HELP!!!! THINK PAD 760 EL

[BAD.IRON]

I have an IBM Think Pad 760 EL on my bench that will only boot to a screen with a padlock on it. I have checked the bios battery and it seem to be ok. It also won’t let me into the BIOS set up. Will not boot from floppy drive. The customer claims that it was working just fine and the next startup the padlock screen. Is there an other way into the bios setup other than F1 at startup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[shawnMt]

So, it posts fine then boots to the padlock? Does it beep? Have you checked IBM website for this model? Take out the regular batt, CMOS batt and unplug it for a while. Should clear out any security crap...

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I ripped the head assembly out - it spins up fine now...

[BAD.IRON]

ShawnMt

There are 3 batteries in this laptop and I have pulled them all. I am getting no were fast with is computer.

[RGK01]

Lots of new drivers including bios flash posted on IBM site in feb 2000.

I think you've got a problem, according to the IBM site if you forget the power-on password you have to take it to an IBM service center and must show proof of purchase before they will clear the lock-out.
I'll email you the page.

[shawnMt]

Laptops are a bitch in this area. Look at the memory expansion slots. If there is a DIMM present just pull it out. The machine prob has SOME memory onboard and trusty IBMs prompt you F1 or F2 for setup when they see a mem change.

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I ripped the head assembly out - it spins up fine now...

[larryjl]

Go to http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/cdt/hmm.html#mobile and download the pdf version of the 760 HMM. It has password info in it. The lock is a password prompt. A power on password can be disabled. If it's a supervisor password the system board has to be replaced. A hdd password means the hdd needs to be replaced. If you can't get into ez-setup it may be a supervisor password.