Locked out of my ThinkPad!!!!!!!! Help!!!!

[trapper]

Please help me.
Although I have a z60m I posted in this forum b/c I read it frequently and it gets more eyes than the z60 group.

Here is the scenario:

I have a brand new z60m. When I started it up, I set a password and finger swipe security. It also asked me some questions for *hints*...like "favorite color", "dogs name", etc. in case I forgot my password.

Well, some how I did something that made the fingerprint reader not work, and when I swipe my finger I get a box that says :

"You need a passport to pass through the Thinkvantage Fingerprint Software authentication. To enroll a new passport, press Enroll button. Press cancel button to return to logon screen"


If I click on ENROLL, it takes me to a USER IDENTITY screen that says :

"User Identity, Enter your Windows User Password below" ...and then it has a place to enter my username and password.

I have entered what I think is my username, but I can't seem to enter a password that works!!!!

I called Lenovo support. He acted TOTALLY clueless. Then he had me restart the Thinkpad and push f10 to enter BIOS.
He then had me go to security, and then to security chip, and then to CLEAR SECURITY CHIP.(Clear encryption keys).

This did NOTHING!!!! And it put me back at the same place!!

He did say that it seems to be asking me for a Windows password versus a Thinkvantage security password. Is that why it won't ask me for any of the hints I created?

Can anyone help! How can I fix this??? I am really lost.

Trap

MOD EDIT: Please use the correct forum

[T43]

Hey Trap,
That sucks! Try looking at this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321305. Good luck.

Also, look at this post: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

[Kyocera]

this may be of no help, but, i have had issues changing a computer from a domain to a workgroup, it will boot back up and ask for the password, type in the username and hit enter.

[trapper]

I got in.....tried about 15 passwords and finally found the one I used. Life is good. I'll tell ya what, though, IBM support was WORTHLESS. They had NO CLUE what to do.
Trap

[sanru]

I had the same problem.

I set up my fingerprint scanner and put in a password (and wrote it down).

A month ago I was putting in a tile floor and the lye in the grout burned my fingertip....so the print scanner would effectively lock me out. It asked for my password...but it rejected my password.

Nowhere could I get the computer to give me a hint...or even create a password disk (need my password). The password hint option on the welcome screen is disabled with the fingerprint scanner.

I had to wait a week for the surface burn to heal so I could log on to my Z60t! Now that I am on...I cannot disable, change or access my password.


The only good news...is it got me out of tiling the bathroom!
but in the meanwhile how can I disable both the fingerprint scanner and password?

[christopher_wolf]

Well, ideally, password-based systems work best when the user enters the correct password; tech support is rarely useful in a case such as that.

Also, you can enroll all of your fingers if you want so that you have backups incase one finger gets burnt or is otherwise unavailable.

[MobileGuru]

I got in.....tried about 15 passwords and finally found the one I used. Life is good. I'll tell ya what, though, IBM support was WORTHLESS. They had NO CLUE what to do.
Trap

Not much they could have done for you really .. short of telling you to remember what password you used in the first place, which typically gets them into hotter water in an instant.

Glad you got it working tho.

MG.

[vital-analitix]

Forgotten password? I think anyone who has had a multitiude of laptops and / or changes the password frequently has been there at one stage or another. I have a number of machines and it is not always easy to keep track of them.

Best is to write the password down and put it somewhere in a safe. This in addition to making a password recovery floppy when you first create an account with a password. Then put this in the safe too.

Marinus