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When was your Mac born?

by Laurie A. Duncan Apr 14th 2005 at 12:23PM

mac serial numberI learned this tip a while ago, but was recently reminded of it in one of Small Dog's Tech Tails newsletters. I thought I'd share it with those of you who may be curious about what secrets are hidden in your Mac's serial number.

You might think those numbers and letters are random, but each one actually contains vital info about your computer. Deciphering the code reasonably simple. The alphabetic prefix consists of one or two letters designating a factory code, such as:

  • F: Fremont, California, USA
  • CK: Cork, Ireland
  • SG or E: Singapore
  • UV: Taiwan
  • QT: Taiwan (Quanta Factory)
  • W8: Shanghai China
  • PT: Korea
  • there are others, but I don't have a complete list. Perhaps I will when the comments pour in!
One of my Cubes, for example, has a serial number of SG0331FSK59, so I know it was manufactured in Singapore.
The first numerical character indicates the last digit of the year of production. Common sense should tell you which decade your Mac was made in. Using the above serial number, it's safe to assume my Cube was made in the year 2000, not 1990 or 1980

The next two digits indicate the week of the year it was produced. So my Cube was made the 33rd week of the year 2000.

According to Macfaq.org, the next three characters are a three-digit base-34 unique identifier. (The letters 'O' and 'I' are not used, apparently to avoid confusion with the numbers zero and one.)  My Cube appears to have been number 1692 within production week 33 of the year 2000.

The remainder of the serial number tells the model number, which in my example is, of course, a Power Mac G4 Cube.

To find out more about your own computer, you can save yourself the trouble of having to decode the serial number yourself by using Chipmunk's online Mac Serial Decoder.

Be sure to share your results with us and maybe we'll send your Mac a birthday card!

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I learned this tip a while ago, but was recently reminded of it in one of Small Dog's Tech Tails newsletters. I thought I'd share it with...
 

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T-Lizl

my nano's serial starts with 5U53, and the app can't tell where it's from, nor can any other serial reader i've found.

December 06 2005 at 12:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Morgan

According to http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html factory code XB is ElkGrove/Sacramento, California. And in response to Robin (comment #17), a MDD with firewire 800 is officially a "FW 800" model, sometimes called "MDD FW800". The first MDD model is just known as "MDD"

September 28 2005 at 10:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Philippe Laval

We have two G5 (mono and dual). The serial number starts with YM. It is described as been assembled in China.

August 31 2005 at 4:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Liz Fairchild

Chipmunk link (above) provided me w/ excellent info. Thank You.

July 15 2005 at 2:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Macbeb

Serial number: W844525CPP8 Name: iMac G5 (First model) Model: M8250 iMac G5 1.8GHz Bus speed: 600MHz Screen size: 20 inch Factory: W8 (Shanghai China) Model introduced: 2004 Production year: 2004 Production week: 45 (November) Production number: 2494 (within this week)

May 24 2005 at 5:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris Mcdowell

Where in fremont is the apple factory? I have lived in fremont for 18 years my whole life and never knew Apple had a plant in fremont. Where Where?

May 16 2005 at 5:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Laurie

Sure it does - PT is Korea

May 15 2005 at 11:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Former Apple Employee

Yeah, that serial number converter is no good. It doesn't handle the PT prefix. ;-)

May 15 2005 at 4:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nic

3rd week of Jan hmmmm I like to think it was built on my birthday which is the same week :-) Serial number: YM5032ZURHU Name: Mac mini Model: M9687 Mac mini 1.42HGz Bus speed: 166MHz Factory: YM (China) URL: Technical specifications by apple-history.com Model introduced: 2005 Production year: 2005 Production week: 03 (January) Production number: 3462 (within this week)

April 19 2005 at 11:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

Serial number: UV3080MMN4Q (cleaned up from 'uv3080mmn4q') Name: iBook G3 (Late 2002) Model: Mxxxx iBook G3 800MHz Bus speed: 100MHz Screen size: 12 inch Factory: UV (Taiwan) URL: Technical specifications by apple-history.com Model introduced: 2002 Production year: 2003 Production week: 08 (February) Production number: 735 (within this week)

April 15 2005 at 10:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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