I know it's difficult for you to believe that your seemingly useless ThinkPad (TP) can be easily brought back to life by Recovering or Clearing that pesky password

Since early 2002, many people have successfully recovered their TP Password by following my methods, check out "Joe in Australia ThinkPad password" by searching on the net. You may find some people who are upset about my service not being provided for free. However, they all agree the information is accurate and my procedure  works.

Remember, nothing is really FREE.

You have most likely received a hefty quote to have your confirmed as "fully functional" System Board [they call it a PLANAR BOARD] removed and replaced with a new one for no good sane logical reason.

You don't even get to keep your replaced System Board, it becomes their property, when I asked what happens to the replaced System Boards, they told me that "we just throw them away", throw away a perfectly good fully functional System Board, right! Where are all the good environmentalists when you need them.

Let me assure you that your unknown Supervisor Password [SVP] can be recovered from your TP without having to replace the System Board at great expense to YOU, lots of people around the world have successfully used this method, it does work, it is not a joke or a hoax. 

If you suspect or believe that my method could not possibly work, or that this is all simply a con or a bad joke, then search the Internet and confirm for yourself what other people say about this web site.

My original web site was established in January 2002, if my method did not work as described, newsgroups, and forums on the net would be full of reports to that effect.

If you decide to have your System Board replaced, that's fine, go ahead and have the manufacturer of your TP replace your confirmed fully functional system board and in the process transfer a substantial sum of money out of your pocket, if that makes sense to you and you feel more relaxed with that, I can't argue against such logic.

Using my Key Maker Interface, Software and instructions I have helped to successfully recover unknown Passwords from many TP's in the following countries;

Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Yugoslavia and others.

I know this is all very exciting and you are ready to start ordering KeyMaker board and stripping down your TP and jump into it, but WAIT! read all of this first.

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)

The password prompt icon pictured above
Does NOT define which PASSWORD it is asking you to enter.

It can be either POP or SVP

Note: On some Lenovo ThinkPad models under some circumstances a Supervisor Password prompt icon looks like this 

I have only seen this distinctive SVP icon on one ThinkPad, so it is RARE for now, almost all ThinkPads to date use the same icon to prompt for POP and SVP.

Only ONE way to find out for sure which one it is and maybe save a LOT of time.

First, Identify your TP model

The TP models listed on this page refer to the model number which is printed on top your TP near the LCD Hinge [not underneath] , either on the keyboard or the bottom of the LCD, it consists of a combination of letters and numbers, for example;

For example a TP X20 has X20 printed near the ON/OFF switch above the F6 key.

 

Your TP's model is NOT the 2XX-XX-XXXXXX number printed on the barcode under the TP, that is the "Type" and "Serial Number".

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] 

WARNING:

If you have a ThinkPad that can boot even though it has a Supervisor Password set

Removing Power On Password [POP] will render it unbootable Until the Supervisor Password is removed AND the correct Date and TIME are set in BIOS setup

Having first READ AND UNDERSTOOD THE WARNING ABOVE YOU DECIDE if you will 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.

I didn't know there was a Supervisor Password (SVP) set - did the ThinkPad (TP) set one all by itself ?

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 on 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.

If you have read and followed the IMPORTANT information above and confirmed beyond any doubt that your TP has a SVP set.

Joe's KeyMaker KMX1 and KMX2 can Recover or Clear Supervisor Password from all current ThinkPad models with the exception of the SL400 and SL500, it can do this even if TPM/TCPA/PC8394T/8356908  security has been enabled