Power On Pass / HDD Pass set?

[aaronv54]

Friday morning before I left for school I checked the traffic on the web with my machine (t60 2613-eau) and closed the lid. I came back later that evening, opened it up, and found that it had been powered off. I hit the power button, which brought up the ThinkPad start screen and then it came up with a dialog asking me to swipe my finger. I've never set a POP, SVP, or HDP so I was quite confused. It didn't take any of my fingerprints so I tried entering some passwords that I commonly use, but they did not work.

In the online repair manual I noticed that the icon it displayed (box within a box) was the POP password dialog and went through the procedure to reset it (take out batteries, let it sit, power it up). Now, after the machine is started it brings up the HDP dialog. If I try and enter the BIOS or hit the ThinkVantage button it gives me what looks to be the POP dialog (which doesn't make any sense to me). Like I said before, I have never used ANY of these passwords on my machine. Any ideas?

[ryengineer]

A thinkpad or even any other personal computer today is not "Self Aware" yet to make those changes itself. These things do not appear unless set by a user, maybe someone has tampered with your machine while you were away.

[aaronv54]

That's what I was thinking... although it's hard to imagine my 10 year old sister managing to set that herself. Are those passwords set in the BIOS or in the Client Security application in the ThinkVantage suite? Oh well, now I'm just hoping that whatever the supervisor password was set to is the same as the HDD password, and I've also learned the importance of regular backups instead of "oh, maybe I should back up some files now".

Assuming I have to replace the motherboard (if I can't retrieve the svp) would I be best doing it myself or shipping it to lenovo? It's out of warranty so I'll be eating the price of the board either way.