hi

i brought my daughter a laptop for christmas,just a second hand one for her to get used to as shes only 10,its been working great and then she goes and puts a password on it!now we cannot get on to it as the password shes put on is saying its not the password when it is.help shes so upset i dont have a clue what to do with it.the password prompt comes on after the ibm sign but before the windows screen.help please

Hi Sharron,

Unfortunately, the only workaround in this case is to remove the battery pack and unplug the CMOS battery from inside it for at least 20 minutes. As a laptop is somehow difficult to open, I'm affraid you'll need to take it to a workshop.

You may try to type the password in uppercase, lowercase, and first letter uppercase, the others lowercase just to see if some works.

Chris

This is just a stab in the dark...When your daughter turned on the computer, did a prompt come up asking for a password, and your daughter added one?? if she did, turn off the computer and wait for a couple minutes, then turn it on, then when the prompt comes up again, just click Ok, DON'T add a pass word, just click on Ok.

I get a password prompt on my 98 computer, but I didn't add on, so all I do is click Ok. Like I said, it's just a stab in the dark.

How did your daughter add the password, from where??

Lorraine

sharron,

I have an IBM T-21 Thinkpad, when the regular battery is removed the CMOS battery is attached to the inside of the battery compartment. [CMOS battery is a silver disk about the size of a quarter].

If you find the CMOS battery, remove it for about 20 minutes and see if the notebook "forgets" the password.

my daughter went through control panel to put the password in to stop her brother and sister being able to access her stuff,she knows the password but the laptop isnt having any of it

im going to try and remove the cmos battery if i can find the right thing to pull out,thanks for your help i will let you know how i get on

hi

back quicker than i thought can anyone please tell me where im going to find the cmos battery????am i going to have to open it up???

"my daughter went through control panel to put the password in..."

Removing the cmos battery will do nothing for this. Do a search for *.pwl (going by memory here so bear with me) and delete the file associated with the user name. (ie; daughter.pwl).

Also have a look here; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152104/en-us

Have you carefully read the posts above ?

i cannot get into anything on it the 1st thing you see after the thinkpad sign is the locked padlock and password screen.any other ideas??

Once again, have you carefully read the posts above ?

Hmmm. Here's something else you can try;

PLEASE NOTE, IMPORTANT: This works only with MS-DOS 6.00 - 6.22 and
MS-DOS 7.xx [a.k.a. Microsoft Windows 9x].

This resets (deletes) your motherboard BIOS (CMOS) password, to grant access to your computer and/or BIOS Setup once again, if you have forgotten or lost it. If the SYSTEM level password is set, it will not work as the PC won't boot to a floppy without the proper password. In this event, the CMOS battery must be removed or a CLR CMOS jumper on the motherboard (usually three pin) must be switched then switched back.

For bios access;
Exit Windows or reboot to the native MS-DOS mode, using the "Command prompt
only" option from the Windows 95/98 Startup Menu or a boot floppy with debug.exe on it.

At the C:\> (or A:\>) prompt, type:
DEBUG
and hit Enter.

You'll see a dash (-) at the DEBUG prompt. Now type:
o 70 2e

which will show as -o 70 2e at the DEBUG prompt. Hit Enter.

Then type:
o 71 ff

and hit Enter.

Finally type:
Q

and hit Enter one last time, to quit DEBUG, back to the C:\> or A:\>
prompt.

Now you're ready to reboot your PC, and press the appropriate key or key
combo (look it up in your motherboard manual if you don't know it) to
access your BIOS Setup.

yes i have i was hoping that it could have been dealt with without going into a shop to get fixed,my little girls so upset i was hoping for a miracle

i will try that now thankyou for trying to help me i will let you know if it works or not

If you don't have the User Guide, IBM has an online one HERE. I couldn't find anything in it regarding the CMOS battery, however.

The Technical Reference manual is HERE. Again, although it mentions the CMOS battery, nothing really solid here regarding location.

Then we find the Hardware Maintenance manual, which has plenty of drawings for the locations of just about everything in the laptop, including the 'backup battery' - item 15, which appears to be accessible under a small cover adjacent to the main battery compartment.

HERE'S what the battery looks like.

OK. if it's a BIOS password issue, removing the Battery pack and finding and removing the CMOS battery for 20 minutes will reset your BIOS to its factory defaults (no more passwords, as any computer newbie can figure. - Oldbob pointed it out).

If it's a Windows password, we can't (in theory) help you...

Chris

This might be worth a shot:
Will not accept password when NumLock is enabled - ThinkPad General

ive removed the cmos battery i cannot find the clr cmos jumper though do i need to take the silver casing off the motherboard or is the battery removal enough do you think???

thanks patti i need as much help as possible with this

thanks chris ive removed the cmos battery and im really hoping that its a bios password and not a windows password otherwise im going to scream

im going to scream !thanks everybody for your help but removing the cmos battery hasnt worked

ive just been reading the ibm manual and it says about the dimm socket and shorting the power on password jumper pad r522.does anybody know anything about this????does anyone know how to short it?

Exactly as shown, with a screwdriver.
In all honesty, I'd recommend bringing it to an authorized service provider rather than risk a false move and rendering your little girl's new laptop an oversized paperweight.

yes i think youre right patti im going to take it to a shop it was worth a try i suppose.thanks for your help

Sharon,

If it is the windows password you are in good shape. Unless I am all wet. Windows 98 did not have that good a security so you can just click cancel and blow right by it.

If you don't want it to ask again.. when windows boots up go to start/settings/control panel/network then in this window under "Primary Network Logon" choose "Windows Logon" You will not be asked for a password again.

its a black screen with a locked padlock on it with a flashing star next to it waiting for the password,there isnt anywhere to cancel it from on the screen.i never thought windows 98 had a good security system either but it beats my xp and my xp professional out of the water,i just dont know what to do with it.

theres always the easy way out and deleting the partion (i dont know how to work with Windows 98 its been to long since ive had a comp with it \=) just wipe the comp and reinstall windows... the only proplem with that is that you lose everything \= sorry if im no help. Can someone please confirm this to im not to sure if it will work like it does with XP

hi,

i thought of that too but as the cd rom is external the password stops the external from coming on,unless anyone out there knows how to bypass that,id try anything right now