Getting an old IBM Thinkpad to work

ShadowFold · May 4, 2008

My grandma has an old IBM Thinkpad and when you turn it on it asks for a password when you turn it on. I cant even get into the BIOS. Here is a pic of the password screen.

We have tried taking out the battery for a 3 hours it doesnt work. And I cant get the back off the screws are rounded. I want to get this working for my cousin. Thanks guys :toast:

MadCow · May 4, 2008

You'll probably need to get the back covers off and remove the CMOS battery for a while.

ShadowFold · May 4, 2008

Yea thats what I thought I had to do but like I said the screws are rounded and we cant get any screws to work :ohwell:

flashstar · May 4, 2008

T21? I can't see the model number. That would help with a diagnosis.

You need the bios password or a new motherboard to enter the bios or boot up.

There is absolutely no way to get in without either. I believe that there is a dedicated chip on the motherboard which stores the bios password. When the CMOS battery runs out of power, the password is tripped and then you need to enter it just to boot up the computer.

ShadowFold · May 4, 2008

How would I trip the chip with out opening it?

jbunch07 · May 4, 2008

who set the password?
but i imagine it will kind of hard without removing the cmos battery...

ShadowFold · May 4, 2008

My grandma, but its old she just found it. She cant remember it at all

jbunch07 · May 4, 2008

hmm...the only thing that comes to mind is taking out the battery...sry man

ShadowFold · May 4, 2008

Yea I think we can get it.. gonna take awile tho. Thanks tho guys

Darknova · May 4, 2008

Tried talking to IBM themselves? You never know...

Namslas90 · May 4, 2008

Try these "Backdoor" passwords;

A.M.I., AAAMMMIII, AMI?SW , AMI_SW, BIOS, CONDO, HEWITT RAND, LKWPETER, MI, and PASSWORD.

jbunch07 · May 4, 2008

Namslas90 said:
Tryt theese "Backdoor" passwords;

A.M.I., AAAMMMIII, AMI?SW , AMI_SW, BIOS, CONDO, HEWITT RAND, LKWPETER, MI, and PASSWORD.

he said his gradma set the psswrd so i doubt those will work...those are usually factory set bios passwords...but hey its worth a try

Award BIOS backdoor passwords:
ALFAROME BIOSTAR KDD ZAAADA
ALLy CONCAT Lkwpeter ZBAAACA
aLLy CONDO LKWPETER ZJAAADC
aLLY Condo PINT 01322222
ALLY d8on pint 589589
aPAf djonet SER 589721
_award HLT SKY_FOX 595595
AWARD_SW J64 SYXZ 598598
AWARD?SW J256 syxz
AWARD SW J262 shift + syxz
AWARD PW j332 TTPTHA
AWKWARD j322
awkward
AMI BIOS Backdoor Passwords:
AMI BIOS PASSWORD HEWITT RAND
AMI?SW AMI_SW LKWPETER CONDO
Phoenix BIOS Backdoor Passwords:
phoenix PHOENIX CMOS BIOS
Misc. Common Passwords
ALFAROME BIOSTAR biostar biosstar
CMOS cmos LKWPETER lkwpeter
setup SETUP Syxz Wodj
Other BIOS Passwords by Manufacturer
Manufacturer Password

VOBIS & IBM merlin
Dell Dell
Biostar Biostar
Compaq Compaq
Enox xo11nE
Epox central
Freetech Posterie
IWill iwill
Jetway spooml
Packard Bell bell9
QDI QDI
Siemens SKY_FOX
TMC BIGO
Toshiba Toshiba

Namslas90 · May 4, 2008

@ jbunch07, Yeah there are lots of others;

http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml

Getting the screws out and reseting the CMOS jumper could set it back to none or default. Also, look for a password reset jumper (some have them).

Solaris17 · May 4, 2008

here are some wicked easy ones you should try....when i need to work on someones computer because a client gives it to me and they forget to give me their password alot of the time things like this will work

their name lower case and uppercare first letter

your grandmas birth day

your moms birth day

your mom name capitol and lower case fiorst letter

Morgoth · May 4, 2008

can you take a pic of the screws?
its posible you can get those in a construction hardware store

flashstar · May 4, 2008

Honestly, it isn't worth the time guessing. There is no back-door password that I know of. Pulling out the cmos battery won't do anything. You can always look for a replacement motherboard on Ebay. There are really good install guides.

I've had to deal with a T23.

MadCow · May 4, 2008

I bet there's some sort of hardware fail-safe that lets you reset the password by jumping 2 pins or shorting something to ground. But then again, you'll need to take it apart to do that.

Snipe343 · May 4, 2008

you could get a small metter rod, put super glue or appoxy or something strong on it and attach it to the screw and unscrew it...

panchoman · May 4, 2008

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/bios/bios_password.htm

follow that guide.. it should work at one point or another.

FreedomEclipse · May 4, 2008

awesome!!! - they had one of these old thinkpads running windows 2000 where i used to work - the building tenant moved house & left a ton of these old things lying around but sadly they were all thrown away before I even knew I was going to be working there a few days ago, however since there was one that was used to man the cameras in the control room that was left behind -

what did i do?

copied down its spec - went home downloaded a load of updates & was back the next morning with Unreal Tournament + a few million mods & spent the next few days & evenings (had to work night shifts) on killing sprees.....

obviously nobody ever knew i actually installed it but then i dont think nobody cared if your alone looking after an empty building by yourself!

11hrs on non stop Unreal T

::EDIT::

Yah i know im not helping with the OP but i just couldnt help mentioning playing U.T on this little runner

ShadowFold · May 4, 2008

Im back home now we ended up giving up.

Thermopylae_480 · May 4, 2008

That's a shame. You can also set a hard drive password on these laptops in addition to a cmos password. If that is the case you would need to replace the HDD, IBM will not remove a HDD password even if you send it to them, for client security reasons. You never said which model it was? If you tell me I might be able to find the method to clear the CMOS password if that is the issue.

If you're really going to give up, please don't throw it away. I have a T series laptop and I would love to buy the laptop off you for spare parts for a reasonable price plus shipping.

flashstar · May 4, 2008

I would also be interested in the laptop if it's part of the T2X line. What type of optical drive does it have? DVD, DVD-RW, or DVD/CDRW?

Deleted member 3 · May 4, 2008

Ooohh these are fun.

Can be 2 things:

Harddisk, take it out boot with an other or from CD. If not, it's a small chip (8 or 10 legs) you need to replace. Google it, or ebay sells them. Or at least did a few years ago.

System Name	The ShadowFold Draconis (Ordering soon)
Processor	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8ghz
Motherboard	ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870
Cooling	Stock
Memory	Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3-1333
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Power Supply	Antec Earthwatts 650w
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Processor	Athlon 64 X2 4400+ @2.6 GHz
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Case	No-name ATX case (modded to hell)
Audio Device(s)	SB X-FI OEM
Power Supply	Nikao Cool Power 500W (34a@12v)
Software	Windows XP PRO SP2

System Name	The ShadowFold Draconis (Ordering soon)
Processor	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8ghz
Motherboard	ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870
Cooling	Stock
Memory	Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3-1333
Video Card(s)	XFX ATi Radeon HD 5850 1gb
Storage	Western Digital 640gb
Display(s)	Acer 21.5" 5ms Full HD 1920x1080P
Case	Antec Nine-Hundred
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + Creative "Fatal1ty" Headset
Power Supply	Antec Earthwatts 650w
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Benchmark Scores	-❶-❸-❸-❼-

System Name	Einstein IV
Processor	1090t @ 3.8 Ghz
Motherboard	Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Cooling	Swiftech H20 Cooling Kit w/ Apogee XT Rev. 2
Memory	32 GB DDR3
Video Card(s)	MSI 260 XT 216 edition
Storage	2x 120gb Sandisk Extreme SSDs, 1x 120 gb Corsair Force 2
Display(s)	Samsung BW206
Case	Lian-li Lan-cool
Audio Device(s)	M-Audio Profire 610
Power Supply	Corsair TX-750

System Name	The ShadowFold Draconis (Ordering soon)
Processor	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8ghz
Motherboard	ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870
Cooling	Stock
Memory	Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3-1333
Video Card(s)	XFX ATi Radeon HD 5850 1gb
Storage	Western Digital 640gb
Display(s)	Acer 21.5" 5ms Full HD 1920x1080P
Case	Antec Nine-Hundred
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + Creative "Fatal1ty" Headset
Power Supply	Antec Earthwatts 650w
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Benchmark Scores	-❶-❸-❸-❼-

Processor	i5-2500k
Motherboard	ASRock z68 pro3-m
Cooling	Corsair A70
Memory	Kingston HyperX 8GB 2 x 4GB 1600mhz
Storage	OCZ Agility3 60GB(boot) 2x320GB Raid0(storage)
Display(s)	Samsung 24" 1920x1200
Case	Custom
Power Supply	PC Power and Cooling 750w
Software	Win 7 x64

Processor	AMD 5800X3D
Motherboard	Asus Strix B550-F Gaming
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	2 x 32GB Corsair Vengeance
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse 6800XT
Storage	1 x 1TB 980 PRO, 1 x 1TB Corsair MP510 Force
Display(s)	1 x Dell 27" 165hz
Case	Lian-Li O11D Evo
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	EVGA 1000W P2
Mouse	Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard	Logitech G915
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64

System Name	RogueOne
Processor	Xeon W9-3495x
Motherboard	ASUS w790E Sage SE
Cooling	SilverStone XE360-4677
Memory	128gb Gskill Zeta R5 DDR5 RDIMMs
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 2TB WD SN850X \| 2x 8TB GAMMIX S70
Display(s)	49" Philips Evnia OLED (49M2C8900)
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 Pro Snow
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on schitt Gunnr
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime TX-1600
Mouse	Razer Viper mini signature edition (mercury white)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Moondrop Luna lights
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11 Pro Workstation
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

System Name	Wopr "War Operation Plan Response"
Processor	5900x ryzen 9 12 cores 24 threads
Motherboard	aorus x570 pro
Cooling	air (GPU Liquid graphene) rad outside case mounted 120mm 68mm thick
Memory	kingston 32gb ddr4 3200mhz ecc 2x16gb
Video Card(s)	sapphire RX 6950 xt Nitro+ 16gb
Storage	300gb hdd OS backup. Crucial 500gb ssd OS. 6tb raid 1 hdd. 1.8tb pci-e nytro warp drive LSI
Display(s)	AOC display 1080p
Case	SilverStone SST-CS380 V2
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair 850MX watt
Mouse	corsair gaming mouse
Keyboard	Microsoft brand
Software	Windows 10 pro 64bit, Luxion Keyshot 7, fusion 360, steam
Benchmark Scores	timespy 19 104

Processor	i5-2500K @ 3.2Ghz
Motherboard	ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Video Card(s)	Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Storage	250GB Samsung EVO; 1TB WD Black
Display(s)	22" ASUS
Power Supply	Rosewill Hive-650
Software	Windows 8 64-bit

Processor	Amd Athlon X2 4600+ Windsor(90nm) EE(65W) @2.9-3.0 @1.45
Motherboard	Biostar Tforce [Nvidia] 550
Cooling	Thermaltake Blue Orb-- bunch of other fans here and there....
Memory	2 gigs (2x1gb) of patriot ddr2 800 @ 4-4-4-12-2t
Video Card(s)	Sapphire X1950pro Pci-E x16 @stock@stock on stock
Storage	Seagate 7200.11 250gb Drive, WD raptors (30/40) in Raid 0
Display(s)	ANCIENT 15" sony lcd, bought it when it was like 500 bucks
Case	Apevia X-plorer blue/black
Audio Device(s)	Onboard- Why get an sound card when you can hum??
Power Supply	Antec NeoHe 550-manufactured by seasonic -replacement to the discontinued smart power series
Software	Windows XP pro SP2 -- vista is still crap

System Name	WorkInProgress
Processor	AMD 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI X670E GAMING PLUS
Cooling	Thermalright AM5 Contact Frame + Phantom Spirit 120SE
Memory	2x32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 6000 CL32
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual Radeon™ RX 6700 XT OC Edition
Storage	WD SN770 1TB (Boot)\|1x WD SN850X 8TB (Gaming)\| 2x2TB WD SN770\| 2x2TB+2x4TB Crucial BX500
Display(s)	LG GP850-B
Case	Corsair 760T (White) {1xCorsair ML120 Pro\|5xML140 Pro}
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha RX-V573\|Speakers: JBL Control One\|Auna 300-CN\|Wharfedale Diamond SW150
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus GX-850 80+ GOLD
Mouse	Logitech G502 X
Keyboard	Cherry G80-3000N (TKL)
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Getting an old IBM Thinkpad to work

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