Thinkpads Forum

Hi All,

Ok my thinkpad 600e which I bought from a company (second hand they were throwing away) has decided not to boot.

It beeps twice and mentions error 161 and 163. It then displays a password screen which shows a laptop and a padlock, if I click enter without entering the password it says Ok and shows a screen displaying 161 and 163 error and freezes.

I bought a new CMOS battery from ebay which was the correct replacement and tried that however same thing occurs.

Is there a password which is blocking me? as I never had to enter one before or is the new CMOS battery dead as well or is my 600E totally dead?

Thanks for any help in advance.

I believe that there is a Supervisor password set on the 600E. The reason that you cannot get past the error, is because you need the password to continue into the BIOS to set the date and time. Once the date and time are set, it should boot just fine.

I would take it in to the comany that you bought it from and see if they have the password. They might be willing to just tell you the password, if it is a standard password that their IT department uses, but they might be able to enter it for you. Just tell them to enter the password and press the space bar once before pressing enter. Typing the space after entering the password should clear the password.

edit:
From FAQ #12 "...Cracking passwords is a highly charged subject that reasonable people disagree over..." Password recovery help link deleted due to morality issues that it may raise. Sorry folks.

What an excellent link Rick. That may come in handy one day for me.