data for SystemProductName 

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE WAIT UNTIL I HAVE REPORTED SUCCESS.

i am editing this as I go.

[bananaman]

Hi VW_Lupo_TD!

George is correct: The system board has the wrong model number, and service provider should fix this.

Please don't start multiple threads on the same subject.

[VW_Lupo_TD]

thanks guys, 

i am not aware of starting multiple threads on the same topic, if i have please forgive me.

I asked in the thinkvantage section where update tool looks for model number, which was 

of course a quest for another solution, but anyway.

i took it back and they will keep it the rest of the day most likely,

they also said it was MY fault for them not doing it because i 

gave them the notebook without a HDD.

Do you require a HDD or even an OS to run a bootable floppy or CD or whatever

and make modifications to the SMBIOS ?

just wondering.

[bananaman]

No.

[VW_Lupo_TD]

OK, i am almost at the end of my patience with this.

the system unit serial number / model number was changed with the floppy disk to read the correct model and serial number, however all the registry keys still contain the WRONG number (3EFCCTO instead of 7454CTO) and the update tool is not working !!!!!!

PLEASE HELP !!!

I also posted a question as to where the update tool looks for the model number in the ThinkVantage section,

since this has become more a ThinkVantage specific issue now, so feel free to close or move this thread to here:

update tool question in ThinkVantage section

thanks a million. 

you guys were more helpful in 13 minutes than a call center in 2 hours in all this mess.

you should all get double the pay and the call centers should all be shut down !

[VW_Lupo_TD]

my service partner has had this machine for over a week and have lost their DMI disk !!!

and they have been trying for 7 days to get another one from lenovo - what a nightmare. 

can anyone here send this to a AUTHORIZED lenovo service partner ???

i will name my first born child after you ;-)