When your Dell computer starts to crap out the first thing you’re going to need is the Service Tag.
When you replace the motherboard on your laptop, you will lose the asset and service tag entries, which are stored in your laptop's bios and in the Dell Utilities. This may not seem like a problem until you have to connect to Dell's online support to resolve an issue with your laptop.
Whether you give it to a support rep over the phone or enter it into the service tag field of the support site, the tag gives you a few options:
Model Number
Warranty Information
Dell PC Diagnostics Online
Original and Current Configuration
Drivers
Compatible Hardware Upgrades
HTML and PDF Manuals and User Guides
The Service Tag is a five to seven character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies your computer to Dell. It’s usually on a little sticker pasted on the back of the computer or on the rear of a server. The problem I often run into is reading the thing. It’s hard to read the text when you’ve got a four post rack in your face, lighting is dim or a computer tower under a small desk.
Instead of rearranging your office furniture to view the tag just use the built-in Windows Management Instrumentation Command Line (WMIC) to retrieve the code directly from the command line.
To view the service tag of the local computer from the command line, open the command prompt and type:
Posted in How To, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Vista Tagged with: Tips and Tricks