Client Security Solution Logon - Can't boot in Safe Mode

[oasis200763A]

I have a T60(2007). After installing a ZoneAlarm update I rebooted only to notice that the "checking the status of the embedded security chip" message was taking longer than usual. After some time, I got an error message: "Client Security Solution Logon. There was a problem connecting to a critical service. It is possible that the anti-virus or firewall software is blocking the connection. Please refer to the readme for more details." I cannot logon.

The problem is described pretty well in http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=26265 : Updating the firewall software blocked communication to the CSS security chip and thus prevents logging on. However, the 2 solutions on that thread aren't working for me.

1. Disabling/Clearing the security chip
Holding escape when booting I can access the menu to disable the security chip, but there seems to be no effect.

2. Booting into safe mode to uninstall Zonealarm (and also CSS)
Pressing F8 at the right time, I get the menu to boot into Safe Mode, unfortunately the Log onto Windows does not recognize my password (!) which is very strange since it this had never been a problem before.

So I cannot proceed to uninstall the offending programs (Zonealarm and/or CSS), and I can't think of any other way to bypass this issue.

Worst case scenario, I am thinking of a new hard drive (gotta save my data) and reinstalling XP from R&R disks, since it's probably time for a housecleaning and I have some free time coming up... but this isn't really the ideal solution and I hadn't been mentally prepared for figuring out the whole recovery process.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, any advice would be really appreciated.

[DAH]

Do you have a boot cd? Any type of cd that you can boot into, like say one you upgraded the bios with? Then you could change to the C: drive and rename the folder where ZoneAlarm is. This will create errors, but may allow you to bypass ZoneAlarm. It's been a long time since I lasted use it.

A windows XP install cd would work, as well.