First of all im sorry if this is in the wrong section.

Problem:

A mate of mine has got his hands on a IBM ThinkPad T40 and its got a power-on password. Ive tried google looking for ways to remove the password, or to get into the bios to try and disable the password but i havnt had much look. Can any one give me some ideas on what todo to reformat the comp or just remove the password.

Thanks alot -Ash

sounds like you mate might have stolen it...

assuming not, then there's a battery on the motherboard that must be removed and u need to wait a few hours for the capacitors to decharge.

i suppose he bought it down the pub from a dodgy looking fella

Its legit

I own a ibm x41 with the same if not similar system. According to ibm if the hd is locked u have to replace the hd, if the mobo is locked you have to replace the mobo.

Ive got a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100. Its got a design flaw, which needs to be pulled apart to fix.

So ive done that. Pulled my whole laptop apart, like 25 screws later. Fixed the Video Card problem, then I though, whilst im here - lets see if i can find where the bios battery is.... No such luck, pulled the whole thing apart, couldnt find anything that resembles the bios battery... Nothing like a normal desktop MotherBoard....

So yeah, i think your gonna have to start replacing mobo's etc....

I have an IBM Thinkpad , not the t40 though. I can't remembe the model right now, but my hd had a password, and luckily the "seller" of the laptop remembered it. But other then that, before he did, i did vast research on thinkpad passwords. For the poweron passwords i believe u just take out the cmos battery. No need to open the laptop , atleast in my model. Where the battery is, take the battery out, and theres should be a place somewhere aroudn there with a tiny screw or something, just short the jumpers. U'll figure it out after u take out the battery, its not too hard. It should taket out the poweron. But thats only poweron, if its a hard drive, u gotta replace it, and if its a supervisor password, u are just as (filtered).
Take a look here

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-39298.html

Hope that helps.

Cheers everyone ill give it ago tomorrow or something.