Thinkpads Forum

I just got a couple of 600E's (2645 4AU) from E-bay and when I tried to turn them on, I get a password prompt. I tried the HMM trick to disable the POP and it made no difference. So then I just just hit enter to get past the password and it seemed to work? I got the OK???

Now I get errors 161 & 163. Those are obvious CMOS battery errors. So I changed the battery and now it gives me errors 173 & 163. So all i have to do is set the time, right. Well, it won't let me in to do that. It shows a hand with the / through the circle. Then the error codes with an arrow to a book. It won't let me get past that screen to enter the time or date. It won't respond to any key strokes at all. Does that mean that the password didn't take?

Any help would be appreciated. And I know the password rules, so I am not asking to get past the password issue. I just want to get into the BIOS and know if it is a password issue or not. I would have thought if it was a passwrod problem, it would let me know that with a lock symbol or something?

Thanks for your help.

I think your 600e's have a supervisor password set and that prevents you from entering Easy Setup.

I think you are right bill. I was hoping it was just a POP, but I can't get them to do anything. But why would it show an OK after I hit enter if the password was not correct? Anyway, I have sent a message to the seller and see where that gets me. Worst case, I can use them for parts as the cases, LCD's, keyboards and CD drives are all working OK.

Wingnut wrote:I think you are right bill. I was hoping it was just a POP, but I can't get them to do anything. But why would it show an OK after I hit enter if the password was not correct? Anyway, I have sent a message to the seller and see where that gets me. Worst case, I can use them for parts as the cases, LCD's, keyboards and CD drives are all working OK.

If I am not mistaken, the Supervisor password is there to prevent you have modifying the BIOS, where are the POP prevents you from powering on and using the system...

"OK" just means that you don't know the password to enter the BIOS, but that you are allowed to use the system in general. Some businesses use this so that the end user can use the system, but not modify it...