T23 bios password

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newyorkpaulie · #1 Post by **newyorkpaulie** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:00 am

Is it true that removal/reinstalling the bios battery is all that is required to overcome the bios password at bootup?
I am thinking of buying a T23 that is being sold with this obstacle.

ajkula66 · #2 Post by **ajkula66** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:10 am

It is NOT true, and we can't discuss this issue any further as per forum rules.

egibbs · #3 Post by **egibbs** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:10 am

If it is just the [edit] Power On [/edit] password, yes. If it is the Supervisor Password then no. If it's being sold as password locked it is almost certainly the Supervisor Password. Don't waste your time and money.

Ed Gibbs

#4 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:59 am

"BIOS password" = "Supervisor password". Both refer to the fact that one can lock the BIOS from being accessed/modified. Removal of the CMOS (aka, backup or BIOS) battery does NOT remove such a lock and in fact will CAUSE the owner/operator to be locked out of the system since the date and time would have been lost and the only way to correct it is to access the BIOS with the correct password. In other words, you will not be able to boot the system until the date and time have been corrected and you will need to know the password to do that.

Removing the CMOS battery will remove a simple power-on password. That procedure is well documented in the Hardware Maintenance Manual. However, for the T23, the icon shown on the screen for the power-on password is the same as the supervisor password. You will not know which one has been set unless you can get into the BIOS and see what was enabled.

newyorkpaulie · #5 Post by **newyorkpaulie** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:17 am

I'm not sure what the protocol is on discussing this topic (as per the reply above), but say I wanted to buy such a "locked" PC from a dealer is it OK to ask what I CAN do to get the unit to run? If it is OK, then of course my next question would be what's the next step?

joester · #6 Post by **joester** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:00 am

The forum policy is basically that discussions, instructions, directions, or other methodology of password removal not clearly appearing in the original Hardware manuals should not take place on forum.

In other words, what appears already in this chain is about as far as discussions can go.

Joe

#7 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:29 pm

^
|
What Joe said

. Specifically what is out-of-bounds are public discussions / pointers / assistance for supervisor (aka BIOS) and hard drive passwords as those were designed to be impervious. IBM did and Lenovo continues to provide the instructions on how to remove the power-on password and that's basically all we can do.

As a side note, I purchased a system off of eBay in which the seller said it had a supervisor password. It didn't. It was just the power-on password so I was lucky with that one. A year before, I had also bought a 600X which had declared 161 and 163 errors. It ended up having a supervisor password which the seller either did not know existed or purposely did not reveal

.

egibbs · #8 Post by **egibbs** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:20 pm

There is also the possibility that the reason the machine has an unknown password is that it is stolen.

A known good T23 can't be selling for that much these days - are you really saving enough on the locked machine to make it worth the risk, time, money, aggravation, and moral hazard of buying a locked machine?

Ed Gibbs

Robbyrobot · #9 Post by **Robbyrobot** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 3:36 am

egibbs wrote:There is also the possibility that the reason the machine has an unknown password is that it is stolen.

However, a more likely explanation is that the computer is surplus from some company getting rid of older machines, and that nobody bothered to take the trouble to remove the SVP before passing it on to a dealer. That kind of thing apparently happens quite frequently, and often the fact that a SVP is set only becomes apparent when the CMOS battery goes dead and has to be replaced. By then, of course, nobody has a clue what the SVP is or even where the machine originally came from.

#10 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:31 pm

egibbs wrote:A known good T23 can't be selling for that much these days.... <snip>

Then you probably haven't been watching eBay as closely as I have. Several modestly decked out T23s have gone for over $250 (shipped). By "modest" I mean 512MB of memory (or less), no OS or maybe a fresh install of W2K or XP with no other software, possibly a CDRW/DVD combo drive but not a DVD burner. As a quick example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0208731843

If you search the completed T23 inventory and specify a minimum price of $230 you'll find others. Certainly, the ones going for near $500:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0233463758

are fully loaded systems but are also anomalies.

garye · #11 Post by **garye** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:18 pm

I got a nice t23 with xp pro off ebay for $182 plus 30 shipping.
Keep looking and bidding you will find a good one

newyorkpaulie · #12 Post by **newyorkpaulie** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:28 pm

Just "won" a pair of T23s (1.2GH) on ebaY for $137.50. Not SXGA, but hey, this is a great price... they need the HDs, but I have a few of those anyway.... Best part is the HD is so easily swapped on this TPad.

Website · #13 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:42 pm

newyorkpaulie wrote:Just "won" a pair of T23s (1.2GH) on ebaY for $137.50. Not SXGA, but hey, this is a great price... they need the HDs, but I have a few of those anyway.... Best part is the HD is so easily swapped on this TPad.

Wow, that is a pretty good deal!! (regardless of SXGA or XGA)

T23 bios password

T23 bios password

T23 ebaY "bargains"

Re: T23 ebaY "bargains"

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