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I have inadvertantly reset the power-on password on my IBM Thinkpad A22m laptop. I do not want to pay IBM $180 to fix it. I am open to any suggestions as to how I can remedy this problem as I am unable to use my laptop because I am locked out of it. Thank you.

Is this religious or political?

try removing the backup battery to reset all bios parameters.

oh man.. rest the bimos, that is what I say.

You got a reciept for that thing?

That also works

Moved here by Henry44 for lack of a better place.

Duplicate thread deleted. Please only post the thread into one forum. Thanks.

Kevin

Dup was probably my fault. I didn't delete the shadow thread. I didn't know what that was and was too chicken to delete without information.

Also, I didn't see the mobile tech forum, or I'd have moved the thread here in the first place.

I'm still new to this mod thing, bear with me.

merlin

Try putting it in, merlin is supposedly the manufacturs bios password.

I did a google search and came up with a lot.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=m ... word+reset

http://www.ja.axxs.net/unlock/password_recovery.htm
http://www.nortek.on.ca/hdd_pw.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardwar ... 17682.html

Have you tried the battery trick? (to remove the BIOS pass so you can change your settings?) I'm not sure that would help, as I don't recall how exactly the power-on pass works in Thinkpads. You can probably do something from the BIOS.

henry44 wrote:

Dup was probably my fault. I didn't delete the shadow thread. I didn't know what that was and was too chicken to delete without information.

The shadow thread is a temporary thread that only stays visible in the originial forum it was posted in until you visit that forum again. As far as I know you can't delete it. The double post was a result of the original poster posting twice.

henry44 wrote:

Also, I didn't see the mobile tech forum, or I'd have moved the thread here in the first place.

Heh, no worries. The General Hardware forum is a good a place as any, I only moved it to this forum because he had posted the dup in here. It only had one reply (that wasn't ontopic) so I thought it best to delete it and replace it with this thread.

henry44 wrote:

I'm still new to this mod thing, bear with me.

You're doing just fine.

Pulling the battery won't do it. If it is legit call support, there are two contact points near the battery that when shorted will reset the power-on password. If you set the hard drive password your sh*T out of luck as this can't be reset.

Niteslayer wrote:

Pulling the battery won't do it. If it is legit call support their are to contact points near the battery that when shorted will reset the power-on password. If you set the hard drive password your sh*T out of luck as this can't be reset.

Follow my links. Apparently it can be done, but they don't seem to be willing to do it for free.

Thank you all. Will try your suggestions and let you know.

Thats the pitts they charge an arm and a leg for something that should be given to their customers...did that come with a recovery cd or os disk? If all else fails that may be your only option.

Recovery cd won't work.

Tip: Never set bios password if you are forgetful.

Its heck to undo, and it should be. Removing the battery and shorting NVRAM should reset to factory default in most cases.