RE: IBM 750CE PASSWORD

["King, Randall" <rjking@kodak.com>]

Ah, the return of the dreaded Supervisor password.

If you want to continue to use the machine and hard drive DO NOT REPLACE THE 
SYSTEM BOARD!  If you do the hard drive will never boot up again.  In this 
case 'shell' means bare system (basically the system board in case).

I have had a great deal of experience with those passwords on the machines. 
 The Supervisor password is basically a combination of a Hard Drive password 
and a Power On password.  If the shell has the same supervisor password as 
the hard drive, it will boot up seamlessly.  If you go into E-Z Setup you 
will need the supervisor password to make any changes, but otherwise the 
system will work fine.  If you move the hard drive into another machine, it 
will prompt you for a hard drive password, which is the supervisor password. 
 If you put another hard drive in the shell, you will need the supervisor 
password, and then you will either have to clear it or add it to the new 
hard drive to continue.  This ensures that the machines will never be broken 
up.

If the system board is replaced the supervisor password will be removed from 
the shell, but not the hard drive.  If the shell no longer has the 
supervisor password, when you boot up it will prompt you for a hard drive 
password.  To date no one has cracked the hard drive passwords (alot of 
talk, but no one has _done_ it).  In the case below, the supervisor password 
is not known, so the hard drive will be a paperweight if the system board 
loses the password.

The supervisor password will allow you to get around the power on password 
of the machine.  The idea is that the supervisor configures the system, and 
then gives it to the person.  They put their own power-on password on, but 
the supervisor can always get into the system.  Currently I know that the 
755's, 750's, and 760's all have this functionality.  I know that the 700's, 
720's, and 360's do not.  You cannot have a hard drive password and a 
supervisor password, as the supervisor password occupies the password 
'location' on the hard drive.  You will have to use a Power On password if 
you want to have a password, as the system has 'space' for both of those.

Randall
rjking@kodak.com
rjking@servtech.com

ps- going back to the holy grail of MWave, is there a FAQ on how to get it 
to work with DOS games?

pps-  I am getting locked up with my system when I pop in my IBM (!?!?) 
Ethernet card, and then use MWave stuff.  It's goes for about 30 seconds, 
and then WHAMMO, the system locks.  If I pop out the card it sometimes 
resumes.  Anyone had this problem?

 ----------
From: owner-tp750
To: TP750
Subject: IBM 750CE PASSWORD
Date: Thursday, February 29, 1996 5:18PM

Help!!!  We have an IBM 750ce laptop that we do not know the supervisor
password. The orginal owner died. IBM tells us that we have to replace
the motherboard and hard drive. We have already tried to disconnecting
the internal batteries.

Thanks

James L. Peek
jlpeek@ix.netcom.com