Re: [tlug] IBM R30 Laptop Issues

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Mark Sargent wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> not looking to good. Found the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the R30, 
> and it states that if the Supervisor Password is lost, there is no 
> service procedure for resetting it. The board needs replacing. Think I'm 
> permanently stumped. Cheers.
>
> Mark Sargent.
I wonder... and this is completely out in the parking lot (never mind 
left field) if - in the event you're about to contribute the machine to 
landfill - if using a powerful magnet might clear out the memory?  It 
would probably destroy the machine beyond repair, but is there any 
chance at all that it would work? 

Otherwise, keep trying different passwords.  I was once able to get the 
supervisor BIOS password right on a Dell at the PR company I worked at 
(H**l, Inc.) just through trying different things I remembered over a 
few days.  That approach didn't work for a Fujitsu I forgot the 
supervisor BIOS password for at a foundation I worked at later (H**l 
Foundation), so - not being able to clear out the BIOS passwords, I gave 
them the user password and left it up to Fujitsu to deal with it after I 
left.

One other thing that comes to mind is that there probably *is* a way, 
but IBM would want to make it very difficult to find out how.  If anyone 
can easily get that information, then the purpose of the BIOS security 
is moot, so keep digging, there must be some way.  Have you tried 
contacting IBM about it?  Oh yeah - I almost forgot - telephones... they 
were left in the 20th century and companies don't take calls any longer....

Lyle