Service Forum

[BillH]

I bought a "dead" Lenovo SL400 for parts, but it only had a bad power jack, and now boots. However, the SVP (bios) password is set. Fortunately, floppies and CDs boot, and as of now XP is installed and happy. Would still like to clear the SVP, but this one has an AMI bios, which according to Victor requires the SPEG package to reset the password on the bios chip itself.

My problem is, I can't ID the bios chip on the motherboard to see whether or not Pomona microclips would work. (I'm not good enough with solder to take the chip off and re-install it.) Would appreciate any help with location, nomenclature, a photo, or otherwise identifying the BIOS chip on this board.

Would also appreciate any software methods to reset the SVP. Already tried cmospwd and amipswd, and they wouldn't read it.

Thanks.

[victor]

Hi BillH,

The chip is located here. I realized that I missed the SL400 picture so this is a SL300, almost the same. Pomona 5250 will do the job.

www.allservice.ro/forum/images/sl300.jpg

The chip might be read but not written entirely under windows/dos, it must be done with a programmer at your choice. For SPEG, we offer support with the dump cleaning.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[BillH]

Really helpful, Victor. Thanks very much.

[victor]

I forgot to add that for SL300-400-500 the chip is 1Mb flash, usually a Macronix
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[BillH]

Thanks again for the help, Victor. The SL400 bios chip seems to be in the same spot as the SL300, only the surroundings are a little different.

The chip near the center marked MX:



It is labeled MX25L8005M2C.

I'll be in touch via email.

[victor]

Hi Bill, yes that is the chip. BTW, can you put some watermark on it, if you don't want our kungfu friends to take it as their own.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.