Many people want to find out their motherboard manufacturer without having to open their computer. In other cases, such as upgrading the BIOS and seeking drivers for the board, the manufacturer and model of a motherboard must be known.

The motherboard manufacturer can be found through the BIOS serial number. This number is shown onscreen (lower line) during the memory count that is always run when you turn your computer on. If you have never paid any attention, press the Pause key on your keyboard when the memory is being counted and you will be able to read the BIOS serial number from the frozen display. The same line contains important information, like the BIOS date. This information is important when you are considering upgrading your BIOS, to find out on the board manufacturer’s site whether there is or not a later version of BIOS than the one your computer is currently using (we have already explained how to upgrade BIOS. Please refer to http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/33, if required).

For instance, assume that that the motherboard indicates the following number onscreen while counting memory: 06/06/2002-VT8366-8233/5-JL6LVC0CC-00. Painlessly, we can deduce two things: the BIOS date (BIOS version) is 06/06/2002, and the motherboard uses VIA chipset VT8366 and VT8233/5, widely known as VIA KT333.

1. The Service Tag and the Serial Number are one and the same. The Bios will tell you what that is by pressing F2 to get into CMOS. For more details, please click here: Where is the Service Tag located on your product.
2. Going by the vague info I've found so far regarding 'serial not found', you can get that message because of a hardware or a software problem. Try removing the hard drive to see if your symptoms are any different. If they aren't, you probably have a hardware problem.
3. Select Advanced, System IDs, and enter the serial number from the service tag sticker on the chassis. Press F10 to save settings and exit BIOS. For desktop branding, customers need to fill the following details availble on the HP sticker of the unit.
4. The serial number in the System Information is part of the SMBIOS that you can set yourself, using the Intel Integrator Toolkit (ITK), available at Download Center. ITK lets you customize the BIOS on the fly, using the option for 'Customize this Computer's BIOS file'.

If you are looking to find BIOS serial number from CMD, then wmic bios is the command you would need. Below is the exact command you can run on any Windows computer to retrieve serial number. Wmic bios get serialnumber.

Change Bios Serial Number

There are three major BIOS software manufacturers, AMI, Award and Phoenix (Phoenix has recently bought Award). The format of serial numbers used by these manufacturers varies, as we will see below.

Deciphering Award BIOS

The format of BIOS Award’s serial number is shown in Figure 1, where we can see that the first five digits indicate which chipset is used by the motherboard, the next two digits indicating the motherboard’s manufacturer and the meaning of the remaining digits depends on the motherboard’s manufacturer.

Figure 1: Award Serial Number.

Bios Serial Number Lookup

As you will notice, this information is encoded. To decode it, you must use a table given in http://www.wimsbios.com/numbers.shtml. Check the serial number used in the above example, of a PCChips motherboard with chipset VX Pro (which is a rebranded VIA Apollo VP1).

Deciphering AMI BIOS

The AMI BIOS serial number is longer than Award’s one. The motherboard manufacturer is coded in the last four digits of the third group of numbers, counting from left to right, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: AMI Serial Number.

In the same way as Award BIOS, you will have to consult a table to determine the manufacturer corresponding to the number you have found. This can be done at http://www.wimsbios.com/numbersami.shtml. Check the serial number of our example, which is a motherboard made by PCChips.

The major difference between AMI and Award’s serial numbers is that the former usually contains information on the model of motherboard directly recorded in the serial number. For instance, serial number 61-1210-000747-00101111-071595-M747 is a PCChips M747 motherboard and serial number 51-0505-001437-00111111-071595-M1531/43-01-10-TX-PRO-0 corresponds to a PCChips motherboard using TX Pro chipset.

Note that there are exceptions to the rules described, mainly when dealing with PCChips motherboards. Looking at the serial number of a M747 motherboard you can see that the manufacturer’s ID is an invalid number (there is no 0747 manufacturer); instead of identifying the manufacturer (PCChips), it is giving the model (M747). Whenever a motherboard’s serial number does not conform to the rules described, you may be dealing with a PCChips piece.

It is a good idea to have your Windows 10 computer’s serial number handy. The serial number may be required in case you want to contact technical support team to troubleshoot any issues you are facing with the computer.

One of the most easiest way to get the serial number is to check the stickers on the computer. But what if the sticker has been removed or the text on the sticker has erased? Well, you can check the BIOS settings, which may not be the best option for everyone given the complexity and risk of altering settings.

In this guide, we will show you a step-by-step process on how you can find out your Windows 10 computer’s series number using Command Prompt.

Powershell Bios Serial Number

Find out Windows 10 computer serial number

Step 1: Open Start menu on your computer and search for “Command Prompt.”

Step 2: From the search results, right-click on “PowerShell” and click on the option Run as administrator.

Step 3: Now, to find out serial number, enter the following text:

wmic bios get SerialNumber

Step 4: To export the serial number to a text file, enter the following text:

wmic bios get SerialNumber > D:MobiGyaanFiles

Make sure that you replace the “D:MobiGyaanFiles” with the actual path where you want to export the file.

Do note that while most of the computers will have support for this command, some devices won’t give out serial number with this command. This is because custom-built devices don’t have a series number. Instead, you will get an output that reads “To Be Filled By O.E.M.”

Mic Bios Get Serial Number

You can also check out our other Windows guide to make your experience even better by customizing the operating system as per your needs. We have also covered quite a few guides related to macOS and Chromebook as well.