My Thinkpad suddenly refuses my boot password...

Evert Meulie esq.

Hi!

Has this happened to anyone else as well...?

The following. When I turned on my laptop (IBM Thinkpad T40) a few
days ago, it took at least 5 seconds for the boot-password-prompt to
appear, instead of almost at once, like normal.
And no matter what I type, it refuses the password. I know 100% sure
that no one has altered the boot password on the laptop.

We've handed in the laptop for repair, but now IBM says: 'User error.
You probably forgot your password...'. And the refuse to fix it under
the warranty. (Fixing seems only to be possible by replacing the
mainboard, and expensive operation.)

I know 100% sure that I did not forget my password, and say it's
IBM's fault.
The fact that the laptop suddenly pauses for quite a while before
displaying the password prompt only strenghtens this feeling for me.

Is there anyone here who has experienced something similar?


Greetings,
Evert Meulie

Tom Cole [anti-spam - reinstate c's from g's to email me]

I had this problem once when my Thinkpad keyboard started ignoring
certain key-presses. I could only get past the BIOS login after
attaching an external keyboard. IBM replaced the keyboard under
warranty.


evert@meulie.net (Evert Meulie esq.) wrote:

>Hi!
>
>Has this happened to anyone else as well...?
>
>The following. When I turned on my laptop (IBM Thinkpad T40) a few
>days ago, it took at least 5 seconds for the boot-password-prompt to
>appear, instead of almost at once, like normal.
>And no matter what I type, it refuses the password. I know 100% sure
>that no one has altered the boot password on the laptop.
>
>We've handed in the laptop for repair, but now IBM says: 'User error.
>You probably forgot your password...'. And the refuse to fix it under
>the warranty. (Fixing seems only to be possible by replacing the
>mainboard, and expensive operation.)
>
>I know 100% sure that I did not forget my password, and say it's
>IBM's fault.
>The fact that the laptop suddenly pauses for quite a while before
>displaying the password prompt only strenghtens this feeling for me.
>
>Is there anyone here who has experienced something similar?
>
>
>Greetings,
>Evert Meulie

--
Tom Cole
Lower Hutt
New Zealand
tgole@xtra.go.nz (Tom Cole [anti-spam - reinstate c's from g's to email me])