Service Forum

[ctops]

I have procured my own R50 Thinkpad, I have been approached on several occasions to recover the ATMEL 24RF08 chip's data to recover the adm. password, I have been very reluctant to avoid rendering a client's machine totally unrecoverable v. the machine's worth to pay for a recovery service. Well I have one now to guinea-pig around with and it looks like you guys here are actually doing the procedure, there is a couple of ambiguities I have discovered in the online posted instructions I need to get cleared up;

1: The parts lists "2 x 2200 Ohm Resistors,
2 x C5V1 Zener diodes (For example BZX55/C5V1 ), and
Serial Port 9 pin Female", Question, some guys have published that a serial cable was used, I have a "RS-232 DTE port protector" see image, so what's the deal what is the best ?

2: The ATMEL chip reader's device's schematic as posted on several sites don't reference the need to connect the ATMEL reader to a power supply ONLY to the host machine, what's the deal whit that ?



-----------




See chips image;
Chip left " ATMEL G, 24RF08CN.0425"
Chip right " ATMEL 426, 93C46SI27.A" [/img]

[victor]

Hello,

I am the author of this software and well, the "method", and I can tell you to do not use that port protector, loose it.
There is no ambiguity, the schematics are clear, see our tutorial.
The chip is 24RF08. good luck!
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[ctops]

[victor]

You're replying at it, so read the first post here!
And the same story you may read in in the pdf coming in R24RF08 kit.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[Subwon]

Much Thanks goes to Victor and Bob for your help first and foremost.

Second... i have a 28 pin AT97SC3203 amtel chip aka a 'TPM' and im looking for a way to unlock the bios via either hardware or software. Its in a T61 and built into the motherboard but i'm pretty sure it isnt intergrated into the chipset.

Can you point me in the right direction? thanks much

[Subwon]

also the TPM is running v. 1.2

thanks again

[victor]

Thank you Subwon!

T61 has the same old eeprom like the others, its a 24RF08 clone marked P24S08. Check here:

http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3521#3521

Don't touch the AT97SC3203., is not in there. Just use R24RF08 software and read the P24S08.

Good luck!
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[Subwon]

hey victor i found the chip. wired it and got this in return.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3808/victorl.png

Moderator's Note: Please do not embbed large pictures, as they alter the layout.
thanks for your help

[victor]

Nope, not a good read. check the interface/port with itester.

BTW, should you need our help open a new topic. This one is becoming too large and we keep it opened only for feedbacks or questions ( in general)

Thank you
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[Margelatu]

Victor, you are the man. I have a IBM T30 (2366-85U) that was starting, the fan was spinning but nothing on the screen, no beeps. I borrowed another identical laptop from work to replace CPU, memories, CMOS battery in order to diagnose the broken one. It must be the system board because the other components are working on the good computer. But when I put everything back, the good computer start displaying 2 errors, one "Date and Time not set" and the other one "System Security - The system has been tampered with" and then is asking for a password. Anything I tried didn't work. I found your procedure on Internet, I bought from Radio Shack the components and I was able to read the supervisor password. It was 5566341, if somebody else have the same problem like me, they can try this first and save some time. I'm so happy I can bring back to work the laptop functional.

Thank you for the great tools R24RF08, IBMPass and for everything you did to make this available for us.
Dumnezeu sa te binecuvanteze.

[victor]

Multa sanatate si impliniri, prietene, acolo departe de tara!
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[ctops]

The 1/16 of an in. was next to impossible, my soldering techniques are good but some conductive must have shorted out the TP because after the soldering the machine would not start correctly.

[victor]

Hi ctops,

R50 has the 8 pin eeprom, which is the "easy" one. There is plenty of room to solder and anything, otherwise just imagine the 14 pin version....

But, you should use 2 probes instead of soldering on that one. We discussed in this topic and in forum that models like R50 or T4X, where they won't require to be assembled back to be powered on, just using probes is the best aproach. Use 2 needles at the end of the SDA and SCL wires and simple touch the pins before running the software. You may need a friend to help you with that (launch the program, etc).

I am really sorry to see that you're having such problems and I recon is not easy for everyone. I think I have told you before, if you need any sort of help from us, open a separate thread and we will try our best. Good luck
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

[nthrnNYker]

I am probably asking a question that has been asked many times before, but none of the searches turned up quite the problem I have.

I have a TP A22m, and as you probably know, the unit must be completely taken apart in order to access the EEPROM on the underside of the motherboard.

My questions are :

How much am I required to re-assemble the TP after soldering the wires to the EEPROM ? Must I re-assemble it complete, or is re-connecting the fan/heatsink assembly and the keyboard enough ? Will that be enough to permit the BIOS to reach the passord prompt ?

Second, your tutorial at the begining of this thread, Step 4, states :

'Prepare your technician PC by connecting the interface to the COM1 port (don’t connect the wires to eeprom yet). Turn on the ThinkPad and press F1 to enter BIOS Setup. When you are prompted for the password and there’s no other activity like HDD access or so, connect the wires (GND first!, SDA, SCL) to the corresponding wires from the interface (attached before to COM1) and execute R24RF08'

How do I re-assemble for password recovery if I'm not supposed to connect (solder) the wires to the EEprom ? Can I solder the wires to the EEPROM, and make the connection to the circuit on a breadboard after powering the TP and pressing the F1 key ?

[victor]