IBM Thinkpad 2887 bios password

[Tony_Scarpelli]

How do you clear the bios on an older IBM thinkpad 2887?

Customers grand kids accidentally set it and now they cannot use it.
I doubt the laptop is new enough that IBM would support it since they sold their entity to Lenovo few years ago.

 

[SAG]

I had to do this on an old Thinkpad once. Dunno is it was the same model as yours.
Had to switch the CMOS jumper from 1-2 to 2-3, turn on computer, wait for beep, switch it back, and I was golden

 

[SAG]

FYI: In my case back then it was a yellow jumper right next to the battery.
I happen to have a newer Thinkpad (Edge 15) on my bench in pieces. I looked at it and the jumper is green - but clearly marked CLR_CMOS.

 

[mr m]

Maybe this will help.

http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password.html

 

[KompuKare]

Don't know what that tech-faq is on about. Resetting the CMOS not only does not work with most Thinkpads but as the 2nd comment hints at, it can make it worse:
http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password.html

On a X41 I once had which had a supervisor password (which allows you to use the machine but not change anything in the BIOS), resetting the CMOS turned that into a user power-on password. That is it locked me out of the machine altogether. So beware.

The thinkwiki tells you what you have to do as does allservice.ro:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Maintenance
http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47&start=0

Basically, you have to solder a serial lead to read the ATMEL flash chip and then decrypt it. Note that more modern Thinkpads (not your R51 I assume) also have a 2nd chip. In that case I believe you have to decrypt the ATMEL and solder a new (surface mount) 2nd chip or reprogram it.

EDIT There is this new method shown in this youtube video of somebody shorting the ATMEL chip at the right time while the Thinkpad starts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZjUPUYE7s
If that works it's a lot less work.