Sunday, September 16, 2007
Hacking IBM 240x BIOS password
This story starts long ago in a galaxy far far away...
Well, not really. It starts a couple of years ago when we were living in England and I wanted a small Windows laptop to hook up to my GPS so I had a bigger screen and could use it as a navigational tool. I bought an IBM Thinkpad 240 on eBay and was very happy with it -- screen size of 10 inches is just about right for in the car. However, some time in the last year the LCD screen on the laptop got crushed and so the only way I could use the laptop was to hook it up to an external monitor. Whilst this does provide a working computer, it is not very useful as a LAPtop.
Enter the next problem in the saga -- my 2003 VW Eurovan had the check engine light come on. Now that the van is out of warranty I decided I would like to have the ability to read the ECM codes so I could fix the van myself if possible. So, I bought a special cable to connect the car's computer to a personal computer, but of course, the software only works on Windows. And, the only Windows PC that can easily go to the car in the garage (versus bring the car into the living room) is the laptop. But, the laptop needs an external monitor. So, I lugged a 19" CRT into the garage with the laptop to read the codes (maybe I will post about that some other day). While carrying the CRT monitor out of the garage I made up my mind I would start cruising eBay for a broken IBM Thinkpad 240 that I could buy for the screen. Not being in much of a hurry I patiently waited for the right laptop to come along for the right price. I ended up winning a Thinkpad 240x which has a newer, faster processor than the 240. The only problem with the laptop was that it didn't have a power supply (no problem, already have one of those) and it had a BIOS password that was unknown (no problem, I only want the screen off the laptop).
But, once I got the laptop in my hands, knowing that it had a faster processor in it I thought MAYBE I could upgrade my laptop slightly. So, I searched the Internet and found this site. I already had a breadboard and the correct resistors from my electrical engineering education, so I went to Fry's and bought the two zener diodes and DB9 connector. This afternoon I tried to take a nap but found I wasn't tired, so I decided to play with the laptop a bit and see what I could do. The first step was to uncover the ATMEL chip on the motherboard, which required disassembling the entire laptop because the chip is on the bottom of the motherboard. The IBM web site helped with this. In the process of taking the new laptop apart I went ahead and removed the screen and installed it on the old laptop (yes, it works!). Then came the fun of soldering a couple of wires to the motherboard of the new computer so I could read the information stored in the BIOS and find the password.
Knowing that I had already achieved my objective of a working laptop, I only had minimal trepidation as I tackled the soldering -- it turned out to be a bit easier than I expected.
After the soldering was done I put together the little circuit and connected it to the DB9 connector.
Once all was connected I was able to use a freeware program to copy the information off the ATMEL eeprom chip and then another program to decipher the password. Viola! I was able to get past the supervisor BIOS password and then found out the hard drive wasn't bootable. But, no worries, next project will be to get a new operating system onto the hard drive of a laptop with no CD drive (or network connection).
In this picture you can see the "old" laptop on the left with the "new" LCD screen on it. It is the machine I used to get the BIOS password off the "new" laptop. The next bit of messy wires is the circuit to connect the two computers. In the middle is the "new" laptop disassembled with no monitor and wires coming out from underneath, and on the right is the external monitor connected to the "new" laptop showing that I've made it past the BIOS password and am in the BIOS setup menu.
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Well, not really. It starts a couple of years ago when we were living in England and I wanted a small Windows laptop to hook up to my GPS so I had a bigger screen and could use it as a navigational tool. I bought an IBM Thinkpad 240 on eBay and was very happy with it -- screen size of 10 inches is just about right for in the car. However, some time in the last year the LCD screen on the laptop got crushed and so the only way I could use the laptop was to hook it up to an external monitor. Whilst this does provide a working computer, it is not very useful as a LAPtop.
Enter the next problem in the saga -- my 2003 VW Eurovan had the check engine light come on. Now that the van is out of warranty I decided I would like to have the ability to read the ECM codes so I could fix the van myself if possible. So, I bought a special cable to connect the car's computer to a personal computer, but of course, the software only works on Windows. And, the only Windows PC that can easily go to the car in the garage (versus bring the car into the living room) is the laptop. But, the laptop needs an external monitor. So, I lugged a 19" CRT into the garage with the laptop to read the codes (maybe I will post about that some other day). While carrying the CRT monitor out of the garage I made up my mind I would start cruising eBay for a broken IBM Thinkpad 240 that I could buy for the screen. Not being in much of a hurry I patiently waited for the right laptop to come along for the right price. I ended up winning a Thinkpad 240x which has a newer, faster processor than the 240. The only problem with the laptop was that it didn't have a power supply (no problem, already have one of those) and it had a BIOS password that was unknown (no problem, I only want the screen off the laptop).
But, once I got the laptop in my hands, knowing that it had a faster processor in it I thought MAYBE I could upgrade my laptop slightly. So, I searched the Internet and found this site. I already had a breadboard and the correct resistors from my electrical engineering education, so I went to Fry's and bought the two zener diodes and DB9 connector. This afternoon I tried to take a nap but found I wasn't tired, so I decided to play with the laptop a bit and see what I could do. The first step was to uncover the ATMEL chip on the motherboard, which required disassembling the entire laptop because the chip is on the bottom of the motherboard. The IBM web site helped with this. In the process of taking the new laptop apart I went ahead and removed the screen and installed it on the old laptop (yes, it works!). Then came the fun of soldering a couple of wires to the motherboard of the new computer so I could read the information stored in the BIOS and find the password.
Knowing that I had already achieved my objective of a working laptop, I only had minimal trepidation as I tackled the soldering -- it turned out to be a bit easier than I expected.
After the soldering was done I put together the little circuit and connected it to the DB9 connector.
Once all was connected I was able to use a freeware program to copy the information off the ATMEL eeprom chip and then another program to decipher the password. Viola! I was able to get past the supervisor BIOS password and then found out the hard drive wasn't bootable. But, no worries, next project will be to get a new operating system onto the hard drive of a laptop with no CD drive (or network connection).
In this picture you can see the "old" laptop on the left with the "new" LCD screen on it. It is the machine I used to get the BIOS password off the "new" laptop. The next bit of messy wires is the circuit to connect the two computers. In the middle is the "new" laptop disassembled with no monitor and wires coming out from underneath, and on the right is the external monitor connected to the "new" laptop showing that I've made it past the BIOS password and am in the BIOS setup menu.
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