How to remove the Supervisor BIOS password for an IBM ThinkPad

I lost my BIOS password for the IBM ThinkPad. This doesn't belong to the CMOS battery – I need to remove it from EEPROM.

How can I remove it?


Solution 1:

You need to use a programmable interface and attach it to the chip, then you can read out the EEPROM once you boot your laptop. Then it's only a matter of knowing where the password can be found...

An example can be found here.

Solution 2:

If you only want to clear the Supervisor password to gain full access to BIOS, you can do it using simple disabling of a Chip on the motherboard at boot time.

My video with detailed instructions to do it is on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW-RLkzjAS8

You can also search for my video "How to unlock BIOS Supervisor Password from Lenovo Thinkpad Laptop (no damage to laptop)".

Details :

This technique clears the BIOS supervisor password. I have a rather simple solution that clears all passwords and settings of the BIOS without any motherboard replacement or EEPROM replacements.

We know that BIOS settings are stored in the EEPROM. If we shot the EEPROM chip just before system enters the bios, EEPROM will not be able to provide BIOS with encryption data. So,default BIOS settings with no-password will be loaded. But the moment we release the “shot” pin from the EEPROM, it will send data to the BIOS and things will immediately get locked.

We shot the eeprom, and keep it shot will the time we entered blank password in the Supervisor Password field. We release the shot just before confirming the second password so that BIOS has no chance to recover the settings from EEPROM. And as we confirm the blank password we need to quickly save and exit BIOS. This saves the settings in the BIOS and all supervisor passwords are cleared.

You can check out the following you-tube video to see the complete process in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW-RLkzjAS8

In this video I have cleared the supervisor password of Lenovo thinkpad W520. I have tested this method to work for some T series laptops and W510.