Thinkpads Forum

I sold a thinkpad to a "friend" who never paid me and finally just gave it
back to me. I do not know what the power on password is and neither
does he. Is there anything I can do to access the computer again? If
I format the hardrive and reinstall windows will that solve the problem?
thanx

The ThinkPad power on password is not stored on the HDD so formatting, or even a secure erase, will not remove the password. Here is the official Lenovo Support page on what you can do for a lost or forgotten password:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... migr-59377

thanx

my mistake. It was not the power on password but it was the administrator's password.
can that also be changed from the bios?

An "Administrator" password is not a ThinkPad password description. If you are referring to a Windows "Administrator" password, then no that is not in the BIOS, and formatting the hard drive will remove Windows and any passwords set therein.

On the other hand, if we are talking about a ThinkPad "Supervisor" password, then see the above link for more info.

as you can see, I am not sure about the terminology. what i mean is the password one needs
in order to logon to windows. Maybe it is called the user password. It is the password one uses just before windows appears.

I went to the bios/security/passwords and disabled all passwords but it still requires a password to logon to windows.

the password was originally entered from control panel/user account

so it seems to me if I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows then my problem
would be solved. would this work or are there any other solutions?

Your should first try the advanced boot options, press F8 and select safe mode. If you get in you can delete the password. This works if the adminstrator password has not been set, which is usually the case..

so it seems to me if I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows then my problem
would be solved. would this work or are there any other solutions?

That will solve your Windows login problem.

I pressed f8 on startup and got this message:

ERROR
0210 Stuck Key 42

press F1 to Setup

Is there another way to enter safe mode?

If you press and release the F8 key about once per second starting immediately on pressing the power button, you should get the option to start in safe mode.

Alternatively, you can force a startup error by waiting for the windows start up screen to appear and then press and hold the power button until the Thinkpad shuts off. When you restart, the safe mode option should be available.

Joe

I can not get into safe mode. It starts to load and then the computer goes
back to the windows logon page. I found out that I have windows 7 and not
XP. I believe that even if I would enter safe mode, I would need the old password
in order to remove it. correct me if I am wrong. I believe I will have to format
the hard drive and reinstall windows.

My Ideapad Z565 runs W7 and I can force the safe mode thing if I'm not wrong. I'll try it when I get home and report back.

Not mentioned yet.... What model Thinkpad?

it is thinkpad 6X ultrabase

So this is a tablet with a base?

The Z565 will offer the safe mode option by immediately shutting down by holding the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears and before the system boots to the point where a password is required. On restart, the option is presented.

If the tablet will not offer that option, then it's time to re-install Windows to clear the password.

OP check PM

I finally had to format the hard drive and reinstall windows