4

My brother has a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop.

He decided to format his laptop, but after the format he couldn't power on his laptop because of the power-on password. The password is required at start-up.

My question is: what is power-on password and how do we bypass it? We tried to remove batteries but it did not work.

Improve this question
2
  • The formatting and the power-on password are not related. The power-on password should be the same as before the formatting.
    – FredrikD
    Commented Jan 4, 2013 at 20:52
  • Can you get into the BIOS? If so login and you should be able to change the password there. I may be wrong, but sometimes you can change the boot password from the BIOS. Is the Hard Drive encrypted?
    – Sam
    Commented Jan 4, 2013 at 22:38

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
8

On any relatively new ThinkPad, there is no way around the supervisor password, short of attemping to short the power to some chips, which in untrained hands is a good way to fry the motherboard entirely. Unlike a lot of BIOS level settings, including passwords on some other machines, removing the CMOS battery will NOT reset a supervisor password on a ThinkPad.

Lenovo's remedy for this is a motherboard replacement.

The power on password can be reset by removing the CMOS battery for ten minutes. Manual for thinkpad Edge 11 & E10: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/75y6925_01.pdf

Improve this answer
1
  • if the problem is really the supervisor password... it is better you tried and fried the motherboard before replacing it (perhaps you learned something), instead of replacing it anyways without even trying to recover. a good video-tutorial (also the comments are useful): youtube.com/watch?v=ANZjUPUYE7s
    – DJCrashdummy
    Commented Nov 1, 2018 at 14:47
2

Resetting power-on password is documented in the Hardware Maintenance Manual:

  1. Turn off the computer.
  2. Remove the battery pack.
  3. Remove the backup battery.
  4. Turn on the computer and wait until the POST ends. After the POST ends, the password prompt does not appear. The POP has been removed.
  5. Reinstall the backup battery and the battery pack.
Improve this answer
2

You have to disconnect bios battery for a couple of seconds with the battery and AC disconnected. Watch a video tutorial.

Improve this answer
1

This is designed to block any access to the system.

Lenovo has some tips for their older units: How to set, remove or change a Power On Password on your IBM ThinkPad 365X, 380, 385, 560, 600, 750, 755, 760, 765, 770. Not sure if it applies: Lenovo Sujpport>Diagnose & Fix site or old IBM page on web.archive.org.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    This does not work on anything newer than the machines listed (all of which are antiques).
    – Shinrai
    Commented May 16, 2011 at 14:15

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .