David said:
If your referring to a BIOS level password, unless the previous owner can
help, it is likely the laptop will have to be disassembled to clear it, if
it's an IBM forget about it, you can't clear it using normal methods.
In fact, on some IBM laptops, the password is incorporate to the
encryption employed on the disk. Without it, no user can read the
contents of the hard disk (i.e., it's all scrambled). I don't know if
the user can send it in to IBM at a hefty price to reset the password
(so you can change it later to something that you only know) but I
suspect that means they wipe the disk and flatten and rebuild the OS.
They're not a data recovery company.
For some models of IBM's Thinkpad (I think it is the T and X models),
there are 3 passwords: the Setup (BIOS) password, the HDD password, and
the Power-On password.
For the Power-On password:
- Power off the computer.
- Remove the battery pack. Unplug the AC Adapter.
- Remove power to the RTC chip:
(a) Remove the backup battery for 20 minutes. For T23's & T30's, the
lithium cell is in the battery pack area so no case dismantled is
needed. Then replace the wafer battery.
(b) Or, use a screwdriver to short the backup battery for 1 second.
- Power up. Wait until the POST completes.
- The Power-On password should not reappear. It has been cleared.
I found another set of instructions at:
http://www.tech-faq.com/ibm-thinkpad-bios-password.shtml
Supervisor and HDD passwords:
These are security features used to protect the system from unauthorized
use and protect the hard disk drive data from unauthorized access, like
if it gets stolen or wandering employees go "visiting" your cubicle and
your laptop while you are away. There is no means of overriding this
security. They cannot be replaced if forgotten. If you forget the
Supervisor password, the system board must be replaced (to replace the
EEPROM chips). If you forget the Hard Disk password, the hard disk drive
must be replaced.
Googling around shows some articles with folks claiming that they have
figured out how to reset the HDD password but that only works if only a
password only was employed and not full-disk encryption that relies on
the original password for decryption. For the Supervisor password,
unsolder the Amtel chip from the mobo and read it to get the password
(
http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password/). I've
don't know if a BIOS flash update (even to the same version as is
presently in EEPROM) will wipe the Supervisor password (as they could
make their flash utility bypass those bytes). In fact, I've read that
Thinkpad users lost access to their computer after performing a BIOS
flash update. I've seen claims that sending the Thinkpad into IBM to
reset "the password" (which one wasn't mentioned) costs anywhere from
$75 (or free) to $800. Guess you won't know until you call them to get
a repair cost quote.
So far, all that is known so far is that it is "a laptop". Nothing to
go on regarding brand and model to specifically address the concerns of
the OP for *that* laptop. I found instructions for some models at
http://repair4laptop.org/laptop_and_notebook_bios_password_reset.html.
Googling around on "+<brand> +<model> +password <passwordtype> +reset"
might have the OP find the info he needs.
