T40, lock bios settings against changes, ...

[gothmorg]

The security settings on my Thinkpad T40 are as follows:

- supervisor password enabled,
- power-on password enabled and set to the same value as supervisor password
(yeah, I know - stupid me),
- hard-disk password disabled,
- option "lock bios settings against changes" enabled.

When entering BIOS setup utility, the password prompt appears. Upon entering the password (remember: supervisor and power-on passwords are
both set to the same value), I get access to BIOS configuration utility but am not allowed to make any changes to the settings - not even to the passwords section. It appears the "lock bios settings against changes" works too well.

Is there any way to reset/change the passwords or any other BIOS settings or am I helplessly stuck?

Thank you in advance,
Andrej.

[Zeitgeist]

Not a solution: But what happens if you remove any password, can you change then the bios settiings?

If yes, I would try different passwords for the superviser and power on function.

[gothmorg2]

Great - I have been banned. Probably for asking how to disable the "lock bios settings against changes" option in BIOS setup utility KNOWING THE SUPERVISOR PASSWORD.

Dear Mr. Moderator,
I am not trying to hack into stolen Thinkpad T40, I am not trying to override password set by my supervisor, I am simply trying to disable the "lock bios settings against changes" option as my T40 BIOS behaves quite strangely - at least it appears to me so. Please email gothmorg at yahoo.com or akomelj at email.si if you require proof of purchase - although I doubt it will do any good as it is written in slovenian language.

Regarding the removal of passwords - the only way I can remove power-on password is by performing some magick with the CMOS battery as described in the service manual. The removal of battery erases power-on password and clears BIOS settings leaving the supervisor password intact. As it is possible, though highly unlikely, that I mistyped the supervisor password twice in a row when tweaking the security settings, I would rather avoid clearing CMOS settings as I may end up with an unusable Thinkpad.

Therefore, can somebody please run the following test with T40:
- set supervisor password to some value,
- set power-on password to some OTHER value,
When booting, press the F1 key and type in the POWER-ON password. Do you get access to BIOS settings?

Greetings,
Andrej.

[gothmorg2]

Oh, my...

Luckily, I got my hands on another Thinkpad whose owner was kind (dumb ) enough to let me fool around with his BIOS settings.

My power-on and supervisor passwords were both set to the same 9-characters-long passphrase. As it turned out, T40 supervisor password length is limited to 7 characters while power-on password length is limited to several characters more (12 or so).

It appears, I've been typing-in the power-on password to access BIOS settings ever since. When entering the first 7 characters of the passphrase, I got full access to the settings again. What is worse - I had suspected this and I tried entering the first 6 and 8 characters of the passphrase - without success, of course. Seriously, who limits the passphrase length to 7 characters nowadays, anyway?!?

Thank your for your help (moderators excluded).

Andrej.