The serial number can be useful for the guarantee, but you should know that it is found differently depending on the brand. At Apple it is much easier.
We will focus on the fastest and most effective methods to discover the serial number of a laptop. You can also say that this post is all about how to know the serial number of a laptop?
See Also: How to remove the Hard Drive from a Laptop
The laptop serial number is an identification of the laptop, which is not shared and is unique to each model. If we register it on the official website, we can save future headaches.
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What is the Serial Number and What is it for?
The laptop’s serial number is identification likes your personal identification (such as your ID) and can be found on the side of the packaging box or on the bottom with a sticker.
There are brands that call it SNID or in another similar way, but they refer to the serial number. Logically, each brand decides how to organize their serial numbers (11-12 digits, with/without letters, etc.)
See Also: What happens when you Close the LID on your Laptop
So it is not uncommon to find different formats between laptops of different brands. Now you may ask, why do I want an ID on my laptop? For many purposes:
- Laptop Warranty: There are marks that differentiate the warranty periods according to the range and model, so it serves to identify the laptop and know its corresponding warranty.
- Drivers: You already know that all laptops have, to have drivers related to their components, so this will allow us to search for drivers compatible with our laptop in case we don’t know what model it is.
- Technical service: We will save the work for the technical service so that they assist us remotely or we have to take it in person to the SAT. They work with databases that allow them to identify model specifications to know how to repair it.
- Bonus Software: Many brands run promotions in which you must enter the laptop’s serial number on their official website to get a free game, free subscriptions (especially Xbox Game Pass), Microsoft Office, etc.
- To identify the buyer and prove authenticity: This is related to the product guarantee in order to have more control over which models belong to whom.
- Claim insurance: In the event of a theft, it is possible to show the serial number to prove that we had said product. Even so, we can verify the authenticity with the purchase receipt or invoice.
Tell you that not only laptops have a serial number, but most components come with a serial number (CPU and GPU, especially).
See Also: Best Gaming Laptop Under 300 Dollars
How to know the Serial Number of a Laptop?
We are going with the million-dollar question, and we are going to answer it with 4 possible methods with which you will not fail.
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Physical: look in the box or under the laptop
The box the laptop comes in usually has the serial number on the side of it, but don’t worry if you threw it away.
It is common to find the serial number of my laptop on the bottom (below) of it, answering quickly and easily how to know where it is.
If you don’t have the laptop sticker or the box, you can go to the laptop documentation (if you have it). Likewise, if you registered it on the official website, you will have it there.
- Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, MSI, Lenovo and Toshiba: Started Windows, we open the start menu and type “cmd” to run the command prompt. You must write the following and you will get the serial number.
- Microsoft Surface: You must have the Surface application installed, and you must go to the “comments” section on the left side. You look in Your Surface Device (Your Surface) and you will see the serial number.
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Via BIOS
We continue to see methods to know how to find the serial number of my laptop, and this option goes from going to the BIOS.
You will have to start the laptop and, when it is at the manufacturer’s logo screen, press F12, F11 or F9 to access the BIOS.
If you go to the main section where you can see the laptop model, its number and the components it has, you may find the Serial Number.
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Look on your Motherboard
Another option, and it is not the most common, is to open the laptop and access its motherboard to find out how to find the serial number of my laptop.
The problem with this method is that we must clearly differentiate which is the serial number of the motherboard and which is that of the other products.
You will see that there is a sticker on each product (HDD, RAM, M.2 SSD), even on the network adapter. For a person who doesn’t understand much, you can mistake the serial number of a component for the serial number of the entire laptop.
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Final Tip: Store Serial Numbers in the Cloud
We give you this advice from the staff of Professional Review, since, according to our experience, it is much more useful for the user to save all the serial numbers in the cloud in case they are needed one day. We come to refer to the laptop and the rest of the components.
To go to a more specific solution, the brand’s SAT will simplify the job if we tell it that, for example, the SSD is failing and its serial number is “X”.
In this case, we would need to know how to find the serial number of a component in my laptop. So, we summarize it this way:
- You will find all the serial numbers once you open the laptop.
- If you go to the start menu and then to System Information, you will find the serial numbers individually (although it does not say the brand at all). This is for hard drives.
- With GPU-Z you will see the Device ID of the GPU.
- On Intel CPUs you can find the serial numbers (FPO and ATPO) on the box.
We hope we have solved the serial number dilemma and you have found it. If you have any questions, you can comment below so that we can answer you.
Faizan Ali is a Master in Computer Sciences and has been writing content for computing, gaming and mobile technologies since 2016. He has written content for number of online magazines, websites and blogs and now writes for “the buyers trend”. Feel free to contact him for any sort of writing for your technology related blog, website or magazine.