Service Forum

PsychBiller · Nou Venit Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

I have a T40. When I press F1 or Access IBM button while powering on the machine, I can get to the Pre-Desktop Area. From there, I can enter the BIOS Setup Utility. However, everything is grayed out (not changeable) because the BIOS says that there is a supervisor password.

I know what the supervisor password is. But the T40 doesn't prompt me for the supervisor password when entering the BIOS. I can't find any way to get a prompt where I can enter the supervisor password.

So my problem is a little different from most of you. I know the password--I just can't tell the T40 what it is. Can anyone help? IBM just gives me the standard answer that I have to replace the motherboard.

bob · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:10 am Post subject:

If you know the supervisor password, then is pretty simple. At F1 you should get the SVP prompt. But if you don't, simply remove the drive and try again.

PsychBiller · Nou Venit Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

The reason I want to get into the BIOS is to delete the power-on password (which I know) and the hard disk password (which I know). Other sites had suggested that I disconnect the CMOS battery for at least a half hour to get past those passwords.

I did disconnect the CMOS battery and have now reconnected it. And I'm in FAR, FAR WORSE trouble than before. I removed the hard drive and attempted to get into the BIOS by holding down F1 while powering up. That eventually produces an error 270 about the date and time (understandable), but also a much more serious sounding error about the system security having been tampered with. The BIOS Setup Utility is NOT started. The system then asks for a power-on password, but will no longer accept the one I use.

This machine has been rendered totally unusable by this attempt at recovery. Please--any more ideas?

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

Hello,

I think you mistaken the SVP with POP. You knew the POP and everythime you were in BIOS, you couldn't do squat since you had only user privileges. Now since you wiped out the CMOS, you can't even boot on.

You gotta recover the SVP, use the tools and the tutorial we provide here in the forum. T40 has a 24RF08 eeprom under the wireless card that keeps the SVP.

Good luck!
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

bob · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:16 pm Post subject:

I agree, at first I tought he din't get the padlock prompt to enter the svp.

PsychBiller · Nou Venit Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

Bob, you are correct that the original symptom was that I never could get to the supervisor password prompt.

Victor, no, I didn't confuse the two passwords. I was trying a reasonable suggestion given to me by several people in multiple forums. Only later did I get a suggestion that merely removing the hard drive may have given me a supervisor password prompt, which was all I was trying to do. Oh, how I wish I had tried that first.

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

Umm, I was right all the time.