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Why Make Serial Numbers So Hard to Read?

By Ed Foster, Section Gripes
Posted on Sat Jul 26, 2003 at 12:13:05 PM PDT

Here's a reader with a simple question, but one that I think we'd all like to have answered. Why do manufacturers of computer equipment make their precious serial numbers so hard to find and to read?

"Whenever there is a problem with any piece of equipment, the first thing you need to know is the serial number. Now any good shop will keep a database of those number for easy access. But any good shop will also annually do an inventory to confirm that equipment is where it is supposed to be and confirm the serial number."
"Try to read most serial numbers once something is racked! Dell is very good - readable numbers from 3 feet away. Sun on the other hand must have a VP of Hiding Serial Numbers - they are diabolical! We need to be able to read those serial numbers, so why to the manufacturers make them so hard to read? As I have turned the corner on 50, my eyes are not what they were a few years ago. But this is ridiculous. If the serial number is so important to the manufacturer, then why can't it be easily read?"


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Why Make Serial Numbers So Hard to Read? | 12 comments (12 topical) | Post A Comment
I nominate ...[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by Anonymous User on Thu Jul 31, 2003 at 10:33:24 AM PDT

... my Dell 400 laptop.  That bloomin' sn must be 20-some digits long in about a 2-pt font.  Even with a magnifying glass it's real hard to read, much less tell the diff between O and 0, I and 1 and l.

[ Reply to This ]


Label Makers[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous User on Thu Jul 31, 2003 at 02:54:05 PM PDT

And this is why we have label makers. We stick our own SN that is 4 digits on each piece of equiptment. That SN# can easily be seen from the front of the device, and we can cross reference it in a database with the Manufactures SN# (As well as other info about the item) One of our IBM AS/400's serial numbers wasn't even anywhere on the box. You had to DSPSYSVAL QSERIAL from a terminal to get the SN#.

[ Reply to This ]


Letters and digits[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by Elrond on Fri Aug 01, 2003 at 06:54:52 AM PDT

I just yesterday spent half an hour trying to decipher a Dell service tag. It turned out that what I was sure was a 2 was in fact a Z (I had to have a support rep look it up by phone number, wasting their time as well as mine). Aren't there enough non-ambiguous characters to avoid such problems (0/O, 1/I, 2/Z, 5/S, 8/B)? "Keep a list" isn't an option in this case because my company services other people's computers.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


yes[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#15)
by maderikapapa on Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 07:29:39 PM PDT

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[ Parent | Reply to This ]


hard to read serial numbers?![ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#4)
by Anonymous User on Tue Aug 12, 2003 at 12:40:47 PM PDT

if you think Sun serial numbers are hard to read, what do you do after you've installed a new disk drive [hard or removable] in a pc, and neglected to keep the s/n handy.... and you need it later.... how about making it readable by Norton, or something like that?! +af

[ Reply to This ]


Serial numbers, again[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by Anonymous User on Wed Aug 13, 2003 at 03:49:59 PM PDT

Here's one for you all talking about serial numbers...Dell RAID drive array boxes have their serial numbers on the inside of their chassis where you stick the drives in. If the drive array gives you problems, ie a drive goes bad, and you call Dell, they will ask for the serial number before they give you support. The only way to access the serial number is to remove a drive to peer into the chassis. Since a drive already went bad, your RAID box is already in degraded mode and you can't remove another drive without crashing your whole array. Of course you could always just shutdown the array but then what's the point of having a hot-swap array for a production machine if they won't sent out a drive until they receive the serial number and you can't get the serial number until you shutdown the machine???

[ Reply to This ]


any solutions[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#6)
by Anonymous User on Mon Jun 13, 2005 at 08:26:51 AM PDT

on the other side of things...the only means we have to make serial numbers is illegible...ive been searching the web and cant find anything more high tech than an label maker...know of any actual programs? anything which will store the numbers instead of making a label for the customer and our own records?

[ Reply to This ]


software access to Sun serial numbers[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by Anonymous User on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 02:39:49 PM PDT

It doesn't make the serial numbers any easier to find or to read, but once you are past that, there is a tool from Sun for permanently storing the serial (and other asset data that you want handy), and giving you simple access to it in software.

It's called SNEEP and is available from http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=4304155a

"Sneep provides a persistent, software-accessible Chassis Serial Number (CSN) for virtually all Sun Solaris hardware platforms. Sneep uses the system EEPROM for storage of the Chassis Serial Number and any other important user-defined data such as asset, contract, or location information. The presence of the software-accessible serial number and other service-related information can significantly simplify activities related to system service and asset management."

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Access to serial numbers from Solaris[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#9)
by Anonymous User on Wed May 07, 2008 at 08:28:02 AM PDT

Sneep has been updated and the download URL has changed.

Sneep can now find the serial number on many of the platforms which provide hardware or software support for serial number.
On other platforms, sneep still allows you to save the serial number which you went to great lengths to obtain manually.

Sneep also allows you to save other machine-related information such as rack location, contract, etc.

New versions can be found at http://www.sun.com/sneep

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



Other hard-to-read info[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#8)
by Anonymous User on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 12:49:40 PM PDT

It seems like Micro$oft likes the idea of tiny info for us older folks to squint at, too. Just try to install Windows without a lens or bright light. ("Oooh, oooh, don't steal our numbers... they might be noticed on the Activate Windows screen")

[ Reply to This ]


Lychee[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#13)
by rickman on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 03:44:32 AM PDT

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[ Reply to This ]


wslaat[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#14)
by thegame on Sat Jun 14, 2008 at 01:34:31 AM PDT

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