Thinkpads Forum

Hey everyone !

I friend of mine bought a TP 600E, and it had a supervidor password, which was not a problem since he could still use the laptop, just not change the BIOS settings..

Then, I had the stupidiest idea in the world...I wanted to test the CMOS battery on another 600E, so I removed it from this laptop and when put it back, it now needs to have the date and time updated before the POST and since we dont have the password, well...it's useless now..

Any one here knows a way to bypass this ? I know that the supervidor pwd is impossible to remove/bypass, bu I wonder if there's anyway I can ignore the messages (163 and 161) and continue to boot, so that I can change the date and time from within the Windows...


Or is there anything else I might try before throwing it from the 15th floor ??

Thanks in advance.

The Supervisor password is actually stored on a NVRAM chip and unless you can find the person who knows the Supervisor password you will need to replace that chip.

If you go to the regular Thinkpads Web Site, Bill has a link to an outfit in Canada who can replace this chip. Also, you can sometimes score one of these chips on Ebay and if you have some SMD soldering and repair experience, you can patch it yourself (warning: not for the faint-of-heart!!).

A more economical option might be to see if you can get a 600E/X lower half on Ebay; they're pretty common. If you get a 600X, you can then upgrade the processor.

Hope this helps.