Thinkpads Forum

Hello all:

I have disabled all the features to disable the bootup padlock on my T60, however, I still get the padlock and have to enter my password. Can anyone tell me what in the heck I'm doing wrong to get rid of this darn padlock? I set this up a long while ago and now I can't undo it.

Thanks, Steve

There's three possible passwords in the system. If you are getting prompted every time you turn the system on, then it's one of these:

- power on password
- hard drive password
- supervisor (aka, BIOS) password; only in one specific case

With the T60 I believe that there's three different icons present along with the padlock. The power-on password is represented by a squarish-looking symbol; a crude picture of a computer monitor. The hard drive password prompt has a cylinder, with a number 1 (for the first hard drive). The supervisor password has an outline of a person. On older systems, the supervisor password prompt is the same as the power-on. The only time that you will get the supervisor prompt without explicitly trying to access the BIOS is if the password has been set and then the backup battery dies (or is temporarily removed).

Once you have identified which password you are dealing with, to remove it you must supply the correct password in the "current" field and just "returns" for the new password. Double check the status of each password entry in the BIOS Security/Password menu. They will display "disabled" if the password has been removed and "enabled" if it's still in effect. I would also check the Fingerprint menu and see if there's something in there that's causing the problem.

ref: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-64884 (T60 BIOS simulator)

You can also check this: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59377

Another option: check if your CMOS battery still holds a charge, it may not 'save' the setting-changes.
Careful! A Power-On Password will turn into a Supervisor PW after CMOS removal, so make sure you know all the PWs.