Thinkpads Forum

Can anyone help. I have just bought an old 600e which had no hard drive. The screen is only showing coloured columns but an external monitor works OK. I have installed a 20Gb hard disk but can not get past the opening Thinkpad screen. The display immediately goes to a blank, dark screen with a small white lock in the top left corner. I would welcome any suggestions please.
Kind regards, Mark

Brew some tea and get some butter and jam.

That Thinkpad has a Supervisor Password set and it's toast!

Regards,

James

What's the little picture next to the lock?

I will have to look at the picture next time I boot I have a password on this box.

However... I do know this. It is possible to clear the password without typing it, I know this cause... Well... I've done it, many times in fact

I did it by improperly docking the computer

Alas, I don't know just exactly HOW I did it

But I did it

If I can do it, accidently, then I'd guess someone can do it on purpose but I haven't a clue as to how

You might try asking the seller for the PW

Well, upon power on this AM I viewed that icon, It looks a bit like a Macintosh or an IBM PC-Junior

It's a standard representation for "Computer" so the icons together say
"Computer is Locked"

Gee. Did not know I was going to have to study Hyroglyphrics when I took up computers Did you? (Somehow I feel ready to go on a "Dig")

JHEM wrote:Brew some tea and get some butter and jam.

That Thinkpad has a Supervisor Password set and it's toast!

Regards,

James

This may be a dumb question, but this other thread ( http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=9996 ) links to a HW manual for the 600X, and it mentions something called "password pads", and shows a pair of metal tweezers shorting the two together. Would this be of any help to Wa8yxm?

(edit) Never mind, it also says that this will only clear a power-on password.

Thanks for your advice. I have managed to get in touch with the last owner and (no I couldn't believe it either) she remembered the password! I have successfully unlocked the laptop.
I now just have to try and get the thinkpad screen working. Kind regards, Mark

Take the hard drive out of the machine, and try to boot into the bios.

When you are prompted for the password, press enter a few times. If it doesn't let you into the bios, you have a power on password. If it does let you into the bios, you have a supervisor password.