- Joined
- Oct 31, 2012
- Messages
- 538
- Motherboard
- ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS
- CPU
- Dual E5-2680 v1
- Graphics
- GTX660 Ti
- Mobile Phone
If it's not MAC address then it has no choice but to be in EFI somewhere. BIOS or HDD/SSD etc. I would put a live Linux dvd to it and delete every EFI partition I could find and give the BIOS a downward flash and back again - lolYou would think so wouldn't you ?
I certainly did until something strange happened to one of my machines.
I was installing a test build on it and after entering my iCloud password the following response appeared :
"This Mac is no longer eligible to create Apple ID accounts". I wasn't creating an Apple ID, just logging in.
I can sign in to iCloud with it but no matter what I do I cannot get iMessage or FaceTime to sign in.
I did all the good things, signed out of iCloud, deleted the computer from iCloud and my Apple ID.
Disconnected from the network, trashed all of the cache files, changed the computer name, created an new SMBIOS/Serial number/SMUUID/MLB.
When I logged back in it still won't connect to iMessage and FaceTime.
It asks for my iCloud password every time that I log in (even though I am signed in to iCloud) and then says that an error has occurred.
I totally rebuilt it again with a different hard drive, complete build from scratch, different SMBIOS (changed from MacPro5,1 to iMac14,2) with all new values. The same "This Mac is no longer eligible to create Apple ID accounts" message.
Obviously Apple have some way of identifying a computer other than the SMBIOS values, so I figured it must be the MAC address.
I disabled the onboard NIC and installed a PCI ethernet card and did the complete rebuild again from scratch with all new values.
Guess what ? Exactly the same result.
I can rebuild all of my other hacks and they all work with iMessage ok. I went so far as taking all of my devices out of iCloud and they all add back in ok but this one machine will not sign in to iMessage or FaceTime.
I have 2 part authentication enabled too - It makes no difference.
This isn't a plea for help, I'm just pointing out that sometimes no matter what you do it just will not work.
Martin