Mac address are invalid in both CMOS and Flash

[MadPierre]

Hi I have the above problem on an N68C-S UCC. I have tried the usual resetting the bios, flashing to a different bios version etc but with no success.

I even tried disabling the onboard nic and using a pci one, which got me on the net but didn't get rid of the message and the need to pres F1 every time. (why give the message when its disabled anyway?)

I am wanting to sell the system so this is a pain.
I downloaded a mac address changer tool from another website which ran but keeps telling me the mac data I'm inputting is invalid. I don't understand this as I am reading the address direct from the sticker on the chip. I've even scanned its barcode just to make sure I wasn't reading it wrong!.
The address on the chip is

19M0XE376506

Is this in the correct format or do I need to change it? If so how?
Does anyone have a MAC address changer that they KNOW works on this board? The one I have was meant for a different asrock board.

Any help would be appreciated
Regards

[- wardog -]

Your MAC address is found on top of the rear I/O ethernet port, on a sticker.

MAC addresses are input as xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

[MadPierre]

Your MAC address is found on top of the rear I/O ethernet port, on a sticker.

MAC addresses are input as xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

Thanks for the reply but that's where I got the address listed above from but the writer tool says its invalid. I think it requires hex format which the one I have obviously isn't but I don't know how to convert it. I tried hexwrite which gave me an ASCII to hex conversion but it was 13 pairs of digits not six that the program needs.

[profJim]

I'm pretty sure that a MAC address is composed of 12 hexadecimal characters, which means that the allowed characters are any combination of 0 - 9 and A - F.
For example: 0C-B4-8C-DF-9E-55
You might find colons instead of dashes.

[- wardog -]

You might find colons instead of dashes.

Me bad, so true. Still on that first caffeinated drink of the morning.

[profJim]

This is a long shot:
M is the 13th letter in the alphabet.
13 divided by 16 is zero with a remainder of 13.
Change the letter M to D, where _X0D = 13 (decimal).

X is the 24th letter in the alphabet.
24 divided by 16 is 1 with a remainder of 8.
Change the letter X to 8.

19M0XE376506 <--- printed label
19D08E376506 <--- real MAC address?

For those not familiar with hex, A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15 <--- decimal numbers for single hex digits
Hex extra credit: _X10 = 16 decimal, _X11 = 17 decimal, .....

[- wardog -]

^^ Yea, what he said. Chief Munchkin :)


Might also try, at your own risk :
ASRock > Support > MAC Tool Download

[profJim]

The OP should send a private message (PM) to ASRock TSD - Emily, include a link to this thread, and ask her for help with the invalid hex format on the sticker.

[MadPierre]

OK guys thanks for the advice but Ive fixed it.
A bit of a chew but its working now and not giving the error anymore so here's what I did in case anyone else gets the same problem.
I had been trying the Asrock mac changer tool with no success as it kept giving invalid address errors so I tried Smac (free version) which also wouldn't accept the mac I had, so I tried one of the random generated mac codes from Smac. The version I had wouldn't make the change permanent so I tried that random code with the asrock mac changer tool.
This time it gave a different error saying that the code should start with one of 5 sequences that it listed (I assume these are nic manufacturer specific).
So I took the first 3 pairs of digits that it gave me and used the last three pairs from the random code generated by smac and hey presto it worked!
If it helps anyone, my onboard nic is an nforce and the starting sequences it gave me were
00 0b 6a .. .. ..
00 13 8f .. .. ..
00 19 66 .. .. ..
00 25 22 .. .. ..
bc 5f f4 .. .. ..
so anyone with the same nic and problem should be able to input one of these and just make up the last 6 hex digits.
Thanks for the help.
Peter

[profJim]

Thanks for the update, the information you provided should help others.
Glad to hear that you fixed the problem.