R31 System Identification - not supported?

[digitania]

Digging a little deeper into this R31 I'm trying to refurbish... I've discovered something odd (to me, at least -- this is the first R I've worked on).

I have to assume that at one time the system board in this unit was replaced, because it does not report the correct machine type and serial number when doing updates. So, I broke out my trusty Thinkpad CE Maintenance diskettes... and I get an error I've never encountered before:

"This system is not supporting the system identification information. You can not select this item."

...uhh, what?

Does the R31 need a specific diskette other than the 'standard' CE maintenance diskette? I've tried v1.60, v.1.69 and v1.75 -- none of them work.

Is there any other way to change the System ID (machine type/serial number) on an R31?

If not, then I guess we'll just have to do things the good old-fashioned way...

Thanks all.