Do I have an addiction? (Thinkpad porn inside)

Joe Average said:
The Z60 I mentioned earlier in this thread is a Z60m, actually, with the titanium lid too. It's still sitting there at the pawn shop, as expected. I doubt anyone will touch it till they basically drop the price so low they almost have to give it away. Damned shame about that one, because I could sure use it right now but, I can't afford to get it knowing that password is in place and I'd have to outlay even more to get it operational.

I even asked them to contact the person that sold it to ask if the password was known but they won't do it, citing "privacy issues" which is utter BS and we all know it, but whatever.

Physically the machine is in practically new condition, and it does power up but, that's as far as it gets. What a loss... :p
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How much again and where?
 
It's $100 at a pawn shop 2 blocks from me here in downtown Las Vegas. I stopped by earlier to see what was new and it was still sitting there on a "clearance" table full of laptops they're doing their best to dump. It's actually the only one of all of 'em on the table that I'd even consider buying: the rest are your standard issue Dell D600 series (600 and 610, Pentium M machines), Toshibas, an HP, and a Gateway or two, just not stuff I'm interested in (and the Z60m is the only widescreen too).

Not sure if it comes with an adapter as I took my own to power it up, maybe it does, who knows. It does appear to have RAM and a hard drive, but again, that power on password kicks in right then and there so I can't get to the BIOS to confirm anything.
 
Joe Average said:
It's $100 at a pawn shop 2 blocks from me here in downtown Las Vegas. I stopped by earlier to see what was new and it was still sitting there on a "clearance" table full of laptops they're doing their best to dump. It's actually the only one of all of 'em on the table that I'd even consider buying: the rest are your standard issue Dell D600 series (600 and 610, Pentium M machines), Toshibas, an HP, and a Gateway or two, just not stuff I'm interested in (and the Z60m is the only widescreen too).

Not sure if it comes with an adapter as I took my own to power it up, maybe it does, who knows. It does appear to have RAM and a hard drive, but again, that power on password kicks in right then and there so I can't get to the BIOS to confirm anything.
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Hmm, do we know if it is just a power on password or supervisor password is there also? If just power on password it looks like you can try pulling the CMOS battery, but you can't do that if there's a supervisor password

From lenovo

Types of passwords
As many as three passwords may be needed for any ThinkPad computer: the Power-on password, the Hard drive password (master and user), and the Supervisor password.

Supervisor password (BIOS password)

A Supervisor password protects the system information stored in the BIOS. The user must enter the Supervisor password in order to get access to the ThinkPad BIOS Setup Utility in order to change the system configuration. If the Supervisor password is forgotten there is no way to reset it to enter the BIOS configuration. Setting a Supervisor password automatically sets the master Hard drive password. The following is the icon that comes up in the upper left corner if a Supervisor password is set:

Normal operation

When the Supervisor password is set, then a prompt will appear when entering the ThinkPad BIOS setup utility and the Supervisor password will need to be entered before access will be granted to view or change settings.
Note: Setting the Supervisor password does not prevent access to the operating system. If the user Hard drive password and Power-on password are not set, then setting a Supervisor password will not cause the password prompt to appear when the operating system is booted.

Forgotten Supervisor password
A forgotten Supervisor password will prevent access to the ThinkPad BIOS setup utility. To regain access, the system will need to be serviced to have the system board and hard drive replaced. Proof of purchase is required, and this repair is not covered under the warranty.

Hard drive password

There are two Hard drive passwords: a user Hard drive password for the user and a master Hard drive password for the system administrator. The administrator can use the master password to get access to the hard drive even if a user has changed the user Hard drive password. The following is the icon that comes up in the upper left corner if a Hard disk password is set:

Normal Operation

There are two modes for the Hard drive password: user only and master + user. The master + user mode requires two Hard drive passwords; the system administrator enters both in the same operation and provides the user Hard drive password to the system user. If either master + user or user only are set, a the password prompt will appear during the boot process either the master or the user Hard drive password will need to be entered before the operating system can be booted.

Forgotten Hard drive password

If the user's Hard drive password has been forgotten, check whether a master Hard drive password has been set. If it has, it can be used for access to the hard drive. If no master Hard drive password is available, or if the administrator forgets the master Hard drive password, then the hard drive must be replaced. This replacement process is not covered under the warranty.

Power-on password

A Power-on password protects the system from being powered on by an unauthorized person. The following is the icon that comes up in the upper left corner if a Power-on password is set:


Normal Operation

When the Power-on password has been set, a prompt will appear during the system start up, and the Power-on password must be entered before an operating system can be booted.

Forgotten Power-on password

If the Power-on password is forgotten and the Supervisor password is known, simply go into the ThinkPad BIOS setup utility and reset the Power-on password, otherwise try the following:
Turn off the computer.
Remove the battery pack.
Remove the backup battery.
Turn on the computer and wait until the POST ends. After the POST ends, the password prompt does not appear. The POP has been removed.
Reinstall the backup battery and the battery pack.
Note: Some ThinkPad systems have the ability to reset the Power-on passwords in the ThinkPad BIOS setup utility if a Supervisor password has been set.
Click here to contact a local PC Service Provider to carry your machine in for service.
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I can't find the original article at lenovo's new site, but there's a copy here
http://www.windowspasswordsrecovery.com/different-types-of-computer-password.htm
 
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Is there any chance that Z60m was stolen? My old school had Thinkpads and people stole them all the time.
 
It's a pawn shop, of course there's a chance that it was stolen at some point in the past, but pawn shops get visits by local Police department VICE squad personnel several times a week to check serial numbers - it's actually pretty tough to buy anything that's stolen at a pawn shop because if something in inventory turns up on the stolen merchandise list, it's removed from inventory, obviously.

zchen:

Yeah, I'm aware of all that, been resetting passwords on laptops for a decade or two myself but, ThinkPads are different beasts. Starting with the Z60 series, actually, IBM began using the Atmel chips (that work along with the onboard TPM modules on some ThinkPads that have fingerprint readers, most of the time those are the x-series tablet models) and those cannot and do not have anything to do with the CMOS. There's no way to reset them in the traditional sense with the CMOS shorting or battery pull - those instructions from Lenovo only relate to pre-Z60/pre-Atmel machines.

To get the password removed from that Z60m, I'd have to buy it then fork over another $100 ($75 for the job, $25 for shipping) to a guy that lives in Wisconsin that specializes in removing the passwords from ThinkPads - that's what he does for a living exclusively.

Ship the ThinkPad to him, he attaches a tiny reader circuit (doesn't involve desoldering components, just disassembling the laptop to get to the Atmel chip; the circuit attaches with standard clamp leads), the circuit reads off the encrypted password, he feeds that info to a tiny piece of software running on another computer which decrypts it, then he tests it against the ThinkPad to ensure it works, and removes the power-on password and supervisor password completely from that point on - then it gets boxed up and shipped back.

Considering he's pretty much the only guy in the US that does this, he's probably making a damned good living at it - IBM/Lenovo just tells people "We have to replace the entire mobo if you forget that password" which is a lot more hassle, honestly.
 
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