T21 startup stops at BIOS screen - only solution new mobo?

[dj123]

I’d appreciate any clever ideas on my T21 problem below, as my novice Thinkpader analysis is tending towards “needs new mobo”.

I bought a cheap T21 at a Lenovo surplus stock auction – don’t know why they had such an old unit. It was advertised as “faulty, no hard disk”. It arrived today and the result of my testing is as follows.

CMOS battery shows 2.75V (standard is 3V) so I replaced it.
No RAM gives 1-3-3-1 beeps. Reinserted 1 RAM stick.
Removed DVD drive, combo card and main battery.
Inserted a good hard disk from my other T21.

Results below are same for AC only, battery, only or both together.

Power ON – usual green LEDs light up.
T21 will boot to “IBM logo/F1 BIOS/F12 boot devices” screen.
Then after 75 sec, screen shows “0271 check date and time”.
Then screen shows padlock.

After reading many forum posts, my analysis of this is:

BIOS password was already set when I received the T21.
Date/time got set to zero because the original BIOS battery wore out, or else because I replaced it with a new one.
T21 wants me to set date and time, but I need to enter the BIOS to do that.
I can’t enter the BIOS because I do not know the BIOS password.

Question: I don’t really care if the BIOS has the correct date/time. This T21 is not my main PC. Is there some way to get past the date/time request and just let the T21 boot up from the hard disk (which has no password)?

Or is the only way to get this T21 working to install a new mobo?

Thanks for any suggestions.

PS: I know “reset BIOS password” is not OK topic here.

[Phazer]

Yeap, mobo time, no other option available.

[Harryc]

Yeap, mobo time, no other option available.

At least that can be discussed here. Good luck. Thread locked.