I have an IBM thinkpad R51 and I cant not get in the BIOS I have tried to clear the CMOS by removing the battery i could not find the jumpers, but now when i tried to boot the computer i get to error message 0271 check date & time and 0176 systems have been tamper with. there are 2 password set at start up i know the first one but not the second is there anything that i can to about his. I need to install windows xp .

I have a thinkpad T40 with the same problem !!!! anyone know if we can jump the security chip or anything ?????

There is not a ton of info on IBM BIOS recoveries. IBM did the bad thing of making their BIOS VERY SECURE! I had an older IBM then the ones you guys have, and ran into an issue one time. And from IBM's mouth they said if the master password and even the HDD password are forgotton, you need a new BIOS!!

Of course, maybe there are ways to do it, refere to the DELL BIOS recovery thread on this same issue. But IBM is more secure and locks it right in with narry a way to remove.

Just keep searching Google, an answer, good or bad, is bound to show up. But as far as I know, and this was a while back, IBM said the BIOS itself would have to be replaced.

good luck fellas

No, you cannot get around the IBM TP BIOS password. There are some people who say they have devices that can crack the security chip, but I would rather trust IBM and have the motherboard replaced.

Of course, you lose the contents of your hard drive if you happened to encrypt that and forgot the password.

You might try these guys:
http://servicemontreal.ca/Passwords.htm

Try this website also! this will help you out!

Try and look at this website and do it on your own: www.passwordmethod.com