T43 woes....

[Gibson486]

I will give cliffs....

Got old t43 for free.

Everything was good.

Fiancee's parents needed computer.

I shipped it to them (they live in Colombia).

When they boot it up...it just leads to this blinking screen.

Turns out it is the PoP/SvP password.

Kind of pissed, I never set one. Turns out that when the CMOS battery loses power, it sets a password.

Any ideas on what to do besides buying this

http://www.ja.axxs.net/unlock/

 

[KompuKare]

Hi,

if you can get the laptop back to you and are happy to solder, just follow these guides:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Maintenance#Recovering_BIOS_passwords.
http://www.passwordmethod.com/content/view/139/27/
Or if you are want to try the no soldering (well of the laptop mobo) method:
http://www.passwordmethod.com/content/view/13/27/
I have actually had to do that for a Thinkpad X41 and it's not that hard.

 

[Gibson486]

I had to LOL at this

http://www.passwordmethod.com/content/view/106/27/

To remove the password, you have to enter the password....well...if it were only that easy!

Also, your last two links are the same....

Also...am I missing something? It just shows me where the eeprom and RAM slot is...

 

[KompuKare]

Ops, fixed that.

Hm, that was not the actual tutorial I followed at the time. This might be useful but allservice do sell stuff so remember that when following their advice.
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47&start=0

Basically there are two possible passwords, the first can be removed just by soldering wires to that 8-pin eprom, reading it via serial cable (which you have to make yourself with some resistors and diodes to make sure that 5V serial doesn't damage the 3.3V eprom) and then using the free decrypting software linked in the tutorials. The second password is trickier involving having to replace the TPM chip but I don't think that applies to T43.
This a second tutorial:
http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password/

 

[Gibson486]

Dam....i guess I may have to see if my fiancee can just buy them a laptop. It's not so much that it's hard, but it's shipping it that sucks. It's around $65 and it takes a month and you still have to pay more fees after. i wonder what $65 US can you get in Colombia....