Service Forum

[jmwtzl]

I have a 380XD which has the CMOS dead battery (161) and date and time not set (163) errors as well as the BIOS password lock.

I have read all of Victors excellent info and know that I must read the 24C01 eeprom to locate the BIOS password. I have also downloaded a copy of the 380XD Hardware Maintenance Manual.

I have 2 questions:

- I think I will need to dismantle the entire laptop to gain access to the 24C01. Is this correct? Are there any "solder pads" which trace through to the SDA/SCL pins which can be accessed without dismantling the entire laptop? (I notice this has been done for the TP600X)

- Do I actually need to replace the CMOS battery. I will only be using the 380XD when I need access to a "slow" laptop. I also have an old 360E which has a dead CMOS battery (but no BIOS password). The 360E just defaults to the BIOS setup and I simply reset the time/date each time I need to use the laptop.

Thanks

[marstone]

I have the same problem with the same machine, 380XD.

I dismantled the whole machine to gain the access of 24c01,
I built the simple-i2cprog first, but it did not work
Now I built the driven one, and got "Eeprom not availible!" msg~

when I launch Itester.exe,
I meatured the SCL is 4.7V(1), 0.6V(0),
and the same value with SDA. is there any problem?

My COM port is a laptop one, which supply +5/-5V,
and my power supply is 4.5V.
if I turn my power supply to 6.0V, then SCL is 5.1V(1), 0.7V(0)
but it still does not work!

I have tried for about 3 weeks... and i am about to quit,
Please HELP!

[marstone]

I crack it last night! It is great!

for the first question, I dismantle the entire laptop, the chip is too hard to access.

for the second one, I replaced the CMOS battery with a cheaper one which bought in a shop not far away, which is not the same model, but it works!

GREAT thanks to allservice.ro!

[jmwtzl]

Hi marstone - good news!!

What did you finally do to crack it? I will also be using a laptop to read the 24c01 eeprom. I was planning on just building the simple circuit rather than the MAX232 circuit but maybe I should change my plans.

Did you read the 24c01 with the 380XD powered up or did you just read it direct from the system board without reassembling the 380XD?

[jmwtzl]

I came across a comments concerning the TP390E that the BIOS password could be removed just by removing the eeprom from the system board (and NOT soldering it back)

Would just removing the 24c01 eeprom in a 380XD also work?

[victor]

This is the stupidest thing to do.

Simply download the R24RF08 that contains R24C01, the eeprom reader fro 24C01. The procedure, the eeprom's SDA and SCL pins and all the rest are the same.
Build the driven programmer, read the eeprom, find the password using IBMpass2.1 and that's it.

Just do it!
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[jmwtzl]

Victor - can I just read the 24C01 without reassembling the 380XD and powering it up?

Also, do you know whether anybody has found any "solder pads/PCB tracks" which link to SDA/SLC pins thereby avoiding having to do a full dismantle of the 380XD?