My Mid-2012 MacBook Pro Serial Number Issue: A Troubleshooting Story

I've recently been dealing with an unusual issue on my trusty Mid-2012 MacBook Pro (13', non-Retina). Despite upgrading to a new battery and SSD over a year ago, I've never had any major problems until last night. Suddenly, the laptop started freezing for about a minute at a time whenever I performed any action, from clicking on folders to launching applications.

At first, I thought it might be related to my recent upgrades, but after some research, I discovered that the missing serial number issue is usually caused when the logic board is replaced and the new board doesn't have the serial number written to it. However, since my laptop's logic board has never been replaced, I was stumped.

After some trial and error, I noticed that the laptop would run smoothly for a few minutes after rebooting, but then the freezing issue would return. System Information still reported the correct serial number, leading me to believe that this might be a symptom rather than the cause of the problem.

I tried using Terminal to disable the adsp process, which is known to spike in CPU use when there's a missing serial number. However, disabling it didn't seem to make any difference. When I checked System Information again, I found that the serial number was now showing as 'Unavailable' and the adsp process was indeed spiking in CPU use.

After some more research, I discovered that others had experienced similar issues with their MacBook Pros, which led me to believe that this might be related to the adsp process and a missing serial number. To resolve the issue, I followed the process for repairing the missing serial number using the Blank Board Serializer software.

To my surprise, rebooting my laptop after running the repair process seemed to fix the problem. System Information reported the correct serial number again, and the laptop ran smoothly without any freezing issues. However, this was short-lived, as the issue returned after about five minutes of use.

Despite the temporary fix, I'm still left wondering what caused the missing serial number issue in the first place. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with their MacBook Pros? If so, please share your experiences and any solutions you may have found.

Mid 2012 macbook pro serial number