Thinkpads Forum

I've always had the same supervisor password set on my R60e, and last week I tried to clear it since I got a new T61p and was planning on selling the R60e. In the BIOS, I went to the change password prompt, enter the old password, and then entered blank for the new password.

Just today I tried to get into the BIOS to change some RAM settings, and oddly it asked me for a password to get into the BIOS. I pressed enter, figuring it saved the password as a blank for some reason, and found myself in the BIOS, except it says I'm in user mode, and need to be in supervisor mode to change any settings. I tried my old supervisor password, to no avail, and the blank password put me in user mode again. Being a smartass I unplugged the main battery and the CMOS battery for a bit and then tried to get in again, and this time it told me it's restored the defaults... and asked me for a password to boot up. The blank password no longer works, and neither does my old password. Lenovo support was no help, and told me to leave the CMOS unplugged for at least an hour and it may clear the password, otherwise there is no venue for recovery.

Now, when I changed the password, what happened? Did the blank password automatically downgrade itself to a user password, and defaulted the supervisor password to something else? Or did that happen when I reset the CMOS? I am completely mystified as I've only had one password for the BIOS since I bought the machine, and it's always let me into the BIOS in supervisor mode before I tried to clear it. I definitely haven't forgotten the password, it's the same password I use in all my BIOSes.

Does anyone have any advice? It's got all my work data on it so it's quite crucial that I get it back running ASAP.

I can only offer that the methods offered by support must be tried.

Failure of these methods is unfortunate, but procedural advice on recovering the password is a taboo subject on this forum.

I hate to welcome you to the forum on that note, but I welcome you anyway!

Joe

Sinbios, welcome to the forum. While I can only echo Joesters comments, I just wanted to state for others posting to this thread that while words of commiseration may be welcome, any attempts at describing supervisor password defeats here will promtly get this thread locked, and the content deleted from the offending post.
Harryc
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I'm not trying to recover the supervisor password, as I know exactly what it was and what I set it to - but neither of those worked. I just want to know if there is some known glitch where if you try to set the password to blank, it will lock you out.

If the supervisor password is truely blank, then it may just be the POP (Power-On-Password) that you're having problems with. Try this, first turn off the computer, remove the battery, and then, remove the backup (CMOS) battery, and turn the thing back on. After the POST, when the POP is wiped, put back both batteries.

Tried that, still no go. Lenovo suggested I go to a service centre to swap out the motherboard, as it's still under warranty... but the whole thing seems so counter intuitive. Is it really this easy to screw the entire machine over enough to warrant a motherboard replacement?

Sinbios wrote: Is it really this easy to screw the entire machine over enough to warrant a motherboard replacement?

Yes, if it's a supervisor password problem the conventional method to fix it is to replace the system board. It's a security device that works very well unless you mess something up.

Harryc wrote:

Sinbios wrote: Is it really this easy to screw the entire machine over enough to warrant a motherboard replacement?

Yes, if it's a supervisor password problem the conventional method to fix it is to replace the system board. It's a security device that works very well unless you mess something up.

Oh Crap really? Pulling the CMOS battery/resetting its settings don't work? Ouch... I better remember my password then.

Bob34 wrote: I better remember my password then.

If I understood the original post, the power on password was never set by the owner, but a supervisor password was. Attempting to change the password to a "blank" resulted in an unwanted password that is unfortunately unknown.

Hey Sinbios... try this... a trick I used once for a similar situation at work when someone tried to blank out a password....

Try just a single tap of the spacebar as the password. You might have used the spacebar to blank the password without thinking.

Worth a shot, anyways....

Joe

<edit> WHOO HOOO! a feather!!!!!

joester: I've tried one space, two spaces, three spaces... no go.

Hopefully the service centre honours my warranty and doesn't write it off as "we don't support password problems!"

So yeah, note of warning, don't try to clear the supervisor password with blanks!

Sinbios wrote:So yeah, note of warning, don't try to clear the supervisor password with blanks!

The best thing to do is to never set a supervisor password!

Whenever I blank a password I go to the bios, type in the old password and then hit enter twice and the bios says "password disabled". I have blanked a password many times without incident. I guess I must have been lucky.

Another idea: Is it possible that you accidentally hit a nearby key while pressing "Enter"? Try hitting one of those keys followed by "Enter".

I know of a bug in the 600X BIOS that made my systemboard useless. The BIOS can have bugs just like any other software, and it appears there are more than one machine in which they occur.

Too bad this isn't tested very well. It makes people not use the "feature." (A feature isn't a feature unless it works.) And that means it doesn't get tested by the public much either.... lest we risk our machines.

Supervisor password can be a great security feature, but if it's risky, as it seems to be, it's worse than useless - it can damage your machine, and cost you time and money. Bah!

pianowizard wrote:Another idea: Is it possible that you accidentally hit a nearby key while pressing "Enter"? Try hitting one of those keys followed by "Enter".

The same key twice? Seems unlikely.

I went to the change password prompt, enter the old password, and then entered blank for the new password...

joester: I've tried one space, two spaces, three spaces... no go.

What is "blank" to you? "Enter", a space, or several spaces? I think I'd try entering the same number of spaces as the characters in your old password, the one you wanted to remove.

A blank to me is just pressing enter without entering any keystrokes.

I'd go for the warranty service ... for all you know, the BIOS is faulty, which resulted in your lock condition. Get the new board. Yes, this is a tricky feature, but setting admin passwords and such is a realm where angels fear to tread.