Thinkpads Forum

I have a thinkpad 765D I cannot get into windows.
A friend give it me, it has a password on the harddrive that nobody knows.
I tried to fdisk to reload the drive no joy, tried to get into the bios (F1) it flashes a lock sign on the display. I can get pass that one but another one pops up. That is to the harddrive I cannot pass. Sometime's there is a picture of a front of a floppydrive with a floppy disk and arrows pointing too F1 all in dos. Can anyone help......

Some passwords can be reset and others cannot. If there is a HD password, it is stored in the BIOS on the computer, so swapping hard drives will not fix the problem.

Download the Repair Manual and see if the Password Reset can help. I don't remember how to do it offhand, but I think you need to jump some pins. I haven't been inside my 765D in quite a while.

If a password reset doesn't fix the problem, you can try removing the CMOS battery (unplug the keyboard for a day), but that doesn't always work. The proper solution is to replace the password chip (where all this stuff is stored). There is a company in Canada who does this, but it will cost more than finding another 765 carcass on Ebay and pulling all your stuff over.

Good luck.

I can only get into the bios went the harddrive is not connected with the drive out the floppy disk reads but went I reconnect the drive it ask for password. I tried to reset the harddrive in the bios, so swapping the drive will not work cause I ordered a drive from ebay...

donneeo wrote:I can only get into the bios went the harddrive is not connected with the drive out the floppy disk reads but went I reconnect the drive it ask for password. I tried to reset the harddrive in the bios, so swapping the drive will not work cause I ordered a drive from ebay...

The HD is PW protected and without the PW it's essentially junk.

Just replace it and you should be good to go.

Regards,

James

Bruce Guttman wrote:Some passwords can be reset and others cannot. If there is a HD password, it is stored in the BIOS on the computer, so swapping hard drives will not fix the problem.

Geeze Bruce, here's a day I thought I'd never see. You're wrong.

The HD PW is stored on the HD itself, not in the BIOS. this is why putting the HD in another Thinkpad will not clear the PW, you'll still be prompted for it on BOOT.

Regards,

James

Thanks for all the help u guy's, just like at dssinn.com my family keep's getting bigger... LOVE YA.....

ok the harddrive is installed now I can't enter the Bios, when I try I get an erorr window. when I try to install the OS from dos c:\> I get nothing but bad commands. Can anyone give a little help...

You don't enter the BIOS; you go into Easy Setup. To enter Easy Setup, hold the F1 button while you turn on the computer.

Once in Easy Setup, you have several options. One of the choices has a sub-option to Initialize the computer. Do that and reboot.

If you are still having a problem, go back into Easy Setup and go into Diagnostics (little ambulance). Run all diagnostics and see if something comes up.

One other cause is a dead CMOS battery. There are actually two, located under the palmrest of the keyboard. You need to partially disassemble the keyboard to get to them. They are special proprietary modules, but you might be able to get replacements at a good Computer store or Radio Shack.

If the computer shows a display with a padlock on it, you have another password, and this one requires replacing the System Board. If you need a new System Board, e-mail me privately.

Hope this helps.