rssb wrote:
One should never go by a base and sticker number on it !. What if a perfect 08/08 base has a motherboard inside which was rebuilt?. It is not difficult to change the serial number to match the base and show up in bios. The only clean way of doing it is, actually removing the fan and seeing the numbers of the nvidia chip. A suspicious changed base is not a fool proof method.
The numbers on the chip aren't conclusive either. Ideally you want the original lable and matching number board. Checking the chip can confirm the board was or wasn't warrantied.
According to the HMM, there is a logfile kept in the bios recording any changes to serial numbers. I'm not sure how to check it, but it should be possible.
ps. another thing you have to be careful about is lenovo refurbished units. A unit refurbished in august 2008 will carry that date, but no telling when it was originally manufactured. It could have been sold and return months before, or could have been pulled off the line and repaired the same day. A couple I saw that were refurbs had a 6 digit date code instead of 4. The model was also changed form CTO to CTR (Configure To order Refurb).