Got a nice IPS x220t from ebay, realize I have Computrace woes now

[Digitalhorizons]

It's been a while since I posted, a relative got ill and I have to stay at their place most of the time to take care of them, and my tiny ancient netbook just wasn't cutting it with the security I had in place to browse the net, so I looked for the most reliable laptops they make, Thinkpads. Decided on a x220t, found a guy selling many for $250, not bad for IPS and multitouch screen, let him know I don't want any scratches on the screen, no problem.
He overstuffs the box and then it got crushed over Christmas, the screen bumper for the palmrest got broken right into the expresscard port, got a partial refund for that, installed 7 pro over 10 cause 10 is not my taste, then I go into the bios and get a sour surprise when I figure out what's happened, computrace is enabled and activated in the bios, intels AT wasn't atleast, this seller never warned me computrace was on there, and in my ignorance of not even hearing of it before I never thought to ask.
So now I gotta call Absolute software and probably grovel to get them to disable it remotely, what a pain in the @ss, I don't even want to use the laptop even tho it's already phoned home and didn't brick, just too paranoid about it. Not sure if I can post ebay links here but if anyone is looking it's the guy selling x220ts for $250 buy it now, he's already sold over 40, probably from a palette sale, so I guess anyone looking for x220ts beware.
I hope I can get this computrace issue resolved so I can upgrade this machine to really fly and get all it's features back up and running. I'll keep people posted about my progress.

[RealBlackStuff]

I assume this is the one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272376264072
Calling Absolute is a pain, but if you don't go online, Computrace doesn't interfere with daily life.

[Digitalhorizons]

Yes, thats it. And I cdo everything online so I'll have to get this resolved somehow.

[91011]

Check out Edward's useful Computrace post here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=114641

[dogeitrade]

all x220 tablets are IPS. there are no TN x220t.
also, $250 is a bit too high for the device. Try flashing coreboot and disable intel ME, it should also remove any computrace stuff.

[Digitalhorizons]

all x220 tablets are IPS. there are no TN x220t.
also, $250 is a bit too high for the device. Try flashing coreboot and disable intel ME, it should also remove any computrace stuff.

Does coreboot really wipe the entire bios and remove computrace? Someone else on the forum mentioned coreboot never actually disabled Intel ME. And I'm not finding anything definite about coreboot removing computrace online.
Is it possible to flash coreboot then flash a official Lenovo rom or unofficial lenovo rom like the modded 1.43 from here and have a bios with computrace set to default so it can be deactivated??
I'm going to be running Windows so it looks like I would need seabios, I'm assuming everything the hardware can support will run and everything whitelisted like extra SSD drives, etc? I want to use all the thinkvantage tools and on screen menus as well. Sorry if this turned into a bit of a ramble, I'm exhausted.

[Digitalhorizons]

Ok I called computrace, they took the serial number, that was it, generated a case, gave me the case number and got my email address and then told me they would email me when they got confirmation of the release, guess all I can do now is hope and wait.

[Digitalhorizons]

I contacted Absolute again to make sure the company that owned this laptop was still in business, they said yes it's still in business, and the company is very large and still takes has contracts with them, not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I'll have to see.

[Digitalhorizons]

Contacted Absolute Software again last week, the company that originally owned the laptop had sent them a email communication, but nothing to do with my tablet, that's all they would let me know, they said they were sending out another email, either the company is trying to hunt down the asset number, or they don't give a flip and ignoring the email, nothing has changed in my bios. Guess I'll give it a little more time.

[T3f4l]

I have just had my X220 unlocked by Absolute, emailed them on Saturday and had a reply last night, booted the laptop back up with the windows hard drive installed, left it running for 15 mins then restarted into the BIOs and the message has gone! Have now set computrace to disable permanently!
Saves me stripping the laptop down to kill it

[RealBlackStuff]

See this post to clean up the Computrace mess: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 79#p795179

[T3f4l]

Now its disabled ill be formatting the hdd and replacing my 960gb ssd storage drive, only put the windows drive back in to "phone home"

[Digitalhorizons]

It's apparently a crapshoot getting the original owners to disable computrace.

[Digitalhorizons]

Guh, I just called Absolute again and got their UK office, according to this tech, only one email was sent out, they have no record of the second email being sent out to the original owner. .
He said he would be sending a second email out to see if they will respond. Hoping it will work.

[thinkpadcollection]

Keep the computer on and connected to internet for several days, occasional restarts too. This will shut down computrace. I had one on R52 motherboard that way.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Digitalhorizons]

Keep the computer on and connected to internet for several days, occasional restarts too. This will shut down computrace. I had one on R52 motherboard that way.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

Hi, I don't think this will shut down computrace unless the original owner gives absolute the command to shut down computrace, since they control it directly thro their servers? Why would just keeping it online for several days reset that?

[thinkpadcollection]

Please do it for a starter with windows installed and connected to internet. That is a just to try as I suggested.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Digitalhorizons]

Does it need to be connected thro the lan port, or will wifi work?

[RealBlackStuff]

Either way works.

[Digitalhorizons]

Ok, this firmware just gets more bizarre the more I talk to people about it.

[Digitalhorizons]

I forgot to mention I was talking with a computrace tech at Absolute, one I talked to before (it seems they only have a handful of techs that handle computrace issues) and he said he would be emailing every admin at the company on their list to see if atleast one would respond. So maybe something will change this week.

[Digitalhorizons]

So I tried a eeprom trick to remove passwords, only thing it got me was a temporary bios state that didn't know it's own serial number or board serial number, when the bios was in this state, computrace was permanently disabled, but reasserted itself when I rebooted and checked the bios again, serial numbers were back online, no damage. Then I noticed something else strange, the bios allows you to press F9 to reset computrace back to defaults, then it allows you to enable, disable or permanently disable computrace, so I selected permanently disable and then saved my settings thinking I hit the jackpot, rebooted, went back into bios got the computrace warning again and computrace was enabled and active once again in the settings . Persistance module is a understatement, they even trick you into thinking you're disabling it thro the bios only for it to come back when it restarts. I'm just gonna leave this in more capable hands and make sure I get some money back for all this trouble from the person I bought this from.

[devconk]

I just bought one of those too; it's on the way right now. I have a 500gb SSD and RAM I'm going to put in it, as well as win7 pro.

Am I going to have the same problem as the OP?

[Digitalhorizons]

If it's from the same seller that's in that ebay link and the same type of tablet, maybe, check your bios, if you get a big computrace warning before it allows you in and when you go into security settings>anti-theft and computrace is enabled and activated, than yes. You have the same issue I do, report your findings, the seller seems to be slicker than would be trusted, I've seen legit negative feedback get deleted within a day of posting, like him not padding them enough, he must be on the phone with ebay alot, he's apparently been selling for 7 years there, but has a odd name and not many transactions for a 7 year seller, I think maybe he had to change his name to avoid a bad reputation,
Now all this is pure educated GUESSES based on buying and selling on ebay, so take it with a grain of salt, he'll apparently accept returns and refund your money, so that's a good thing, but I'm curious if his other machines have it enabled, he knows how to tell, and never offered me a machine WITHOUT computrace enabled in exchange which would have easily solved my problem. But yeah, when you get your tablet check the bios and let us know what you find.

[devconk]

Will do. I'll be pretty PO'd if the laptop itself is damaged; that's just irresponsible. I messaged the seller through eBay (his name is esu8425... right now) and he assured me that if it does interfere, all I would have to do is contact them and provide a proof of purchase. It was actually a pretty fast reply, so here's hoping for the best.

You know, kinda makes you think that he wouldn't have to change his name if he was just more careful with packaging/misinformation...

[Digitalhorizons]

Will do. I'll be pretty PO'd if the laptop itself is damaged; that's just irresponsible. I messaged the seller through eBay (his name is esu8425... right now) and he assured me that if it does interfere, all I would have to do is contact them and provide a proof of purchase.

providing proof of purchase doesn't matter, it's based on the serial number of the computer, and the company never released my tablet from computrace, AND they're not responding to emails from absolute to disable it, I can still use my laptop, but computrace injects it's code into any OS you install, dials absolute's server without your permission and if the previous owning company wants, they can just remotely brick your laptop anytime and you have no way to stop them. You can find out more info by searching "computrace" on this forum.

[devconk]

The laptop arrived today; it is in near mint condition. Very happy with the condition of it. Of course, it does indeed have Computrace on it.

I called Absolute Software and the man on the phone advised me to let the computer run for one or two days, and occasionally restart it. A process called rpnet should be installed, and eventually, Computrace will automatically be removed from the computer. A support case was also created for me.

I'll keep you updated on what happens in the meantime.

EDIT: rpcnet, not rpnet.

[Digitalhorizons]

The laptop arrived today; it is in near mint condition. Very happy with the condition of it. Of course, it does indeed have Computrace on it.

I called Absolute Software and the man on the phone advised me to let the computer run for one or two days, and occasionally restart it. A process called rpnet should be installed, and eventually, Computrace will automatically be removed from the computer. A support case was also created for me.

I'll keep you updated on what happens in the meantime.

EDIT: rpcnet, not rpnet.

Thanks for the update, yeah, the machines are in very nice condition, sadly the seller ships them in such small packages there isn't much room for error, mine sat around over xmas, something at USPS apparently fell on it, probably another package and it squashed the box and broke thro the palmrest.

Your discussion with absolute is a bit weird, I've been on the phone with the same 4 techs there for over a month, gave them my MB serial number, they never mentioned running the computer for one to two days to get rid of computrace, they told me specifically they would have to contact the original owning company to get them to release the serial number so it will deactivate.

Did you give them a serial number? did they say they would contact the company? I've ran mine and restarted more than several days and computrace is still activated. Last time I talked with the techs, they said the company still hasn't responded to their emails to "release" the machine. Which phone number did you call and what department did you talk with?

[devconk]

Yeah, I gave them the SN on the bottom, they indicated the laptop originally had Win7, which is true.

A bit after that the entire computer crashed and the hard drive failed; computer is basically bricked now. I'm returning it to the seller once he responds to my email. So far he has been pretty reliable. Kind of ticked he would only take $15 off for the SSD problem (that's when I decided to just return the computer). And FWIW, the battery doesn't hold a charge, either. I know they are guaranteed batteries, but still...

I found a comparable X220 (non-tablet) from Vertexpc (ebay) for $190 with the same specs as ours. An IPS screen for it is $60, so I'm going to break even and do that instead.

[Digitalhorizons]

The entire laptop won't even turn on, or did the SSD just die? The one that came with mine didn't even have anny name or numbers on the casing.