Password(again)

[dick]

I am probably a bit thick.But is there any difference between bios password and power on password?,if so how do I get rid of my power on password.
Regards.
Dick

[egibbs]

The term BIOS Password is a bit misleading - there really isn't one on a Thinkpad. The possible passwords are:

Power On Password (POP) - must be entered at Power on for the machine to boot. Easily removed, follow the instructions in you Hardware Maintenance Manual.

Supervisor Password (SVP) (sometimes called BIOS password) - Use to get into the BIOS with write access (the ability to save changes). Also can be used to remove other passwords such as HDD, R&R, etc. Not easily removed, if you forget it cry

Hard Disk Password (HDD) - Used to protect the HDD from unauthorized access. Stored in the controller circuit on the drive, so it follows the drive from machine to machine. Not easily removed, if you forget it cry

Rescue and Recovery Password (R&R) - Used to protect the R&R environment so unauthorized users can't perform a restore. Often the same as the Windows Administrator account password, can be cleared though I'm not real sure of the procedure.

Discussion of bypassing any but the POP is prohibited by the forum rules.

One bit of advice - if you haven't set your SVP do so immediately, but be sure you choose something you will never, ever forget. A not so funny practical joke that happens sometimes is to set someone's SVP to a long random string of characters. Setting it yourself first prevents that from happening.

Ed Gibbs

[Robbyrobot]

@egibbs:

"One bit of advice - if you haven't set your SVP do so immediately, but be sure you choose something you will never, ever forget. A not so funny practical joke that happens sometimes is to set someone's SVP to a long random string of characters. Setting it yourself first prevents that from happening."

Frankly, I don't want to set any passwords whatever, as I don't take my Thinkpad outside my home and see how much hassle people have with such things.

However, one thing disturbs me: in reading the forum here, I have the impression that the system itself can set an (unknown) supervisor password when there are problems with the CMOS battery. I recently bought a 600X and had to replace the CMOS battery - a simple operation - but am now worried that I may run into such a problem sometime.

So my question is whether my impression is correct, that the system can set an unknown supervisor password when there are problems with the CMOS battery, and whether setting a supervisor password yourself can prevent this - or whether the SVP you set will simply be overwritten in such a case, leaving you with a passworded Thinkpad.

[rkawakami]

While it may be theoretically within the realm of possibility (i.e, 0.00001%), I do not believe that a simple CMOS battery change would install a random password into the system, overwriting an existing one or adding one that was never manually set. My understanding is that there needs to be a specific sequence of events (clock cycles and commands) which are needed to allow writing into the system memory where the password is stored. What usually happens is that unknown to the user, there is already a supervisor password that has been stored (placed there by a previous owner). If you never attempted to access the BIOS, you would never know it was there. Once the CMOS battery is removed, that would stop the real-time clock (RTC) from keeping time. The next time that the system is booted, it sees that the clock is not set and forces the user to enter the BIOS setup to reset the date and time. This is when the password request is triggered. I have removed CMOS batteries from a number of my systems and have never encountered a "surprise" password.

Of course it is up to you to decide whether or not to use any power-on, supervisor or hard disk passwords. For the system that leaves the house with me, I have both a hard drive password and a supervisor password. Yes, I have to enter the hard drive password each time I power up the system, but I think it gives me peace of mind in case the laptop is ever stolen. I HAVE already experienced that event so maybe that's why I choose to exercise this little security step. Note: I've set both of these passwords to be different. No sense in locking two doors with the same key .

[upjeeper]

I bought a used R52 while overseas that i think has a HDD password. I tried to put it into another R52 (AAFES was selling several with the same problem) andi got the same result, a cylinder with a lock near it on a black screen. I assume that means it's a HDD password?

how do i tell if there are any other passwords like supervisor set? It appears to be a great laptop, but i don't want to spend the money on a new hard drive only to find out there's a supervisor password set also

thanks

[trent9008]

dick:

Assuming you know the password, when you are prompted for it at boot time type it in followed by a space and press Enter. This cancels the password.

[jamerslong]

how much were the TP's at the AAFES there?

also, remove the Hard drive and power it up to see if there are any other password, or on powerup enter the bios, that should work...