Service Forum

[Shred]

Firstly, many thanks for the info on this site. Without it, my ThinkPad 600 (not 600e or 600x) would now be useless.

My ThinkPad has had the same Power On Password set for years. This week, the CMOS backup battery died. No problem: I replaced the battery. On first boot, I received the usual 161 and 163 errors, however, the computer would not accept my power on password. As others have found, if I left the password blank and pressed <ENTER>, it would display "Ok" and proceed to a screen indicating that I should read the manual and would do nothing else.

I used the R24RF01 utility and an interface using a SparkFun FT232R USB to Serial breakout board to dump the EEPROM and obtain the password. For anyone contemplating building an interface, this board makes it *really* easy, since the FT232R has +5v output (from USB) and uses 5v TTL level I/O. I only needed to add two diodes and two resistors. It's much easier than using a MAX232 or similar.

When I read the 24C01 EEPROM and decoded the password, I found that the password was set to "ROSIE". I reassembled the computer, used the "ROSIE" password to gain access to the CMOS and all is now well again. The ThinkPad had been left in hibernate mode and it even restored the hibernate file and popped back in to the same Windows session that was active last time it was used.

The thing is, "my" power on password was not "ROSIE". It was nothing like ROSIE and to my knowledge no password like this has ever been used on the computer. Where did it come from and why was my power on password erased? Is it possible that it's been running from a power on password in CMOS RAM and ignoring the one in EEPROM for years?

For the record, nobody else knows my usual power on password, I live by myself and during the period that this happened, the only other person with a key to my house was on vacation over 2000km away, so this is not the result of a practical joke or anything like that!

[bob]

Come on, it's Rosie. Don't you remember her?

[victor]

The SVP and POP are different things, your POP was gone when you did the CMOS reset.
POP is "Rosie" alright, doesn't matter who set that after all. What is important is that Lenovo doesn't do this by factory, so if you find one to be SVP locked then your local seller/dealer is to blame..or the owner...
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Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[Shred]

If the laptop had the SVP password set in the past, then I wouldn't think I'd have been able to access the CMOS setup before the backup battery went flat? I upgraded the RAM in it about six months ago and had no problem entering the CMOS setup to clear the "memory size changed" error.

I have supported this laptop from when it was brand new - I bought it second hand from a client about five years ago. Its original user was not the sort of person to "fiddle" or set passwords.

It's weird. Maybe I need to call in an exorcist!

[victor]

POP gives you user privileges for BIOS Setup, nothing unusual. Rest assured IBM/Lenovo won't put a "rosie" SVP. It could be a "maotzedong" one now, but still..
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Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.