I have an IBM Laptop and for some reason, it is locked and asking for a password. It is a thinkpad A21m and I need to know how to unlock it. It will not even boot to the bios neither the OS.

Sal, September 2006

That answer about removing the battery to reset the password on a ThinkPad is rubbish I'm afraid. I used to sell them.

T, May 2009

There is an off-the-shelf way to reset the eeeprom which stores all passwords in itself. this takes a real geek to do this. two sites are
http://www.security-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=23102
http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password/
Hope this helps! thanks

dave, December 2008

my IBM Thinkpad laptop will not unlock. how do I unlock it?

Chaise, July 2007

If this is a bios password, taking out the CMOS battery should clear it.

This does involved gettign access to the laptop motherboard. Remove the small round watch battery and give it five minutes.
Then replace battery and power on. Voi-la! Your CMOS settings have been cleared. Any custom settings you had in the bios will need to be re-applied - should work fine however.

Tom Steventon - TBCWorkshop, September 2006

Sounds like the real deep password that is contained on the motherboard. I have never heard of these setting themselves before. When I worked for IBM we could not reset these passwords except by changing the motherboard. After all they are there to provide a high level of security especially in the case of stolen laptops.

Terry, September 2006