IBM Thinkpad 390E bios questions

[Dill]

picked up a 390E offa the FS/FT section about a week ago..and it came with a small 3gb HD so I decided to swap my travelstar 12gb out of my other laptop into it.

One thing I've noticed is that when going into the bios it asks for a password..if you leave it blank and hit enter you go right in. Is this standard or should it just go right into the bios with no password set?

When I install the HD it prompts for the bios password (I assume so it can change the HD information) but the blank password doesn't work, which leads me to believe there is a master administrator bios password set. I've tried removing the AC power, the battery, and the button battery near the modem, but the damm thing still won't reset. Is there a jumper somewhere I need to short out to get this thing to reset the cmos and clear the stupid passwords?

 

[jepatbentley]

When you're in bios go through the security settings and make sure all the passwords are disabled. If you do need a password try and find out what it is from the person you bought it from. At my school they made all of us get the thinkpad 390E's and we were told that if we set a bios password and forgot it, the whole system board would have to be replaced because everything is completely integrated.

 

[AMCRambler]

I've heard that too about the system boards. I've also heard that if you can get a hold of one of the bios password chips you can just replace the chip, but those are hard to come by. It'd be cheaper to get a junker off of Ebay and just pull the board from that one.