VMware ESXi 5.x and 6.0 installed on a 5th gen Intel NUC (NUC5i7RYH, NUC5i5RYH, NUC5i5MYHE, NUC5i5RYK, NUC5i3RYH, NUC5i3MYHE and NUC5i3RYK) has a problem with SMBios system information.

Manufacturer and Model in the vSphere Client is displayed with replacement characters (� black diamond with a white question mark).



Adding host to a vCenter Server fails with the following error message

A general system error occurred: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token)

To solve this problem you have to replace the BIOS. This post explains how to create a customized BIOS with changed SMBios variables and install it on your NUC.



It's not rocket science to modify the BIOS. You do not need any programming skills.