Bios locked? How bad is that?

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The Olde Man · #1 Post by **The Olde Man** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:27 am

All kinds of 600x's being sold here and there. Many from corporate sources. One wonders if they have locked bios.

If they do, what does that do to the ordinary user who has no interest in fooling with the Bios.

BillD · #2 Post by **BillD** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:53 am

The Olde Man wrote:All kinds of 600x's being sold here and there. Many from corporate sources. One wonders if they have locked bios.

If they do, what does that do to the ordinary user who has no interest in fooling with the Bios.

If you have no plans of going into the BIOS, then it's no problem...BUT if the CMOS battery is bad, or goes bad...Then you got a problem..

BTW I've bought quite a few 600 series over the last couple of years...None I've bought had any kind of PW on them...

If you're careful on who you buy from most sellers will mention in the description if there are PW's on the machine.

The Olde Man · #3 Post by **The Olde Man** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:33 am

Hmmm! I changed the CMOS battery on my 600 and never went near the BIOS that I can remember. Did I mis-remember? What would I have done there?

I remember setting the day and time but did that on the screen, I think.

BillD · #4 Post by **BillD** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:50 am

The Olde Man wrote:Hmmm! I changed the CMOS battery on my 600 and never went near the BIOS that I can remember. Did I mis-remember? What would I have done there?

I remember setting the day and time but did that on the screen, I think.

Yeah, you're right... But what I meant is there maybe other settings in the BIOS that would be 'lost' if the CMOS went bad..Then if you couldn't get into it because of a PW, you got a problem..

Off hand though I can't 'think' of anything that might be lost, except if the previous owner did a BIOS hack or something like that...Then I think the BIOS goes back to default.. Thats what I remember a 600e of mine doing when I removed the CMOS battery.. The 8611 error came back to haunt me....

The Olde Man · #5 Post by **The Olde Man** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:59 am

Well, I am a default type of guy. No fooling with the system to go into hyper-overdrive. So maybe I can fake it out.

Thanks for the info.

#6 Post by **rkawakami** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:01 pm

My first rule when receiving any "new, used" Thinkpad: access the BIOS and check the serial number(s) in there against what's on the bottom of the unit and then reset the BIOS to the defaults. This will quickly reveal the presence of any locks and puts the system in a "clean" state so I can run the PC Doctor tests.

Robbyrobot · #7 Post by **Robbyrobot** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:18 pm

Remember, though, that you can change the serial numbers to match those on the sticker on the base. And in fact this should be done (I think) when you replace a mainboard.

#8 Post by **rkawakami** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 2:35 pm

I would think that most of the sellers on eBay that I've dealt with, don't know about that part

. A mis-match of S/N gives me a little bit of information about the system's past history.

whizkid · #9 Post by **whizkid** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:39 am

If there is a supervisor password, there are a few ways around that, but all require quite a bit of cash or effort. When replacement motherboards go for around $50, it's an interesting exercise to try the workarounds, but not something otherwise worthwhile.

(But if you do want to try some workarounds to learn how to do it, or save some boards from a landfill, PM me.)

Bios locked? How bad is that?

Bios locked? How bad is that?

Re: Bios locked? How bad is that?

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