Most people are absolutely certain they have a
Supervisor Password (SVP) set .
There is a chance you may not have
a SVP set in your TP.
I have exchanged emails with many
people who have gone through all the SVP unlocking thing read the
EEPROM, wasted days, only to discover there is no SVP set at all.
How is that possible, are these people really dumb or
something.
The answer is NO, these are all perfectly sane
intelligent people.
The real problem is IBM/Lenovo and their warped sense
of humour.
When you really do have strong security, you challenge
people to try and defeat it, you invite peer review to make sure
it is in fact secure.
When you have flimsy pretend security and you
obstinately pretend it is so secure even you cant unlock it, well you
have to get all secretive and vague about everything HOPING people wont
find out, in other words an illusion of strong security where none
really exist, which is what we have here.
Clearing a Supervisor Password (SVP)
from a TP is fairly straightforward.
Once you know how to avoid all the
TRAPS IBM/Lenovo have set for you the customer.
Trap number 1, the Hard Disk Password
(HDP)
If at any time you see this Password
prompt icon
That icon with the small number 1 (it
may be a small number 2 or 3 if you have more than one Hard Disk]
means the HDP is set. You will not be able to easily recover or clear
the HDP, KM9 USB will NOT recover or clear HDP.
It will cost you more to clear the HDP
than a new Hard disk is worth.
Clearing a HDP is only worth the
expense and effort if there is valuable data on the Hard disk that
MUST be recovered.
If HDP is set then
remove the Hard Disk [HD] before continuing so that you can determine
which other passwords (IF ANY) you need to recover or clear.
There may not be any other password set!
Ok, you removed the HD and you see yet another
Password Prompt icon.
Trap number 2, the guessing game - is it SVP
or POP -
The trap is that IBM/Lenovo in their wisdom chose to
have THE SAME PASSWORD PROMPT ICON for BOTH SVP and Power on
Password (POP)
It can be either POP or SVP
Only ONE way to find out for sure
which one it is and maybe save a LOT of time.
-
Identify
your TP model
-
Download
the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) for your TP model
The link above is to the IBM/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 HMM link above, once you select a model
and are on the page that has the PDF HMM for that model, it is best to
right click on the PDF HMM for your model then select Save Target
AS, that way you will have the PDF HMM on your PC to refer to any
time you need it.
Spend the time to read the first part of the HMM
which deals with Cautions some of which like for example Shock Sensors
are very important, you would not want to roughly handle your System
board to find out when you power it up to unlock it that in fact you
have ruined it.
Read the HMM section dealing with Passwords and
become familiar with how to remove Power on Password [POP]
Then follow the instructions for POP Removal
After performing POP Removal if there is no password
prompt icon displayed, you are done, your TP is unlocked.
if you have performed POP Removal and
you continue to see this password prompt icon
It does NOT mean you didn't
perform POP Removal correctly
It means that with
POP removed, you have now absolutely confirmed that you do indeed have
a SVP set and you can now put the time and effort into removing or
clearing it.
Lots
of TP users are not aware that their TP has a SVP set.
A
TP with a SVP set does NOT prompt for the SVP when switched on and
allowed to boot normally.
This
is exactly how I got involved in SVP password recovery.
My
TP worked perfectly for many months until one day I needed to change a
setting in BIOS set-up.
It
was only when I pressed F1 to enter BIOS set-up that a SVP prompt
appeared.
If
the CMOS battery goes flat or is disconnected for even a very brief
period the Date and Time are reset, next time the TP is switched on it
absolutely insists that you go to BIOS set-up in order to set the
correct Date and time, if there was a SVP set [even though you had no
idea a SVP was already set] then it prompts for the SVP.
No,
the TP will never set a SVP all by itself, human intervention is always
required to set a SVP.
I make no warranty that any of my
information is correct, or safe, or does or does not breach any warranty
clause, or anything else, it is up to you to decide if you will
follow all or any of the instructions to recover the Supervisor Password
from a TP. It is up to you to decide, I am not responsible for the
results or for any consequential or incidental damages whatsoever.
