Getting an old IBM Thinkpad to work

[ShadowFold]

My grandma has an old IBM Thinkpad and when you turn it on it asks for a password when you turn it on. I cant even get into the BIOS. Here is a pic of the password screen.

http://img.techpowerup.org/080504/005.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/080504/004.jpg

We have tried taking out the battery for a 3 hours it doesnt work. And I cant get the back off the screws are rounded. I want to get this working for my cousin. Thanks guys :toast:

[MadCow]

You'll probably need to get the back covers off and remove the CMOS battery for a while.

[ShadowFold]

Yea thats what I thought I had to do but like I said the screws are rounded and we cant get any screws to work :ohwell:

[flashstar]

T21? I can't see the model number. That would help with a diagnosis.

You need the bios password or a new motherboard to enter the bios or boot up.

There is absolutely no way to get in without either. I believe that there is a dedicated chip on the motherboard which stores the bios password. When the CMOS battery runs out of power, the password is tripped and then you need to enter it just to boot up the computer.

[ShadowFold]

How would I trip the chip with out opening it?

[jbunch07]

who set the password?
but i imagine it will kind of hard without removing the cmos battery...

[ShadowFold]

My grandma, but its old she just found it. She cant remember it at all :(

[jbunch07]

hmm...the only thing that comes to mind is taking out the battery...sry man

[ShadowFold]

Yea I think we can get it.. gonna take awile tho. Thanks tho guys :)

[Darknova]

Tried talking to IBM themselves? You never know...

[Namslas90]

Try these "Backdoor" passwords;

A.M.I., AAAMMMIII, AMI?SW , AMI_SW, BIOS, CONDO, HEWITT RAND, LKWPETER, MI, and PASSWORD.

[jbunch07]

Tryt theese "Backdoor" passwords;

A.M.I., AAAMMMIII, AMI?SW , AMI_SW, BIOS, CONDO, HEWITT RAND, LKWPETER, MI, and PASSWORD.

he said his gradma set the psswrd so i doubt those will work...those are usually factory set bios passwords...but hey its worth a try

Award BIOS backdoor passwords:
ALFAROME BIOSTAR KDD ZAAADA
ALLy CONCAT Lkwpeter ZBAAACA
aLLy CONDO LKWPETER ZJAAADC
aLLY Condo PINT 01322222
ALLY d8on pint 589589
aPAf djonet SER 589721
_award HLT SKY_FOX 595595
AWARD_SW J64 SYXZ 598598
AWARD?SW J256 syxz
AWARD SW J262 shift + syxz
AWARD PW j332 TTPTHA
AWKWARD j322
awkward
AMI BIOS Backdoor Passwords:
AMI BIOS PASSWORD HEWITT RAND
AMI?SW AMI_SW LKWPETER CONDO
Phoenix BIOS Backdoor Passwords:
phoenix PHOENIX CMOS BIOS
Misc. Common Passwords
ALFAROME BIOSTAR biostar biosstar
CMOS cmos LKWPETER lkwpeter
setup SETUP Syxz Wodj
Other BIOS Passwords by Manufacturer
Manufacturer Password

VOBIS & IBM merlin
Dell Dell
Biostar Biostar
Compaq Compaq
Enox xo11nE
Epox central
Freetech Posterie
IWill iwill
Jetway spooml
Packard Bell bell9
QDI QDI
Siemens SKY_FOX
TMC BIGO
Toshiba Toshiba

[Namslas90]

@ jbunch07, Yeah there are lots of others;

http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml

Getting the screws out and reseting the CMOS jumper could set it back to none or default. Also, look for a password reset jumper (some have them).

[Solaris17]

here are some wicked easy ones you should try....when i need to work on someones computer because a client gives it to me and they forget to give me their password alot of the time things like this will work

their name lower case and uppercare first letter

your grandmas birth day

your moms birth day

your mom name capitol and lower case fiorst letter

[Morgoth]

can you take a pic of the screws?
its posible you can get those in a construction hardware store

[flashstar]

Honestly, it isn't worth the time guessing. There is no back-door password that I know of. Pulling out the cmos battery won't do anything. You can always look for a replacement motherboard on Ebay. There are really good install guides.

I've had to deal with a T23.

[MadCow]

I bet there's some sort of hardware fail-safe that lets you reset the password by jumping 2 pins or shorting something to ground. But then again, you'll need to take it apart to do that.

[Snipe343]

you could get a small metter rod, put super glue or appoxy or something strong on it and attach it to the screw and unscrew it...

[panchoman]

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/bios/bios_password.htm

follow that guide.. it should work at one point or another.

[FreedomEclipse]

awesome!!! - they had one of these old thinkpads running windows 2000 where i used to work - the building tenant moved house & left a ton of these old things lying around but sadly they were all thrown away before I even knew I was going to be working there a few days ago, however since there was one that was used to man the cameras in the control room that was left behind -

what did i do?

copied down its spec - went home downloaded a load of updates & was back the next morning with Unreal Tournament + a few million mods & spent the next few days & evenings (had to work night shifts) on killing sprees.....

obviously nobody ever knew i actually installed it but then i dont think nobody cared if your alone looking after an empty building by yourself!

11hrs on non stop Unreal T

::EDIT::

Yah i know im not helping with the OP but i just couldnt help mentioning playing U.T on this little runner

[ShadowFold]

Im back home now we ended up giving up.

[Thermopylae_480]

That's a shame. You can also set a hard drive password on these laptops in addition to a cmos password. If that is the case you would need to replace the HDD, IBM will not remove a HDD password even if you send it to them, for client security reasons. You never said which model it was? If you tell me I might be able to find the method to clear the CMOS password if that is the issue.

If you're really going to give up, please don't throw it away. I have a T series laptop and I would love to buy the laptop off you for spare parts for a reasonable price plus shipping.

[flashstar]

I would also be interested in the laptop if it's part of the T2X line. What type of optical drive does it have? DVD, DVD-RW, or DVD/CDRW?

[DanTheBanjoman]

Ooohh these are fun.

Can be 2 things:

Harddisk, take it out boot with an other or from CD. If not, it's a small chip (8 or 10 legs) you need to replace. Google it, or ebay sells them. Or at least did a few years ago.