Service Forum

[larry2148]

Hi, I ahve read the other posts and understand that you can dump then decode the output of the eeprom but also i saw some people saying you can get rid of the POP just by pulling the cmos battery? I have tried pulling both the primary and backup battery, I have also taken the keyboard off but havent really seen any other batteries. My question is, is there another one I don't know about? Or is the easiest way to build one of those devices and use your instructions, which by-the-way just made my day, its great how you do all this for free, all i get from servie shops is, nope, buy a new one, or yeh ibm can do it but it costs 200 bucks?!?! Thanks alot for your help in advance.

[victor]

Thanks Larry,

Each machine has one RTC chip using a single batt, there's no other one in there.
SVP is held into the 24RF08 eeprom, which doesn't need external power to keep the data, otherwise be sure we wouldn't spend such effort to retrieve it

Good luck!

[larry2148]

Ok, i was hoping i was overlooking somthing simple Well i guess its time to put my engineering "Skills" to the test, haha. I will let you know how it turns out if i dont burn myself to death with my sodering iron!

ps, does it matter if the mobo has a security chip? IBM tech support mentioned that it had the ability to provide encryption, does it encrypt the eeprom?

[victor]

Don't worry about the security chip. T30's TCPA chip is not so advanced.
There are 99.99% chances to reveal the SVP with IBMpass.

[larry2148]

Ok, what about the POP?

[victor]

To get rid of it, remove the CMOS batt. but I guess you already done that.
You still need the SVP to set the clock otherwise you'll not be able to boot.

The eeprom is near the second SODIMM slot, remove the RAM cover and see the 8 pin ATMEL 24RF08. SIPROG shouldn't have problems to read it.

Good luck!

[larry2148]

so i guess this brings a new question, If i have removed the primary batt. and the backup batt. and the password still shows up, maybe it has both a power on password and a supervisor password? What else would explain why I get the password prompt when booting even after removing those batts?

[victor]

That's due to HDP.
POP and SVP have the same logo a padlocked desktop. You are still promted for the HDP which is a cylinder (and a padlock).

To see if you have indeed the SVP set, remove the drive, reboot and press F1 to get into the BIOS.
POP is already cleared when you did the CMOS batt trick so if you see the same logo then SVP is there. If not, then only the HDP is the problem.

[Edit]
As I said, if SVP is set you need to recover it because you'll not be able to boot the machine due to date/time error, even if you put another HD in place.

[larry2148]

fantastic, I'll try these when i get home, thanks!

[larry2148]

Wow, never realized how hard it is to get 32 guage (.2mm ) wire, I'm going to use a wire from the inside of an ethernet cord, which is 24 gauge, do you think that is to big? If it doesnt work i want to know if it will be because of that or not.

[victor]

Ethernet cord? I think you would need more flexible wires.

[larry2148]

well the wires that compose a ethernet cord are very small, I already tried to build the circut and got a no circut found or bus error, im guessing it was due to crappy soldering and zenners put in backwards, do you need to solder the wires to the chip or can you just touch them, iv been touching them, but there is absolutly no way i could manage to solder wires to that chip, any tips?

[larry2148]

Sucess! wow, thanks this is just awsome, worked like a charm. For other people, here are some hangups that I came to:

Finding wire, i found that you can use the twisted wires inside a ethernet cord, there are 8 in the ethernet cord so i just cut a foot long section and pulled out the wire and its already pre-color coded.

Our first one didnt work, it got error circut not found, however I believe we put in the zenner diodes backwards, I didnt realize there was a right and wrong way, but we built a new one with them in the right way and that worked.

Also, instead of soldering the wires to the chip, which would ahve been inpossible for us, I Connected the three ground wires comming out of the circut into one main wire, that wire i put on the ground wire of the chip itself, we just held the wires onto the legs, it requires two people, a steady hand and a magnafying light, but if you cant solder for your life, its very simple.

The password turned out to be just a list of numbers, I didnt know what to make of it at first because the line where the password was supposed to be there was just numbers which i assumed to be encoded hex, however the software was working fine and that really was the password.

Thanks again for this info, im installing windows updates as we speak on the laptop.

[Saskia]

hey there...

I have a POP problem...at least I think so!! Maybe anybody here who can help??

here s the link to the other forum where I already tried to find some answers...nothing worked...! Please...help me! I am a student and need my TP T30 for my studies and besides that...I go nuts!!!!!!

So...here is the link> http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=25038

let me know what to do!!

Thanks...Saskia

[victor]

Hi Saskia,

I already replied your email.

You need to recover the SVP, follow the tutorials here to see how to read a small chip called 24RF08 and how to reveal the password.

Tutorial
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47&start=0

Practice guide
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=123

Good luck!