Serial Number "unavailable"

[Hugging]

A few days ago, I came home to my computer lid closed and the apple restart sound going off every minute or so. This went on for a while. When I opened and tried to log in, the laptop kept shutting down completely and turning back on. When I logged in, it said that it restarted because of a problem. I tried to read up a bit about what was going on and decided to try to do a hardware check. Everything was going well until it said that it could not process my request because my laptop's serial number was unable to be identified. I immediately went back and opened the About This Mac drop down. The claim was valid, my laptop's serial number was now "Unavailable". I've seen the number throughout the year and so I know that it hasn't always been this way. This was the first time I've seen it say this.

I just got back from the Apple Store and they say that they've never seen anything like this happen before and that I need to send it off and get my logic board replaced. Does anyone know how this may have happened? Will sending it off really fix this issue?

(It's a Macbook Air and I've had it for a little over a year now btw)

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Has there been any hardware replacement at all recently?

I'm surprised the Apple Store folk said they hadn't seen anything like it before as your's isn't an isolated case.

I would take it back & the techs at the Apple Store will restore the serial. You can see your MBA's serial by removing the battery, it should be on a sticker in the battery bay somewhere.

Do you have access to another Mac? If so, see here

I ask because before you hand your MBA over you should make a complete backup of your internal HD & also another good idea from a security perspective is to Deauthorise your MBA from the iTunes Store, see here.