[QUESTION] Lenovo T440p supervisor password removable?

[thatubuntuguy]

Hi,
I’ve been looking at snagging a dirt cheap Thinkpad off eBay to mod and use as my daily driver. However, many of the cheap listings I’ve found have locked bioses which makes the system useless and it’s impossible to install an os over usb. I did come across some information which seemed dubious but I’m happy to try i the if it’s comfirmed to work. It involves shorting the SDA and SCL pins of some security chip which would allow me into the bios and i could then erase the password. If this is not possible I’m happy to create dumps of chips as I have a flash programmer. 
True, I could spend £30 extra for a non locked machine but where’s the fun in that. The cheap laptops are perfect for me as I’m going to mod them anyway. 
I’ve found several for £80 on eBay, with one with a smashed screen for £70. 
Shorting things and soldering don’t scare me, I’m happy to take the entire thing apart if needed. 
By contrast a non locked t440p can cost £110-150, so if it’s recoverable I’m willing to take the plunge   

Thanks for your help

[rumpumpel1]

Hi,
I’ve been looking at snagging a dirt cheap Thinkpad off eBay to mod and use as my daily driver. However, many of the cheap listings I’ve found have locked bioses which makes the system useless and it’s impossible to install an os over usb. I did come across some information which seemed dubious but I’m happy to try i the if it’s comfirmed to work. It involves shorting the SDA and SCL pins of some security chip which would allow me into the bios and i could then erase the password. If this is not possible I’m happy to create dumps of chips as I have a flash programmer. 
True, I could spend £30 extra for a non locked machine but where’s the fun in that. The cheap laptops are perfect for me as I’m going to mod them anyway. 
I’ve found several for £80 on eBay, with one with a smashed screen for £70. 
Shorting things and soldering don’t scare me, I’m happy to take the entire thing apart if needed. 
By contrast a non locked t440p can cost £110-150, so if it’s recoverable I’m willing to take the plunge   

Thanks for your help

A supervisor password (or BIOS passsword) has the only restriction, that almost all BIOS settings can't be changed anymore. So everything depends on the current settings. If all settings are set to their default, you will have almost no restriction. If the bootable devices have been all disabled except LAN, then the mainboard is pretty much useless. 

There are exceptions to  this rule: some Thinkpads lock up if you enter the wrong password three times (password count exceeded). Another exception occurs if the "Bottom Cover Tamper Detection" was enabled. By taking the laptop apart you violate this rule and again the mainboard will not start without the proper password.

Be sure that the mainboard has indeed a supervisor password set and not the power-on password. A power-on password makes the mainboard immediately unusable. You can distinguish between these two kind of passwords by the pictogram: the supervisor password shows a person, whereas the power-on password shows a monitor.

Now some facts about removing the password. There are people who know how to do that. In Germany you can find them on ebay-kleinanzeigen. Of course they will not advertise this service, because it's illegal. So you have to ask for that service and you get an answer by private mail. Removing the password for an X240 costs 30€, for newer models it's more expensive. I'm pretty sure there are also people in UK who know how to remove passwords.

I found in a forum an image for an X240, which did not remove the password, but it made the BIOS settings editable. May be something similar exists for the T440p.

Good luck!