Locating the eeprom

You should have already downloaded the hardware Maintenance Manual for your ThinkPad model, if you have not done so use the link below to download it now,

Download the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) for your TP model

The links above are to the Lenovo site, if it doesn't work, don't panic, it isn't broken, their site is shut down daily for maintenance and at those times they display spurious messages like the page you requested cannot be found, wait a good while and try again.

Using the TP 600e Hardware Maintenance Manual and your nice small Philips screw driver, dismantle the TP

Follow the Hardware Maintenance manual "FRU System Board" to dismantle your TP and gain access to the underside of the System Board where the 24RF08 eeprom is located.

Keep individual modules and their screws separate to make it easier to re assemble it correctly

The 600e has 2 EEPROMs, one is a 24C01 located near the Flash BIOS, this eeprom does NOT contain any passwords,  leave it alone.

The other eeprom is located on the other side under the PCI made by Intel, it is a 24RF08 this eeprom contains the Supervisor Password and the Hard Disk Password.

 

NOTE: VCC is NOT connected, the ThinkPad supplies power to the eeprom later on we will switch on the TP to analyse the eeprom.

This image is of the same type eeprom in another model TP, it illustrates which eeprom pins you solder the 3 wires to.

 

See my page on Options for Clips and Probes including making your own probes.

I receive many emails asking about the GND connection, in reality it is very simple, you use some kind of a clip so that you don't have to hold it in place, you DON'T HAVE 3 HANDS and there are 3 connections, GND SDA and SCL, so have a clip for GND, then you can use the 2 hands YOU DO HAVE to hold your SDA and SCL probes in place.

Almost any large piece of metal or the screws for the external connectors of any ThinkPad are a good GND connecting point.

Anyway a picture is worth a thousand words

Click here for pictures of GND Connections

Basically you make the System board functional outside of it's case which includes mounting heat sink and fan on CPU.

Once you have taken care of the GND connection.

You push the sharp probes onto SCL SDA , this is the reason you need 2 persons, not enough hands to hold the probes and run the software.

This is not easy, you will need to have the Keyboard [and optionally the LCD] plugged into the system board in such a way that none touch any contacts on the system board, use paper as an insulator to keep things from electrically shorting out, later you will need to plug in the AC adaptor and switch ON the TP, then you will need to hold 2 probes in place to the SCL and SDA points on the system board.

See my page on Options for Clips and Probes including making your own probes.

This page ONLY describes how to connect the KeyMaker Interface to the EEPROM.

The instructions on how to Recover or clear a Supervisor password are in The "User's Guides" click here

Assembling your TP - AFTER - you have finished.

Follow the Hardware Maintenance Manual [FRU System Board], very carefully, double check screw type and size for each individual module.  Assemble the TP in the reverse order used to dismantle it.