Home > How to change Model Type and Serial Number of ThinkpadIf you change a system board on a Thinkpad laptop, chances are you might encounter 2200, 2201 errors. 2200: Machine Type and Serial Number are invalid.
After ~8 hours of searching on Internet, trying different methods, I've finally successfully changed/added Model typle and S/N to my friend's X230. The laptop had its system board or mother board replaced. The replacement came from ebay with model type & S/N blank. It was a painfully long process to figure things out. And my windows 10 added a huge hassle to the would-be-easy process. The Internet doesn't have a very straightforward instruction on it. And they are all pretty old. Basically you need to use a service utility calledThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette (HMD) to make a bootable USB flash drive. It used to be on floppy disk but it can make bootable USB stick too now. Preparation.- Windows 7 (both 32 and 64 should work). Haven't tried windows 8.
- DO NOT use windows 10, won't work
- USB flash drive
- ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette, the newer the better.
- Write down the Model Type & S/N from your label on the machine.
Steps.- Download ThinkPad Hardware Maintenance Diskette (HMD). I have 1.83 attached here. You can certainly find other versions on the Internet somewhere.
- DO NOT use windows 10!! I've only tried windows 10 & 7, both 64 bit. Windows 7 worked with all my flash drives. But the application will not find your USB stick on windows 10.
- Unzip the TP HMD. Use 'usbfmtpw.exe' to make a bootable HMD USB. If it says 'Error: Drive not found to format', then it's very likely it can't run on your OS (Windows 10 for instance). Otherwise, you will see a format window. Make sure it's your flash drive. Don't worry about the size. You can always format it in windows, and the flash drive will turn back to normal.
- Boot your Thinkpad with the USB stick you just made. You might need to hit 'F12' to open the boot options to choose it. You will see a blue screen with some descriptions of the tool.
- Choose option 1, '1. set S/N. ' or something like that. I can't remember now, but it's pretty straightforward once you are at this step.
- Follow the instructions. It's pretty easy. You will need to input the Model Type and SN together, with '1S' at the beginning. Say, model type 1234CTO, SN 56789AB, you will need to input '1S1234CTO56789AB'. It may vary depending on your machine.
- Then simply reboot.
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I knew the Model # and Serial # from the sticker still attached to the PC. Once I installed the new motherboard and was receiving the 2 beeps along with the 'INVALID' notifications shown in my original post, I didn't know the 'how to' process of re-entering the Model # and Serial # into the BIOS screens. G shock mudmaster 2018 dates. Im trying to change the air filter and it prompts for a 10 digit serial number. The filter has ten digits but the machine states its invalid? Where can i find a serial number? I would think the serial number is on a tag somewhere on the machine.
Hello All,
I seem to be having the same problem as some of the other people on this board and i can't seem to resolve the issue.
I have an A31p and everytime i run the software installer it gives me an invalid machine type error.
I read some previous posts and you had asked to check the system information and it seems mine has the machine type missing.(see below)
I just did the latest bios update but that didn't fix the problem either.
System details
BIOS version: 1.12 (1GET40WW)
BIOS date : 2005-04-05
Machine Type And Serial Number Are Invalid Update The Bios To Correct This Problem
Embedded controller version: 1.04
Machine type-Model:
System unit serial number:
220 Machine Type And Serial Number Are Invalid
System board serial number: J1XXXXXXXXX
2200 Machine Type And Serial Number Are Invalid
When i go onto the IBM web site and do an auto detect the site returns an error saying it cannot detect the machine..
How do i update the bios to resolve this?
Is there a hardware maintenance disk for the A31p?
Please help..
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