I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

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PsychBiller · #1 Post by **PsychBiller** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:44 pm

I own a T40 2373-72U. I am the original and only owner.

About a year, I set the power-on password and the hard disk password. They work just fine.

Now I want to remove the power-on and hard disk passwords, but I can't figure out how to do it. I have entered the Pre-Desktop area two ways: holding down the F1 key while pressing the power button and just pressing the blue Access IBM button right after pressing the power button. Both get me to the Pre-Desktop area just fine.

From the Pre-Desktop area, I can double-click on the BIOS Setup Utility icon. I can navigate to the Security screen and the Password entry. But I am unable to remove the passwords that I already know!

I figure that this requires a supervisor password. Okay, I know what the supervisor password is, so I should be able to enter it. But where? There's nothing in the Pre-Desktop area or the BIOS Setup Utility itself. I have never seen the supervisor password icon.

How can I access the passwords I already know?

This is very urgent as the machine is acting up and my entire business is on that hard drive.

Thank you.

Jean

#2 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:02 am

IBM wrote:Removing a Power-On password.

You must remove your password at the password prompt that appears when you turn on the computer. To remove the password, at the prompt, Enter your current password, press the Spacebar and then press Enter.

Also read this:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... JZNDP.html

PsychBiller · #3 Post by **PsychBiller** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:52 am

I followed your directions and those in the Lenovo guide, but it didn't work on my T40. The Lenovo guide mentions many other models, but not the T40.

My power on password is 5 characters. I typed the 5 characters, then pressed the Space Bar. The system beeped. I pressed Enter, and was then presented with the icon for the hard disk password.

I allowed the system to get as far as the boot menu, then powered it off. I left it off for several seconds, then turned it back on. The prompt for the power on password still appeared.

#4 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:47 pm

Next step, as is publicly documented:
to remove the Power-On-Password (POP), remove from AC power, remove the battery, then remove the keyboard and keyboard bezel (using the HMM if needed).
Now disconnect the CMOS battery (round yellow thingy on the right hand side) for a few minutes. Reconnect.
Just connect the keybord, put battery back in, AC if required, and boot up.
The POP should be gone, and you should only be asked for your HD-password.
If not, leave the CMOS battery disconnected for say 30 minutes and retry.
Put the rest together again.
If you should have a Supervisor password and have problems with that, PM me.

#5 Post by **richk** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:08 pm

Enter the BIOS. Under security, select passwords. Select POP. You will get a prompt. Enter the old password. Hit enter. The curser moves to new password, Hit enter, It asks you to confirm. Hit enter again. It is gone. Do the same for HD password.

PsychBiller · #6 Post by **PsychBiller** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:11 pm

The BIOS Setup Utility will allow me to view any settings, but won't let me change them. Very strange.

#7 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:18 pm

Did you remove the CMOS battery, and does it still give you that "no-changing" problem?

#8 Post by **richk** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:38 pm

"cannot change settings" means you have a supervisor password. Removing the CMOS won't help.

PsychBiller · #9 Post by **PsychBiller** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:22 pm

I appreciate everyone's efforts to help me in this forum. In my original post, I speculated that there is a supervisor password (which I probably know), but I can't find anywhere to actually enter it. Can someone help with this problem? If we can solve the apparent presence of a supervisor password, I think the rest of the issues will fall into place.

#10 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:29 pm

PsychBiller wrote:The BIOS Setup Utility will allow me to view any settings, but won't let me change them. Very strange.

That's normal operating procedure for a system WITH a supervisor password when you just press the ENTER key (without entering your password) at the lock icon prompt when accessing the BIOS. Not sure with the T4x systems, but the supervisor password lock prompt probably has a icon which resembles a "box" or a "monitor".

PsychBiller · #11 Post by **PsychBiller** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:40 pm

Groan......

I tried just pressing Enter at the power on password lock icon, both when attempting to boot normally and also when attempting to boot into the Pre-Desktop area. Both times just considered the Enter key a failed password attempt.

My desperation grows by the hour.

I tried just connecting the drive to another computer, but the drive was not recognized, presumably because of the hard drive password embedded into it somehow.

I'm absolutely livid at IBM. I talked the their out-of-network technical support, who admitted that they knew how to do this. But they have no method for allowing me to PAY them for support, so their answer was to restore the drive to factory contents. That's support???? I'm trying to save the data, I know the passwords, but the f**** computer won't give me a way to enter them! This is insane!!!!

#12 Post by **richk** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:42 pm

If you know the disk password, put the drive into another thinkpad (main or ultrabay) and you can clear it.

PsychBiller · #13 Post by **PsychBiller** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:51 pm

Don't have another ThinkPad or a friend or coworker with one, unfortunately.

PsychBiller · #14 Post by **PsychBiller** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:08 pm

Well, I tried the suggestion to disconnect the CMS battery for awhile to get rid of the power-on password. That turned a bad situation into the kiss of death.

Now when I try to boot, I get an error 270 about the date and time needing to be set (understandable), and a much more serious error message about the system security having been tampered with.

I get the prompt for the power-on password, but my password no longer works. Space bar and Enter don't work either.

At least before, I had a working machine that just couldn't access the BIOS settings. Now I have a door stop.

BacKInTown · #15 Post by **BacKInTown** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:59 am

Psychbiller i have the same problem too: the hard disk password is greyed out in the bios and so cannot be changed. I've been working on it for a week and still can't find a solution! Try at least to solve the CMOS problem so you can use the pc! If I find something useful I will let you know

BacKInTown · #16 Post by **BacKInTown** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 4:33 am

I SOLVED THE PROBLEM!!!! (at least on my T61) !!!!

THIS IS HOW TO:
Go to the bios->security->password and remove Power On Password and Supervisor password.
Try now to enable/disable "Using passphrase" (on my T61 it was disabled, so I enabled it) [If you cannot modify this option, try to remove the hard disk or put the original one if you changed it. In my case I had to remove the second hard disk, the one with password, from the ultrabay slot]. Now it should be possible to change/remove the hard disk password

THIS IS WHY IT WORKED (In my opinion, of course)
I think it's due to a bug in the bios settings about passphrase and hard disk passwords. Trying to make a research on Lenovo's site I found out a page with the "Summary of changes for the BIOS update - ThinkPad X60, X60s" (Ok well it's just a general purpose example!) that said:

(Fix) When the Password reset service of BIOS Setup is enabled (BIOS Setup->Security->Password->Password reset service) and Passphrase is disabled (BIOS Setup->Security->Password->Using Passphrase), POP(Power On Password) or HDP(Hard Disk Password) may not be unlocked with a registered password by the Password reset service. (BIOS)

this is the page: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 65345.html

hope this will work for you too!
Bye

BackInTown

VMikhelson · #17 Post by **VMikhelson** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:05 am

Thank you for the posting. It helped me solving my problem where I was unable to figure out how to change the "Using Passphrase" from "disabled" to "enabled" since this section was not accessible.

The procedure:
-- disable all passwords on the page, HD also. That should enable access to the "Using Passphrase" setting;
-- change the "Using Passphrase" setting;
-- redefine your passwords which can now be as long as 64 characters and can contain spaces and other characters.

Interestingly enough, this simple procedure was not known to Lenovo support people. How pathetic!!!

HTH,
Vladimir

#18 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:18 am

@BackInTown and VMikhelson
Glad you sorted your problems, BUT those were T60/X60 series problems, which do not apply to a T40 series Thinkpad.
The T4x also has different BIOS settings.

I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

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Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

Re: I know my T40 passwords, but can't change or delete them

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