Question on T40 before pruchasing off of ebay.

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r00 · #1 Post by **r00** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:24 am

So I've found two T40's on ebay with a buyitnow price of $349 and below.

The thing is they both don't come with battery or HDD which isn't that much of an issue because I can just buy them off of ebay just as easily. But, they both have Supervisor passwords set on them. Now I'm sure this means I can't access BIOS or set any settings. But, will I still be able to boot the machine into it's OS? Should I not even consider buying these because of this problem? Is it even possible to get around the password buy flashing the bios?

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:40 am

The Supervisor password locks down the entire system, the only real way to get around it is to either know it or be really clever with hacking the hardware and firmware. Flashing the BIOS wouldn't necessarily get rid of the Supervisor Password either and that does present some difficulties as you couldn't really boot to do it and would therefore have to attempt to boot it off a diskette.

NathanA · #3 Post by **NathanA** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:44 am

If someone is selling you a unit at a fantastic price but is unwilling or unable to tell you what the supervisor password is or remove it entirely before shipping it to you, then I'd say chances are good he is probably not the rightful owner of the ThinkPad.

YMMV.

-- Nathan

christopher_wolf · #4 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:49 am

That is one thing I would be suspicious of; more so since instead it is the Supervisor password and not just the Power-on-Password (which can be reset with the removal of the CMOS battery). The Supervisor password locks down any modifications to the BIOS in addition to its ability to override any PoP set by the user. The majority of people that implement that are Admins in an IT setting.

r00 · #5 Post by **r00** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:20 am

Thanks a lot guys. I guess I won't be buying them now.

#6 Post by **underclocker** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:56 am

While $350 does seem inexpensive, by the time you're done with a couple of upgrades (battery, wifi, etc.) you're at $500.

I'd look at complete T4x machines, especially T42's for about $500.

They do come up (not usually Buy It Now). T41's & T42's often have some warranty left, too. Just in case the system board or LCD is actually bad. Or maybe you just want a new keyboard or palmrest - IBM is often reasonable with small parts under warranty.

Buying a unit that has an intermittent issue, like flakey USB, Ethernet, video, etc., will run you $200 for another system board. Best to get a warranty. Sometimes people don't know their machine has issues!

Some T42's are lower spec'd than some T40's, so it's not a surprise that they sell for the same price.

#7 Post by **underclocker** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:13 am

For instance, www.geobay.com/d6ab79

T41 with warranty for another 9 months plus;

P M 1.6GHz, 256MB RAM, 80GB HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 16x10x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, IBM 802.11a/b/g wireless(MPCI), Bluetooth/Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, 6c Li-Ion batt

Buy IT Now for $445 including shipping!

r00 · #8 Post by **r00** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:05 pm

Wow... Thank you so much, this is exactly what I'm looking for!

#9 Post by **carbon_unit** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:41 pm

I've bought from them before. They are OK to deal with.

Question on T40 before pruchasing off of ebay.

Question on T40 before pruchasing off of ebay.

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