How is that hardcoded into the device? It's not just on the drive somewhere. Is it changeable? Not something I'd really thought about before but maybe there's some way of changing it.
The serial number is burned into the motherboard. At least in the case of Lenovo laptops I've dealt with, it seems to be possible to modify. When we send machines for repair, if they replace the motherboard it comes back with the same serial number we sent in. In some cases, we've been sent systems without serial numbers and they refuse to boot.
My 2010 MBP came without a serial number burned into it. It was causing trouble when I tried to use things like Facetime from the Mac because apparently the protocol depends on this serial number. I had to download a utility and burn it to CD, boot the CD and flash a serial number of my choice. I was tempted to go with 0000000001...
