Service Forum

[roycampbell]

LoL I'm getting a good education here. I would never have realised that I would have to do this, but its obvious now that you tell me.

Thanks very much for a very quick exact response.

Now have the password so just have to rebuild the laptop .....oh god.

Will send the dump when finished tidying up here.

Many many thanks, I am delighted.

Regards

[robtpcs]

When using the driven circuit, no suggestions are made with regard to the best source of Vcc for the MAX232. The obvious source is the USB port on the thinkpad - +5V and grnd. However there is a very small but measurable resistance between the USB ground and the ground pin on the eeprom. Should the circuit be connected to both the USB ground or the eeprom ground or both ? If soldering to eeprom, adding jumpers in the circuit in scl and sda lines makes it much easier to connect at the correct moment.

[andy]

Hi again Victor and bob!

I've built the simple interface but can't get it to work =(. I get an "Error: Eeprom not available" message when running r24rf08.exe. I've followed the procudure outlined in "[Tutorial] How to unlock ThinkPad supervisor password". I have an X41 with a 8-pin 24RF08CN eeprom. The zeners I'm using are bzx85-c5v1 1.3W (they didn't have bzx79, does It make a difference?)

When I run itester.exe and press connect, both the SDAin and SDAout/SCLout swichtes between 0 and 1 simultaneously every 5 seconds. So the circuit seems to work, am I correctly interpreting the result?

I think the problem lies in my solderings on the eeprom. My plan is to buy a multi meter to test my circuit and the eeprom soldering, but I don't know how to test it.

1. Can the circuit be broken even if itester.exe says it is ok?

2. Is there some way to measure (with a multimeter) that my solderings to the eeprom is working? (E.g. measure on the wires soldered on to the eeprom.) If there is a way, how do I go about measuring, and what values should the multimeter show?

3. If I measure on the simple circuit, what and how do I measure, and what values should I look for?

4. How do I check if the com port is delivering the right amount of voltage?

5. In windows XP, is there any special settings I should have for the com port? Currently I have:
Bits per second: 9600
Data bits: 8
Parity: none
stop bits:1
flow control: none


Side note 1: When I press F1 I do not get to the BIOS (as in the nice looking graphical ibm bios), but to a black blank screen with a lock symbol and a prompt where I can type in my password. Is this correct, and is at this moment I should connect the circuit cables?

Side note 2: I haven't assembled back all parts to my computer. It boots up anyway. The only thing I have connected is the keyboard (so I can press F1). What I haven't connected are mini-pci, modem, fingerprint reader, harddisk. This doesn't seem to be a problem, the computer boots fine anyway. Could this be any problem?

[victor]

I will try to do my best:

[brads]

A little off topic at the moment, but a good tip for struggling or first time solderers:

One of the simplest ways I've found to solder the wires to the eeprom is to solder the loose wires first; just a bit of solder on the ends, not big gobs. Heat the chip pins with iron and lay the wires on the hot pin, the solder will flow, and viola. Do each one consecutively so the solder on the wires doesn't get too cold. A very SMALL bit of flux on the pin will help greatly, a flux cleaner pen is an excellent follow up to your work.

rgrds,
Brad

[epramoti]

Merci, thank you, ca marche mon IBM R40 est maintenant debloquer.
My IBM R40 is now fully functional.
Sorry for my english...

Pat...
_________________
Live and lets die!

[victor]

Even though I can't answer to all your posts sometimes, be sure I see them all.

Thank you once again!
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[godaloopy]

Hello!! everybody this is my first time iam sharing with you.first of all i would like send a lots of thanks to victor for his help and support to everyone here. and it is so nice of you

i have problem with my T40 password i did make the circuit that victor posted but it is not working i have questions !

1. where to connect the SR232? do i have to connected to another pc.
2. do i really need the power supply for this circuit.
3. what will happen if I connect the Male (E) side of the SR232 but not the female (R) to the circuit. what should i do please help me

[walter]

Hi Victor and Bob.
Via a link at sodoityourself .com I came at your forum and registered. I made the dongle succesfully and ibmpass2.0 got me the password on line 330. But as soon as the OK icon appeared 1/2 second after that I was locked again and can not continue.
Is this the HDD password? Because left of the locked icon is a HD icon with a 1 on top. Should I just get a new HD now or is that password also on the Atmel eeprom?

[victor]

Yes, it is the HD password.
The password is not in the eeprom, it is in the HD.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[walter]

Hi Victor,
My thanks are a million for all the free wellwritten info you have given us.
I happen to have a similar HD from a Compaq laptop my son gave me because of a serious heat problem.
I'm writing this thankyou note on this $2.50 (Radioshack parts) IBM T23 which is further in good shape and given to me by my neighbor who didn't know what to do with the password lock.
I just wait until I have some left over from my soc sec check to buy your HD password recovery software and revive the original HD.

The only thing I want to share with all those who are starting on this project is to be really careful with the soldering. I had to vile off the tip of my regular solder iron into a fine point, so it is almost the same width as the traces and pins of the eeprom. It reduces the convection heat and prevent burning traces and dropping solder bridges between traces.
I had to use magnification 200 reading glasses (from 99cent store) and a magnifier from the neighbor to do the job. I'm 70 years old and had to forego coffee that morning and * the night before in order to have a steady hand while soldering. I even held my breath while touching the pinouts of the eeprom. And I recheck with an Ohmmeter for shorts before I turned the power on.

Walter.

[victor]

Hi Walter,

I am really impressed, sincerelly. You had the skill that many young guns around don't seem to have.

Well done and I wish you all the best.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[walter]

Thank you Victor,
Hope you had a wonderful X-mas with friends and family.

In my old days as a video engineer and the heydays of the floppies I used to erase 5 and 8 inch floppies with a video bulk eraser and reformat.
Do you think I can do it with HD's too or do I erase some important ID data too?

Walter.

[saad]

victor all i gotta say to u is dat ur a fantastic person man..thank u so much for all ur help on this issue....
i do have few questions for u..more like help..if u can

i read through all the forum and got what i needed..the only thing i cudn't get was the zener diodes which were unavailable at radioshack...one of my question is that HOW MANY TYPE AND WHAT TYPE OF ZENER DIODES I CAN USE! FOR dis process...cuz im havin a hard time finding them..

also if u can go thru these pics of my model wiring and let me know..if i am on the right path or not..would be great..thanks

[img] for some reason im unable to post up my pics..is any other way i can show';em to u or wat not..i would really like to get ur insight on;em thanks once again..[/img]

[victor]

@Walter:

Don't even try that. Or you can do it just for fun.


@saad:

Any 5.1 Volts Zeners are good. The must be 5.1 V, in rest doesn't matter.

You can send the pictures to our support-at-allservice.ro or you can upload them on imageshack or other sharing service and post the links here.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.