WMI Win32_BaseBoard SerialNumber

Question

I used Win32_BaseBoard SerialNumber property to obtain the motherboard serial number and it work most of the time, but sometimes in some computers I get SerialNumber = "Base Board Serial Number" as a result.

Is there a programmatic way to obtain this serial number in a more efficient way or it is simply a manufacturer problem? I have heard that all motherboards come with a serial number with no exception. Is this true?

Answer 1

It is possible that the information is not exposed to WMI. You can confirm this easily using wbemtest.exe (or WMI CIM Studio if you have it installed). On my current computer Win32_BaseBoard.SerialNumber is not null but an empty string. If this is the case you will need to find another way to get this information.