Cannot get past BSOD

[vavs]

I have an issue with a R31 Thinkpad my son used in college. He brought it home and I cannot get it to fire up. He are the symptoms: When I start the laptop the screen displays:

Bios 1.190 (1FET09WW)
CPU = Intel(R) Mobile Pentium(R) 111 processor with ...
640KB System Ram Passed
256 KB Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
0122496 KB Extended RAM Passed
Mouse initialized

Very briefly a listing for the fixed drive shows up and then it goes to the second screen

This screen shows:
Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent Version 4.0.22
PXE 2.1 Build 003 (Wfm 2.0). RPL V2.73

It sits here for just a couple of seconds and then I get two symbols on the screen. The first looks like computer, a rectangle with a small square inside to look like a screen. The second symbol looks like a lock. After it gets here it just sits and will not go anywhere.

I have tried to boot from a bootable CD and nothing happens any different.

This is my first post here, I would appreciate any input I can get. I have another unit at home which has everything operational except for the monitor. Should I swap the hard drives? Should I swap the monitors and the hard drives. Where is the lock actually occurring?

[spuddog]

It appears that someone has password protected the computer. the symbol means it is waiting for you to enter the password. Check with your son to see if he has set a power-on or hard drive password. If it is a power-on password it can be reset. If it is a hard drive password and you don't know what it is it can not be reset and you will have to buy a new password.

Scott

[vavs]

Scott,

How is the power on password reset or entered. I don't think that he set it because he is not that savvy, so I would really just like to find a way to reset it. The screen does let me enter keystrokes but the standard passwords he used do not work.

Let me know if you have a way to reset the password.

Thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

The standard Power On Password (or POP) can be removed by taking the CMOS battery out.
Wait a few minutes, then start up without that CMOS batt.
You may get error 0171 for not having Date/Time set, that's OK. Continue and see if it boots.
If yes, switch off and put the CMOS batt back in, set the Date/Time at next boot, problem solved.
If you still get a lock, compare with what you see here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59377
and report back.

[spuddog]

Try the method RBS gave you. If that does not work, swap the hard drive for the one in your other computer. If that drive boots then you know that the previous one is passworded.

Scott

P.S. it didn't have to be your son setting the password, it could have been someone else messing with him.