What to do with an old corporate used t20?

[mushroomsatsujin]

I found my dad's old thinkpad he got from his company. Unfortunately it has the BIOS/Supervisor password and he cant remember what it was. It also has a sticker with a barcode on it that says "Security Marked with Concealed Identification" and a UK number.

Is there any way to make this thing useful to me, and should I worry about the security warning at all? If I have to replace the motherboard, what kinds would fit in the case if I decided to upgrade?

edit: I also received a Compaq Armada E500 today that just locks up a lot if that helps anything

[dr_st]

The T20 is old and nothing special. Unless one has sentimental value attached to it, it's worthless - especially since it won't even work without a mobo replacement or a password crack (which we will not discuss here).

Toss it in the recycle bin.

The Armada is about the same, except that if you can get it to work, it may be useful as a light office / music playing machine. Install a fresh operating systems to see if the lockups may be software-related. If not - and it's a hardware problem - it should go the path of the T20.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Most people would say that a T20 system is not going to be too useful nowadays (edit: See above ). That case will accept any T20, T21 or T22 motherboard. It will NOT accept a T23. The fastest CPU you can get would be a 1Ghz Pentium III and the most memory you can cram into one is 512MB (2 x 256MB, "low density" modules). Windows XP would run fairly slow on that system; Linux might be a better alternative. Another bottleneck is the graphics system. There's an S3 Savage IX8+ GPU running with 8MB of video memory. While such a system could still be used for web surfing, email and light office document creation, running anything graphic-intensive (e.g. Flash video) is probably not going to be too smooth.

The rules of this forum says that public discussion of techniques to bypass the BIOS password is not allowed, however IBM recommended that motherboard replacement was the solution to a lost/unknown BIOS password. As far as the sticker and barcode goes, it sounds like your father's company may have placed some unique identification marks inside the system or attached an RFID tag. Not sure what a "UK" number means.

No idea about the Compaq beside the usual troubleshooting techniques:

- Remove all hardware from the system that plugs into sockets (memory, MiniPCI cards, hard drives, optical drives, etc.) and then see if the system at least turns on and indicates it has no memory (assuming that there is none permanently soldered onto the motherboard). This could take the form of a series of beeps or a message on the screen.
- Verify that the memory is good. This requires that the system is able to boot an operating system. You can use a program like memtest86+ which is available on a boot floppy.
- Verify that the hard drive is good. Again, the system needs to be able to boot an OS and you'll have to find a diagnostic program that can check out your drive.
- If the lockups generate an error code or message, Google it to see what other people have done. System lockups can occur from both a hardware or software fault.

[mushroomsatsujin]

Thanks for the welcome!

Im not going to use these for anything particular. I have an '06 macbook that runs BackTrack and two decent PCs that I mainly use so these are just side projects. I love to take things apart and put them back together or try to find other uses for the parts.

I wasnt looking to bypass the bios. I did read the forum rules and FAQs. I know, shocking. Right? Besides, a quick google search was enough to say dont bother. Rather, I was seeing what kind of projects y'all may have done with the T20. Due to its obvious superior security, I thought it would be good as a platform for sensitive documents or to stream a security camera feed through.

The compaq just needs to be cleaned physically and wiped virtually. I was just thinking of how I could use them together, like possibly swapping parts. Ultimately Im only trying to upgrade them in general. Is it ok to ask where a reliable place is to buy a T21/2 board? Frankly, I just dont trust ebay.

U.K. - United Kingdom. He works for BP in finance so very sensitive was/is on here. I assumed other counter-measures would be on here and wondered if there were any security professionals that might know.

[RealBlackStuff]

Maybe it is only a hard disk password?
Remove the drive and try to boot.
If it now works, just put in another IDE/ATA hard disk.

[mushroomsatsujin]

Maybe it is only a hard disk password?
Remove the drive and try to boot.
If it now works, just put in another IDE/ATA hard disk.

Is that the only way to know if its BIOS or HDD? Its a little white icon of a padlock on a black screen that pops up just after the 'Compaq' boot screen disappears.

[EasyMac308]

Pulling the drive is painless - one flathead screw, pull.

I have a T23 (which is a bit better than your T20), I don't have a lot of use for it and can't even give the doggone thing away.

Now, I'm not saying, "don't try", but I've never had much luck with Linux on the T2x series, myself. My old T30 got along a lot better with Ubuntu than my T2xes. It would probably just take a little elbow grease.

With regard to "superior security", the T20 is pretty outdated in that regard. You'd be better off using Bitlocker or Truecrypt on one of your newer PCs for full disk encryption.

Given what you said about your dad working for BP, it's a safe guess that it's the hard drive that's protected vs. the PC itself.

[pianowizard]

I have a Dell Inspiron 7500 with similar specs as the T20, i.e. 700MHz Pentium III and 512MB PC100 RAM (though it has 15.4" 1280x1024). If it were the only computer I could afford then I would use it for the internet and Office stuff but since I have so many other much faster computers, I use it only for playing MP3 files. I got a 250GB PATA drive for free and formated it into a 1GB partition plus a 249GB partition. The 1GB partition has XP FLP and the other is full of MP3 files.

[robert213]

Other related posts...

What to do with old T22?
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=99581

Classical music
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=98694

Multimedia remote control for ThinkPads?
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=99178

[rkawakami]

The early T2x series was prone to developing what's know as "The Blink of Death" (BoD). What essentially happens is that one day, when you least expect it, the system simply flashes the hard drive LED for about 1/10 of a second when the power button is pushed. Nothing else. No booting, no beeping, no light or activity on the screen, no funny fan speed oscillations (ala, a T23 losing one or more inductors from the motherboard). Left alone without any power for several days (read: pull the battery and disconnect the AC adapter), it might power up normally again. Or it may not. Such is the nature with this particular problem. I still keep a couple of T21 and T22 systems around for parts, mainly for the SXGA+ screens in them to transplant into a T23.

Getting back to the password situation for a second... Just to be clear there's three different types of passwords that can be set on the T20:

1) Power-on password
2) BIOS (aka, Supervisor) password
3) Hard drive password

Here's the quick way to determine what you are dealing with:

1) If, when you turn on the system, it does NOT display any boot error number code such as 270, 271 or a message that the date/time is incorrect AND you see a padlock and a "square" next to it, then you are dealing with a simple power-on password. It is supposed to represent a computer monitor or computer. It looks like this:



2) If, when you turn on the system, it DOES display the 270 or 271 number code and/or says something about an invalid time AND you see a padlock and a "square" next to it, then your are dealing with a dead CMOS (backup) battery AND you have a BIOS password. This would be the only time you would automatically be presented with the BIOS password prompt without specifically attempting to access the BIOS in the normal manner (i.e, pressing the F1 key while the system is booting). For the T2x systems, both the power-on password and the BIOS password prompts show the same "square" symbol.

3) If, when you turn on the system and it does NOT display any error messages but has a padlock and a figure of a cylinder next to it, then you are encountering a hard drive password. It looks like this:



The system could still have the BIOS password enabled. The only way to find out is the try to access the BIOS.

If you have a power-on password you can remove it by taking out the CMOS battery for several seconds. HOWEVER, if the system also has a BIOS password you will basically "brick" the system because you will then have situation #2 as described above. The loss of the CMOS battery will have caused the real-time clock to lose time, forcing you to enter BIOS when you power up the system to reset it. If you don't have the BIOS password, you can't set the time and therefore the system won't let you do anything else.

[mushroomsatsujin]

1) If, when you turn on the system, it does NOT display any boot error number code such as 270, 271 or a message that the date/time is incorrect AND you see a padlock and a "square" next to it, then you are dealing with a simple power-on password. It is supposed to represent a computer monitor or computer. It looks like this:

Thats exactly it. Same thing when I try to enter BIOS. Does that mean it has both?

[rkawakami]

Okay, I had to dig out one of my T21 systems from the closet since I didn't remember the exact sequence if both passwords are set. It's the closest I have to a T20. Naturally it had a dead CMOS battery . Anyway... I first set only the power-on password and that's what it wanted the next time I powered up. I then set the BIOS password (to a different string), re-booted the system and pressed the F1 key. I entered the power-on password and the system gave me access to BIOS (!). Shut it off, turned it back on and pressed the F1 key again. I then entered the BIOS password and again I got into BIOS. So it seems either password, if both are set, and if you are actively trying to get into the BIOS, will allow access to the BIOS. I also tried powering on and did NOT hit the F1 key and both passwords allowed the system to boot. Well, it least I think it would. I didn't have a hard drive in this system so all I got was the red text saying "hard drive not found... hit any key to exit".

I then pulled out the CMOS battery, booted the system, did NOT press F1, got the "hard drive not found" message, pressed a key, got both the 271 and 251 error codes and then the BIOS password prompt. Typed in the power-on password, which did not work as expected (removing the CMOS battery removes the power-on password), then entered the BIOS password, which did give me access.

So, to confirm, if you DON'T see any error messages when turning the system on AND you DON'T actively try to access BIOS AND you see the password icon as shown in my example #1, then you are dealing with a POWER-ON password. HOWEVER, there still MAY be a BIOS password. The only way you are going to know that is to remove the CMOS battery and see what happens. If there is a BIOS password, the system will "brick" itself. If there isn't a BIOS password, then your father's T20 is usable once again.

edit: For completeness, the BIOS revision on my test case T21 is 1.07 (KZET26WW) dated 2001-05-15. Not sure if any other T21 BIOS revision acts differently or if any of this can be transferred directly to any of the T20 BIOS versions. I do know that the latest T21 BIOS update (1.15) has an "Enhancement of the password security feature", whatever that means .

[mushroomsatsujin]

So where is the CMOS battery? Is it the yellow thing below the main battery, because Ive removed that many times. Ive taken this thing apart from everything that snaps or screws in, so Im not sure what you mean if removing it means it would remove the password prompt, or if because I still see it means there was a BIOS pw as well.

I also noticed that it ignores the BIOS and boots anyway. Im guessing that means its bricked?

[rkawakami]

Yes, the yellow "coin-shaped" battery below the main battery is the CMOS backup. It's mounted to a plastic frame which positions the tiny connector into the correct (or nearly correct) spot on the motherboard where there's a matching receptacle.

Since you have removed the CMOS battery at least one time and you are still seeing a password prompt, then you are correct from your initial post that said your Dad had a BIOS password. Re-read scenario #2 in my post on July 26th. That should explain exactly what you are seeing. The system is not "ignoring" the BIOS. It's doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing when a BIOS password has been set AND the backup battery has been removed (or went dead). Yes, in theory, the system is "bricked".

[RealBlackStuff]

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