T42 Supervisor Password

[vkiyer]

I have a situation here folks, somebody please help me.
I have this new IBM Thinkpad T series T42 purchased recently, about a month ago.
For Security reasons I had enabled the passwords for my BIOS.
I had enabled all the three passwords, i.e. supervisor, power on and the HDD (User + Master) passwords.
I have given all the three the same passwords. I would like to know if this is acceptable, as, no where it is documented that this cannot be done (giving same passwords).
Till such time I never realized anything was wrong as I never bothered entering the BIOS.
The Laptop used to prompt me for Power on and HDD passwords which I use to enter and do my work.
Recently I downloaded the Client Security software from the IBM site and installed on my laptop. Trouble begins now….

After the installation , the software told me I need to enable the embedded security system for which it asked me provide the supervisor password for my BIOS which I did promptly but to my astonishment it wouldn’t accept .
After I tried 3 times, it gave me an error message and asked me to restart. My suffering did not end here. When the machine started an error message was displayed on the screen “IBM Security retry count exceeded- press F1 to continue” when I pressed F1 it entered the BIOS setup utility, but I am unable to change anything. It just gives me user level access.
I am able to use my laptop as it boots up normally. Everything is fine except that I cannot change anything in the BIOS.
This is not the case of forgotten password, as I had written down the passwords I had given.
Now I cannot uninstall the Client Security software from the system and I get the error message every time the laptop is booting up which I can bypass by pressing ESC key.

When I called up IBM, the tech guys tell me I need to replace my Motherboard which will cost me a fortune!!

What is the way out now,
Anybody who has a solution?? Please help

Thanks in advance.

Vijay

[Leon]

Yes, it is valid to set all three the same.

One of two things happened:

1. You THOUGHT you set the BIOS PW the same, but did not. If this is true, you can replace the MOBO, or send the machine to a PW clearing company (cheaper).

2. Something went "amok" between your machine and the Client Security SW. If that's the case, try to convince IBM support to do something. If they refuse, proceed with #1.

[JohnV]

If you are still able to enter you bios password try entering the password with the caps lock on. I have on a few occasions entered an admin password with the caps lock on by accident while loading the OS on a computer. Its worth a try.

Good Luck!!

John

[egibbs]

It's also worth trying a blank password in case you never actually set the supervisor PW.

[JohnDrake]

Never heard of a password clearing company that could clear the supervisor password...where is one?

If you can't actually type in what the system thinks your supervisor password is, you are screwed. There is no way I know of to clear the supervisor password. It is encoded on a soldered EEPROM on the system board, which is why it would need to be replaced...

I hope you can figure it out....but it does appear what you *thought* you typed in isn't what you actually typed in...