Have I Encountered a BIOS Password?

[ArtShapiro]

My housekeeper has been using my ancient T30 for her modest computer uses. I found a nice and affordable R60 on eBay, which I figured would be a really nice upgrade for her, especially after some routine upgrades. It just arrived today. It was described as having "some software issues", which to me meant that a routine reinstallation of Windows would suffice, something I can trivially do.

Unfortunately, the shipping time was sufficient to deplete the CMOS battery, and it lost its date and time settings. And when I boot, up pops a yellow image of a padlock. Is this the "dreaded" BIOS password, which I've always avoided because of the risks if anything goes wrong? Or is it something less sinister?

I've written the seller saying that the laptop appears to be unacceptable as is, but I'd like confirmation that this is, in fact, the issue. I know that circumventing these things is verboten on the forums, but if anyone wants to talk offline, I'm all ears. It's a pity - this is an attractive machine at an acceptable purchase price, and like most folks I virtually never need to fool with the BIOS. But the date/time issue is sufficient to prevent boot.

Art

[ajkula66]

If a dead CMOS battery activated the padlock symbol, then yes, you are facing a Supervisor password...