Help with 390X password

[kb3500]

G'day All

I just sold a 390X which had no BIOS password at startup at all, the buyer shut the laptop down several times and restarted it with no password requests. Her son then claims to have only deleted some word files and inserted a CD with photos on it, all went well till the next startup and it is now requesting a password at bootup???

Any ideas please?

Kevin

[JHEM]

G'day Kevin,

I'm stumped by vernacular here. Is it truly a BOOT Power On PW (POP), e.g. the unit won't even BOOT into the BIOS without entering a PW? Or is it a Windows startup PW, e.g. the unit BOOTs but Windows ask the user to login?

Vastly differing problems and the latter can easily be caused by a virus. If the former, then the kid's full of it and was screwing around where he shouldn't have been.

See page 20 of the 390X HMM for how to remove a POP.

Then send the kid walkabout!

Regards,

James

[kb3500]

Thanks James

It is not a windows 98 password but a square symbol with the padlock along side of it. It gives you 3 attempts then locks out.

If you try for the F1 key to enter the BIOS it again asks for a password.

Like I said all worked well before it left my premises.

Thanks again

Kevin

[JHEM]

G'day Kevin,

Well, sounds like a POP to me. As I said, see page 20 of the 390X HMM for how to remove a POP.

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... 9n8604.pdf

BTW, it's not normal for Thinkpads to just self-generate a POP.

Regards,

James

[kb3500]

Thanks again James

I removed the RTC battery as per instructions and the POP was disabled, I have put a new RTC battery in it just in case the old one had a problem?

The date and other BIOS settings hadn't changed though which I would have expected along with the usual POST error codes with CMOS battery probs.

I usually work with Toshiba laptops which don't have the same level of security and I have a plug that attaches to the parallel port then disables any passwords if required.


Thanks

Kevin

[carbon_unit]

Just so you know, only the POP is easily removable.
Hard drive and supervisor passwords are much more complex to eliminate.
The hard drives are usually not saveable and supervisor passwords usually require chip replacement on many models.
If you ever purchase a thinkpad shy away from units with passwords set. Chances are that someone already tried what you just did.