Removing a Supervisor Password from a ThinkPad.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- PLEASE READ: This has been pointed out in the video, is mentioned in the description, and has been mentioned in numerous comments. THIS PROCESS WILL NOT WORK WITH NEWER THINKPADS. THE NEWEST THINKPADS THIS WORKS FOR ARE THE T430, X230, W530, AND OTHER **30 SERIES MACHINES. THIS PROCESS WILL NOT WORK FOR NEWER MODELS (T480. P50, X1 Extreme, X260, etc etc etc). Please, PLEASE watch the whole video or read the description before asking in the comments, I am tired of answering the same question for the tenth time.
Hello guys! Back once again with a ThinkPad video, this time looking at the daunting task that is removing the supervisor password from an older ThinkPad. To my knowledge this works on any ThinkPad from the Ivy Bridge (T430, X230, W530, etc) series and earlier, but not newer ThinkPads. As always, thanks for watching!
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I love this kind of information that keeps otherwise fully functional devices out of the landfill
Thank you for putting this out there. Keeping Thinkpads in use is a good thing, saving money and the environment.
Right around 2012 my company acknowledged these types of security measures to be ineffective and non-compliant as it was medical company. Hardware HD encryption methods were then put in place and we replaced every HD in the company. We had the ability to activate the encryption remotely provided the computer was online so then on next power up you would need to enter the password. HOWEVER, my boss lost the master password. So we ended up with about 350+ systems in the field with ridiculously expensive drives in them, without encryption. We could technically STILL encrypt but we decided not to because we lost the ability to DECRYPT since that was when the password was required. We COULD have reset the entire system but then this would have made it impossible to decrypt the few systems we had already encrypted (which were the executive leadership teams systems since those were the first ones we did). So we left it as it was and never told anyone the problem. I don't know whatever happened as I left about 2 years later.
I've also experienced other encryption problems similar to that scenario. After those experiences my rule of thumb is to simply encrypt using local methods. Software based, local encryption....like encrypting a single folder. Overall I disagree with encryption in general unless you are dealing with HIGHLY sensitive data. Most people, and businesses are not dealing with such data, therefore it makes encryption largely irrelevant.
I find most people who want to implement security measures can't adequately convey why they want it, or need it. It's usually overkill....like those people who have 4 different virus scanners installed. More important than security is backups/data integrity. It's one thing for your data to potentially fall into the wrong hands, it's another for it to be unrecoverable. The latter is much worse.
I was given an old T60 from my work. The internal battery ran out and after reinstalling a new one, I was faced with the password or death! Thankfully, guys like you have saved the day for me and I now have my laptop back! Thank you
How did you do it please??
I've been enjoying your Thinkpad series. I get the impression that this video in particular will come in handy "for a rainy day," so I'm going to note is for future reference. Thanks, Sebi!
Thanks for putting this online. I have known a few people who have bought thinkpads on ebay or at garage sales and such, just to find out they have supervisor passwords.
Exactly. I purchased a very nice x230 on eBay that had an unmentioned supervisor password. The vendor was unaware and offered return, but I did this instead.
Thanks for documenting this process. Only two issues / suggestions: (1) A better view of the pins (pads?) to be shorted would be helpful, even if only as an example for the model you're working with. Just a different camera angle might help. (2) State more clearly when to start shorting the pins, the fact that you need to keep them shorted throughout the process, and when to remove the short. I don't think you said when to remove it, even while re-watching it.
Other than that it's a decent video. You were pretty clear on which models this should work on. Also, people need to realize that any time you do something like this there's a risk of damaging the unit to the point where it becomes unusable (i.e. broken!).
Thank you, sir. I bought 6 thinkpads from a local seller who bought them at an auction. He said they no longer worked. 2 work, 2 have major issues and the other 2 were locked. Your video helped me fixed those 2. So bless you. BTW took many times and they are both T410.
I looked everywhere. I have the supervisor password but I just wanted to disable it. You're the only person to mention that hitting enter twice will just disable it. I entered my password then hit enter twice and yay!
Your video production quality is SOOO MUCH BETTER than other videos on this. Thank you! 🙏
Thanks for this I have a T60 and T61 with passwords on both and both came without HDD's.
I've had both for more than three years and because of you vid can move forward with them.
Keep up the great content keep safe keep well and thankyou.
Can you post a pic to where is the A4 marking on a t60 motherboard?
Great video, sadly wasn't able to get this to work on my T21... uses an older 14-pin EEPROM with a pin between the two needed to short... which is seemingly tied to ground so shorting across it hangs the system.
Excellent work, precisely described steps to understand, then resolve the task in hand.
👍 up, stay blessed.
I like the dirt cheap ebay/US models, so this happened to me and I find it interesting to fix. I'm already digging into all of it by accepting some faults.
I don't own any IBM or Lenovo gear yet still find your videos interesting and informative :)
Fast,simple and right on point !! I thank u much
I just bought my first ThinkPad (X250). I went looking for some videos about Thinkpads and wow.. what a cult of followers. It's like a secret society lol
have u removed the password? i am unable to find that short type pins in my x250
I had notification of your reply but its not showing here🤷🏻♂️
@@Aurora-vm4pu i bought mine refurbished so I had no supervisor pw on it
Worked for X230 in first try .
Luv U Sebi the ThinkMan 💐💐
@@marlonresler6181 I will surely help U
I will mail you the photo in 4-5 hrs.
Plz provide your email.
@@yugalsharma2773 HI @Yugal Sharma, i am about to do this to my X230 and i am also wondering where on the motherboard you did his too?
Email: ryangould77@gmail.com
@@ryangould6934 I will mail you the photos showing that chip on my x230 board
In about 1 day
Used this on my X220. I was gutted when I saw it had a password but didnt stop me using it for a long time. then I found this method online. was really easy to do and now fully unlocked :D
thankfully my X240/T440 dont have passwords
Useful for 3th gen laptops and older
Done this with a X230, took a few tries but its working now. Thanks king.
Hello. Please can you help me? I also purchased a x230 but I don't know how to do it.
0:23 Oh my god! A room filled with ThinkPads instead of MacBooks? Is that picture taken in a alternate reality or something?
One thing isn't clear from this video: how long i have to keep the pins shorted? After pressing F10 to save settings? After entered the BIOS?
I was asking myself the same thing. I successfully removed the password for an old Thinkpad. The pins to short were in a different location and I think you should keep them shorted all the time. Not sure, but maybe right before exiting the BIOS you should unshort them. In any case, repeat the process. Remember to press F1 to enter the BIOS. Use an external keyboard and an external monitor if needed. YMMV. Good luck!
Thanks. Good to know.
Got a T400s for free, found the U77 chip, shorted SDA and SCL (2 lower pins from the other side relative to the dot, dot upper left), and works perfectly again.
Very nice!
lucky you. with my t420, i have to open the back of the motherboard to access the pin 😅
Oh yes, I've done that on the T420 once and it is a massive pain on that model.
I currently have a T420 but unable to get it done
Can you help?
Last time I did it on a x60 and I've finaly fried the motherboard, so guys, do it carefully. And for the one who want ask, yes, i've done this before on a r61 and it just work fine, i don't know what I've done wrong on the x60 !
thanks a lot guy, nice idea to remove this password with minimum effort, that's working for me on T61
Thanks a lot for this golden info. This should be done with the battery or the power cord connected?
Now...on to the same info for the T440 and T450!
learningbird Yes, there’s no way to do this if there’s no power going to it! :P
Did you tried for T440 ?
It worked on my L450. Thank you
Unlock the bios password successfully. Thanks 😊.
Man, thanks so much, you just saved the X200s i just got for 10 bucks..! ^^
Tried to find a decent video for unlocking a t42. The other videos I've found are more about setting up a pi and reprogramming...
That’s cool! Pretty useful and easy to do too!
Thank you, this worked great on R61
What I did to get around it was install my windows on a desktop to my thinkpads hdd and then when it comes to its first restart put that hdd into the thinkpad and let it finish the install
Thanks! I can confirm this is working on the Thinkpad X61.
Hi, i mistakenly remove the cmos battery and i'm lock out from my Lenovo X61. Would you kindly guide me to remove the supervisor password?
Thanks man Helped a ton ! Take care
I've bought a t460 basic model from a used laptop shop (as it was cheap like 250 usd). Now I need to install a linux operating system for my research project. But i can't do that. Guess what... Secure boot enabled, supervisor password unknown.. 😭😭
Isn't there any way?????
Hello, thanks for your video
This method will work for T460s ?
The most useful video ever! Just one question, do we need to keep the pins shortened during the whole time or we can release it at some point?
Keep them shortened until you have reset the password and restarted the machine, if I remember correctly. It's been a while since I've had to do it.
@@SebisRandomTech Just unlocked x230 in a second attempt, tnx Sebi!
@@alansavelski5240 Glad you got things working! Enjoy your laptop!
I have a t540p bought from a friend. Everything on the bios is greyed out. I and even enter the sub categories. She doesn't remember setting anything related to supervisor password. I doubt she would really. She only used the laptop to watch movies. So now I have the laptop. I need to enable virtualization when I found this problem out after having the laptop for a few months now. So my question is will this method work on this machine?
So the supervisor password is really the password to get into the BIOS? The startup password is more like FDE but not really.
Kenneth How can I verify that?
Nice video like always.
Thanks a million! I really appreciate, its done successfully.
How can I remove the bios lock on the ThinkPad L14/factory reset with bios lock?
Great tutorials keep it up. Will this also work on Lenovo Thinkpad Edge? Thanks for your assistance.
Only older ones (2012 or older).
Yes. I used a similar method to unlock and ruemove all passwords from an old 2011 educational used ThinkPad Edge 11 (0328) that was locked down tighter than Fort Knox with a supervisor and bios password. davidzou.com/blog/der-laptop-bios-unlock Rather than see it get thrown out. Just follow the linked instructions.
Just wanting to be clear - you refer to "pins" in the audio but are actually using the two holes/contact pads just left of the 4 soldered points? Unfortunately your hand covers the target and you use the word "pins". Or perhaps they are pins, but it looks like holes on my screen.
Maybe "connection points" would be a better word.
The EE term would be "vias". They just serve to connect traces from different layers of the board together, but in this case give you a handy way to access the EEPROM.
The reason he is shorting the vias is that the EEPROM chip itself is located right under a metal chassis part on this model of ThinkPad, so it's hard to access. These vias have traces going to the pins in question, but you have to look it up to know this. If you can find the actual chip (it's a SOIC-8 chip, on my X230t it's marked L08), you can use the pins directly, whatever is more convenient. I didn't try it with these two pins, I shorted one pin (SDA, pin 5, the furthest diagonally away from the circle-shaped mark on the chip) to ground (VGA connector's body) with a micro test clip and a wire. Seems more easy and requires less of a steady hand than the tweezers approach. If you have such a micro test clip, of course. Got mine (a set of 8) on AliExpress, model name is SDK08.
Could you tell me the pins for L470?
hi there, came across a w520 but the seller (found it in recycling i guess) says there is some kind of lock and cannot boot from the primary disk (there is no disk anyway) and the machine only boots from usb. Is this a supervisor password case? What do you think?
how to take off the supervisor password off of a thinkpad T480s laptop please? its for the bios.
I tried this onb my E120, same error and I managed to reset the svp but it seems whenever the laptop restarted or shut off, it just goes back to default with SVP enabled. Maybe the eeprom is just read only. still it's usable and I can't enable VT. as for now, it's just a media thinkpad
X230i - Doesn't work.
It does gives you access to the full BIOS at the same start. But when you reconnect the CMOS battery, which you need to save the config, and then remove the AC plug; it won't power on until the CMOS battery's removed again. Yep, it's a catch 22.
Edit: Now it works. Just required 4-5 takes before finally reacting to the power button... Whatever floats your boat... :)
You don't need to keep the CMOS battery disconnected. Unplug it, wait a few minutes, turn on - the power-on password should be gone. Turn off the laptop, plug the CMOS battery back in. Now turn the laptop on and a second or so later short the pins. You should be able to get into Setup without having to enter the Supervisor password. And then you can set a new one.
How do I remove supervisor password from thinkpad yoga 260 please Great video thankyou
Получилось скинуть пароль supervisor ! Дополнительно нужно коротить контакты, находясь в BIOSe ->Security->Password.. Перед входом в пункт Supervisor Password, даже если там написано, что он "Enable" и сразу после входа разомкнуть ноги на микросхеме и сбросить пароль (два раза Enter). Еще батарейку CMOS отключал.
Hi, I was wondering if the EPROM chip location on the X230 Tablet the same as the standard X230?
please advise what do i short on a T60?
You are a lifesaver!!!
I tried it but when I go in the bios under security, the supervisor password is greyed out, I cant access. Please assist someone.
it means you didn't do it right. perhaps you release the pin earlier than it should. justckeep trying, restart the laptop and try short the pins. again and again, until you succeeded. me myself didn't succeed at the first try. for my t420 maybe about 10 times restarting the laptop 😅
Can anyone confirm if this works on the Yoga L390?
Are the pins going to be in the same place?
you are the best guys........................... yeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssss it works
What about Lenovo thinkpad x201 black locked screen problem please 🙏? Need help
Thank you for sharing this. Would this work with a T15 second generation?
NO! As he said in the video this method is only suitable up to the T430/530/W530 models. The newer version have Intel Boot Guard and frankly, there is no workaround but to completely change the motherboard.
A guy is selling me a X140e for like $40 i wonder if this works with that model. Anyway, love your channel! greetings from Mexico.
I believe it does, but I'm not 100% sure. Good luck with that!
Very good video ! Does it work on a Thinkpad T20 ?
theoretically, if you can manage to short the two needed pins together without also shorting them against the pin between them.
WILL THIS WORK FOR A LENOVO YOGA 11E?? I JUST BOUGHT ONE FROM EBAY AND I REINSTALLED WINDOWS BECAUSE THE ONE ON IT WOULDN'T LET ME UPDATE IT. SOON AS IT WAS REBOOTING AND EVERYTHING IT'S ASKING FOR A SCHOOL LOGIN ACCOUNT OR SECURITY KEY!! I'VE MESSAGED THE SELLER, BUT STILL WAITING TO HEAR BACK FROM THEM
What about Lenovo desktop’s supervisor password clearing ?
How about a T460 ThinkPad i have the same problem i can't access the supervisor password
I couldn't get this work. I have same model but no luck. Machine always just starts to lock screen, never got to the bios.
Any chance with a T540p?
Good Sir I have a question: thanks to Your advice I'm now proud owner of a T460s (and I absolutely love it). Unfortunately when I want to access the BIOS it asks me for password. How do I know if it's supervisor password? Also can You provide some information on how I can disable it?
read the video, this is what he explains
Tip: put the models compatible with this method in a list on the description.
I see comments reporting having success on X61 and so on.
Well yes, because the X61 is an older laptop. This process works on every ThinkPad up until (and including) the xx30 generation. If I were to list every model this works with, we would be here for hours, so it’s much easier to just say “This only works on ThinkPads older than this generation” than to list every model out there. It’s not my fault people can’t do 2 seconds of research or actually watch the video.
Did you figure out x240 in the end?
Greetings, I need a Lenovo YOGA 730-15IKB CMOS Battery disabled if one exists, or disable the Administrator's Password? Almost all of the BIOS is corrupted.
I am not able to access any Advanced Mode Fix-it options, such as Cmd Prompt, due to a constant Password Block.
Uncertain if newer Lenovo Yogas use different Fix-it methods or if everything stays the same? HELP, I've exhausted all I know, thank you...
If you have newest thinkpad, can use CMOS De-animator software to remove supervisor bios password ?
Great. Used a mini pci wireless card with graphite between the connectors.
4:52 You forgot to mention when to release the pins. I was still holding the pins and the laptop just froze after I hit enter twice. I tried too often and now I got a black screen at boot.
Hey maybe you know how to reset the power on password and supervisor password on an ibm thinkpad r52?
Excellent video.
Thanks for the Video. But as far as i recall you need to have keep the pins shortened when you put in the new password and then remove the screwdriver (or whatever you use for shortening the pins) when you press F10 to save the new (empty) Password.
And for a x270 you also have to go through the eeprom method?
T440p any solution for this?
It will in a x380 yoga?
Do you know how to remove BIOS password for Lenovo ThinkCentre M800?
Friend, do you have the same instructions for model T440??
Thanks for the tip might be useful
Hello Sir,
did this work with A4 for a T60? thanks
Question - do I have to keep holding the pins while I’m navigating through the BIOS?
He said yes to your question!
Please can you tell for ThinkPad L460
Hello, could you help to locate the eeprom on 11e? Thank you
Hey I just wanted to know because I’m trying to get rid of the bios password on my Lenovo ideapad y700 and I was wondering if you could make a detailed vid on how to remove a bios password
For BIOS password you can just unplug the main battery and the CMOS battery (for a y700 its a small black circular battery with a black and red wire coming out of it)
David Bosilj I’ve tried it that hasn’t worked
I have a ThinkPad 10 2nd gen tablet, it has a completely different BIOS. Does anybody know how to remove it?
Hi Sebi, does the T431s count in part of the older gens or the new ones?
I know both the passwords but I have to enter them again & again. How do i disable them without opening the laptop since i know the passwords
Go to the BIOS, go to the Passwords menu, and use the options to disable the passwords. It may prompt you to enter the password but after that it shouldn't make you enter them.
Does it work in T42 ?😅
help reset superuser on lenovo x13 thingpad gen1.I can send pictures of the motherboard if needed.
have you had any luck with yours ? I need help too for an X13
@@UKLanka no. I've been looking for a way out of the situation for half a year
Still havent found the solution?
hello do you know wher the pins are in Lenovo L520
Thank you. Can this be done similar on a R500. ?
I successfully used for a R500 with SVP the procedure by shorting pins 5 and 6 of the EEPROM : davidzou.com/articles/bios-password-bypass
Hey man help
What must I do with the t460
The motherboard in my T410 does not have the A4 labeling located next to the magnesium alloy piece, and does not have the two surface mounted components you are showing for the pins (connection points).
Do you know how to locate the SDA and SCL on this variant of T410 motherboard ?
www.ja.axxs.net/t410.htm
@@SebisRandomTech
Been to that site half dozen times. Same pics as you. No help. Guess you don't know the answer ?
@@turbodoggur If that website doesn't have it then I certainly don't. Do you have a picture of what *your* motherboard looks like?