Strange Refurb. iMac serial number.

[goughbradley]

First time, long time...

In April I bought a refurbished iMac, and a few weeks ago the logic board failed. It was repaired under warranty, and about a week ago I noticed that the iMac will beach ball for extended periods of time when waking from sleep, it will randomly disconnect external drives (even though they still appear mounted on the desktop) and the hard drive is also clicking occasionally. I think the hard drive is dying.

What I'm wondering is if there is a way to know where a refurb unit came from because the serial number on mine is very strange. It's a string of 10 digits and starts with 73. When I first called Apple to get the logic board replaced they told me the serial number I provided was not a serial number and that I must be looking in the wrong place. They were insistent that the serial number did not exist in their records and that I was wrong (I guess they should start with a letter). I took it into an Apple store and the guy at the Genius Bar was in shock, to the point that he called over 3 other reps to look at it. I asked why the serial number was strange and they said there is no way to know.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen, and if there is a way to know where the computer came from. I'm mostly interested because of the problems I've been experiencing with it.

Thanks,

 

[spinnerlys]

This software tells you where and when your computer was build after inputting the serial number. Maybe it can give you more info.

 

[musukosan]

Did you just look on the bottom of iMac? Or in the 'About this Mac' section? Or did you look in both? I was just wondering if you hadn't looked in both places maybe you could see if they matched.

 

[Jack Flash]

First time, long time...

In April I bought a refurbished iMac, and a few weeks ago the logic board failed. It was repaired under warranty, and about a week ago I noticed that the iMac will beach ball for extended periods of time when waking from sleep, it will randomly disconnect external drives (even though they still appear mounted on the desktop) and the hard drive is also clicking occasionally. I think the hard drive is dying.

What I'm wondering is if there is a way to know where a refurb unit came from because the serial number on mine is very strange. It's a string of 10 digits and starts with 73. When I first called Apple to get the logic board replaced they told me the serial number I provided was not a serial number and that I must be looking in the wrong place. They were insistent that the serial number did not exist in their records and that I was wrong (I guess they should start with a letter). I took it into an Apple store and the guy at the Genius Bar was in shock, to the point that he called over 3 other reps to look at it. I asked why the serial number was strange and they said there is no way to know.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen, and if there is a way to know where the computer came from. I'm mostly interested because of the problems I've been experiencing with it.

Thanks,

Does the serial match in the About this Mac portion and on the foot of the unit?

 

[musukosan]

Does the serial match in the About this Mac portion and on the foot of the unit?

Didn't I just ask that?

 

[goughbradley]

Did you just look on the bottom of iMac? Or in the 'About this Mac' section? Or did you look in both? I was just wondering if you hadn't looked in both places maybe you could see if they matched.

Talk about problems. This iMac just kernal panicked twice while trying to reply to this...

The serial numbers did match. Now that the logic board has been replaced it no longer displays the serial number in the "about this mac" section. I am just interested to know if maybe display models at Apple stores, or the computers sent to trade shows are given special serial numbers. They seem like they would take more abuse than a computer bought by a consumer, and if they do sell them (meaning apple store/trade show demos) as refurbished units later, it might help explain some of the problems I'm having.

I donno.

 

[Pr0digy]

When a mac's logic board is replaced the service provider or apple store need to use an app called 'blank board serializer' to well... the name says it all

They most likely just forgot to do that with yours. I think you can still have it done.