IBM ThinkPad BIOS Security

**dune** · February 5th, 2006, 03:45 PM

There is an IBM thinkpad A22m laptop
and no one could boot it because
I put a password on it.By now I have forgot the password!!!!
What can I do to get my laptop back?????????
After clearing CMOS by battery there is no way to boot or enter setup.
There is not any chance to enter password correctly!

Who knows how can you get into BIOS?

**imagoon** · February 7th, 2006, 05:31 PM

Ship it to IBM and spend large amounts of money to have the system board replaced. Also setting the BIOS password sets an HDD password which also renders the HDD useless. In some rare instances the password can be recovered using third parties but the HDD is still toast.

~Chris

**geoscomp** · February 7th, 2006, 06:35 PM

Thinkpads have motherboard jumpers to reset the passwords

**imagoon** · February 7th, 2006, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by geoscomp

Thinkpads have motherboard jumpers to reset the passwords

Not the A20 A21 or A22 or the T-Series for that matter. Those machines "meet the governments requirements for a secure laptop". These models have diffrent levels of security up to including security chips that contain ID information for the owner and the laptops will fail to boot with them removed etc. A series and T series also set HDD passwords when the setup programs password is set to prevent the drive from even spinning up with out a code stored in the EEPROM under the system board. The A series is even worse as the CPU is soldered to the systemboard so even ebay tends to be $800 - $1000 for the part.

~Chris

EDIT: mistake cpu is soldered on the X series not A series.