Altiris Console 6.5 and Missed Serial Numbers

[Migration User]

My company uses Altiris Console 6.5 to scan our computer inventory. We have upwards of around 2,000 computers and most of them scan fine. However there are a couple that dont scan correctly. 7 of the computers come back with the following when searching serial number. 

Serial Number       System Manufacturerer        Computer Model Name        Source of Serial Number
Not Found                Data Not Accessible             Data Not Accessible                             Not Found

In addition to those seven there is 3 that have the following error.

Serial Number
GENERIC HP FAILURE

I am trying to find out why they are not scanning correctly. They are all HP computers but most of our computers in our building are HP and they scan fine. Also about 1/2 of the ones that dont work are laptops and others are desktop. And again we have lots of other Laptops and Desktops that scan fine.

I was wondering if there was maybe a patch that we need, or if there is something we need to do different on these specific computers to get them to scan correctly.

[Migration User]

Altiris KB17410 - general serial number troubleshooting
Altiris KB29404 - a bit more advanced

The number one reason I've seen (and covered in 17410), is that the serial number wasn't 'burned' into the system board.

[KSchroeder]

This may be covered by one of Jim's links....one common problem is that if these machines are running x64 versions of Windows (either XP, 2003, 2008, or Vista) then there are problems in some cases as the SNPlus agent tries to run as a 16bit process which isn't supported on x64. If this is the case (and/or you don't have any 16bit machines in your environment) you can add the /NOSNDATA16 switch to your AeXInvSolnAdm1.ini file on the AeXSNPlus.exe line.  Updating to the current SP of Inventory (SP3) may also help as the logic to extract the SNs may be updated in that version.

Updating the machine's BIOS to current release may also help....

[Migration User]

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[Migration User]

I am just clearifying some things. The stuff it says to do in KB17410 we manualy do on each computer that is not scanning correct?

Also through going over more of the reporsts i have found about 12 computers whos model Name, and system manufacturer dosnt scan. These seem to be mostly laptops, however one of them is a desktop. Also this has a few dell computers thrown in to the list along with the HP's. They read the following message:

System Manufacturer         Computer Model Name
Data Not Accessable         Data Not Accessable

Is this something that  is caused by the information not being in the correct place again and is fixed doign the same thing in KB17410? Or is there a different set of instructions to follow to fix this problem?

[Migration User]

KB17410 has to run manually on each system. Did you notice or attempt what Kyle has posted? Also, I would check to see if these systems actually have the serial number burned into the BIOS. Chances are, if the system board has been replaced, the technician probably forgot to do that crucial step.

[Migration User]

So far the ones I have checked have all been 32 bit systems. I am having my techs do what is stated in  KB17410 to see if it will fix it. Also Is there something like KB17410 for missing model information such as System Manufacturer and computer model name?

[KSchroeder]

Can you confirm the version/service Pack of Inventory Solution you are using?  These machines may also have a corrupted WMI repository which could cause this problem.  A quick way to check is to open a command prompt and type:

WMIC.exe BIOS  <enter>

You should get a bunch of information about the machine's BIOS.  If you don't, then it is likely that WMI/WBEM is corrupt on the machine and may be the cause of your troubles.  There are various ways to fix this; post back with details and if that seems to be the cause.

[Migration User]

6.1.1075 is the version of the inventory solution we are using right now. I am still waiting back from the tech with the information about kb17410. We have to remotely access the computers but cant do it while the users are using them so it is taking a while to test to see if it is working. As soon as they get back with me I will reply here. I will have them check the wmi repository also like you suggested.

[Migration User]

When we were checking our version number we realized there was a new update out. After reviewing the update notes we realized that it had a few fixes with finding serial numbers and model information. After sending out the update and letting it run the scan over night all of our computers there were comming up with missing model information / missing SN now scanned correctly. Thanks for all of your guys help.

[KSchroeder]

Hey Agent Smith,
Glad you got it working.  I do have to point out that I suggested upgrading to SP3 a while ago (in my post "1 week 1 day ago"....that's useful!):

Updating to the current SP of Inventory (SP3) may also help as the logic to extract the SNs may be updated in that version.