Tech advice needed-

I have an IBM 2628, A21m ThinkPad laptop. It is BIOS/hard drive password protected.
Does anyone know how to jumper this model or an IBM master password to bypass/disable the hardware security?

Pull the battery out. It's shiny and looks like an oversized watch battery.

I have worked with several IBM laptops. For the most part removing the battery has not worked (on newer ones) as well most don't have a CMOS reset jumper on the main board. This is because of the problems with laptop theft. On 90% of the IBM laptops I've fixed because of this, it involved motherboard replacement. You can however try a few of the bootup floppy utilities that can overwrite or reset the BIOS password. They can be riscky though. But if nothing else works what have you got to lose. Check with the IBM website and see if they have the manual for download in .pdf. They do for some models. If not search the web for the boot disk utilitys. I have some, but had them fot awhile and can't remember where I got them all.

Good luck...........

PS: If you know the company it came from. Contact them and go see them and let them reset it.

My stepfather used to work for thinkpad tech support. I just asked him, and he says basically if you forgot the password, you could try taking it into an IBM repair centre and getting it replaced or something to that effect. It could take a while though. It's all about laptop theft, as was mentioned earlier.

I do in fact have this very same laptop. The other members replies are correct, so take it to the ibm depot and they will turn it around.