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Home  IBM ThinkPads Tutorials 24RF08 Reader Password Recovery steps
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24RF08 Reader Password Recovery steps |
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 08 September 2007 |
The first step you should do is read the Hardware Maintenance Manual for your ThinkPad. The Hardware Maintenance Manual will have instructions on how to dismantle your ThinkPad and locate the EEPROM on your System Board. There will also be instruction on how to unlock your Power On Password this will also let you know if it was just locked by the Power On Password or by the EEPROM. You could download the Hardware Maintenance Manual from IBM Website. - Download the necessary software for the device, You can find them on my web site at IBM SOFTWARE depending on the software you download you might have to open a DOS COMMAND PROMPT to run the software.
- Used the right Device to recovery the password, you can look at my web site and choose which Devices will work for you. There are two available devices that I am selling: The IBM KeyMaker or The 24RF08 Reader each device will use its own software. The IBM KeyMaker used Joe software which is available at his web site "http://www.ja.axxs.net/unlock/ ". The 24RF08 Reader Programmer used the software available on my web site that is Free.
Once you Download the software and install it on your Computer (NOT THE THINKPAD) and you choose the right device to used. Open the MS-Dos command prompt and go to the directory where you have install the software. You might be looking at something like the picture below, this will give you a idea on how it should look like with the software running.
Now that you install the software, as you can see from the picture above you will need to type in the command to recover your password. During all this time NOTHING SHOULD BE CONNECTED TO THE IBM THINKPAD!!! Not even the serial cable!!! You are just getting the software ready to be used. In the directory where you install the software you must type this command: " r24rf08 mytp23.bin /x /d /i" PLEASE make sure that there is a space between "8" and "m", "n" and "/", "x" and "/", "d" and "/" this is very important or the command will not work at all. You can use any name for the file, I used the name "mytp23.bin" because I was recovering a ThinkPad model T23 but you must have the "bin" at the end of the file. Once you get the command line ready, now we can work on the IBM ThinkPad. Before you started ripping it apart! Please read the Manual for the ThinkPad on how to dismantle your ThinkPad. You can go to IBM website and get more information on how to take it apart. First we must find the EEPROM, you and go to my website and find a link where you can see the pictures of the EEPROM and were they are located at. Once you find your EEPROM we must do the next step. You must solder three small wires onto the EEPROM or used a SOIC TEST CLIP. First of all MAKE SURE THAT THE POWER ON THE THINKPAD IS "OFF"AND THE DEVICE WIRES ARE NOT CONNECTED TO THE DEVICE AT ALL. Located the EEPROM on your ThinkPad, and solder the wire "GND", "SDA", and "SCL" make sure that the three wires DO NOT TOUCH EACH OTHER! If the wires touch each other while there is power on the ThinkPad you might corrupt the EEPROM and you might be SCREW! There are example of EEPROM on my webpage under "Datasheet" there you will see which legs you will need to solder. Here is an example of the wires connected to the EEPROM. Once you are done soldering the wires onto the EEPROM, the next step is putting the ThinkPad back together if you disassemble the laptop. Started connecting the wires that you solder onto the EEPROM onto the Device. MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS NO POWER ON THE DEVICE WHILE YOU ARE DOING THIS! If the wires are plug in to the device, make sure that the wires are not touching each other again! You will need to have the battery plug in the ThinkPad and NOT USED THE AC PLUGIN AT ALL! The next step is too turning on the ThinkPad. Once you turn on the ThinkPad, let it boot up to the prompt where you see the lock on the computer or the password Prompt. Now connected the 24RF08 Reader device to the computer and start connecting the wire to the device. When you are done, power on the 24RF08 Reader Device and go back to the Computer that has the software. On the command window where you type in the command you should hit enter now! You will see something like the picture below. When the software makes the data file you can close the reader software, now you will need to open the IBMpass.zip or open IBMpassLite.zip and run the software. Try to put the software in the same directory where you have made the bin file. Open a new MS-DOS command window and run the program call IBMpass.exe and type this command in the prompt "ibmpass mytp23.bin" there is a space between the letter "s" and "m" Now hit enter and you will see something like the picture below. This will show you the password right off the back! Unless you used the software IBMpassLite you will need to open the data file. Which you can do by clicking on File on the left hand corner. This is the other picture below this one.
Once you find the file open it up, you should see a bunch of weird letters, now click on the icon with the "A~A OFF"
You should be able to see some of the EEPROM information and plus the password. The Password should be located in section 0x330
By now you should have the password in your hands! This is just a run down on how to recover your password. I hope this will help someone out to recover his or her software. Please use this information at your OWN RISK!!!! Feel free to email me with any question
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Last Updated ( Friday, 25 January 2008 )
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