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SVP recovery or Clear using KeyMaker KMX2 with a second PC or Laptop

Safety Precautions to ensure that your KeyMaker Board and ThinkPad are not damaged

In order to avoid damage to your KeyMaker Board as well as the ThinkPad you are using it on, there are certain precautions you MUST observe.

If you ignore these precautions you will join the 3% of customers who bought a KeyMaker board - ignored these precautions and damaged their KeyMaker Board  by being careless - then had to pay to have it replaced - and lost a lot of time in the process.

Your KeyMaker has electrical contacts on both sides, you must ensure that no part of your KeyMaker USB board comes into contact with any conductive surfaces such as bare metal or bare wires.

You should place down a piece of paper and place your KeyMaker USB on top of it in order to avoid any electrical contact which may damage your KeyMaker.

There is no danger of receiving an electrical shock from your KeyMaker USB as the highest voltage anywhere on the board is 5 Volts which is a safe voltage to touch.

If you prefer you can place your KeyMaker USB board inside an Anti-Static  plastic bag during use, the board does not get warm at all, so there is no issue with ventilation.

The same precautions apply to your ThinkPad when you are performing any operation and BEFORE your ThinkPad is switched ON, you must ensure that nothing can short out by coming into contact with other parts, you can use sheets of plastic or plain paper to make sure things remain electrically isolated.

You MUST NOT allow the SDA and SCL leads from any KeyMaker KMX1 or KMX2 to come into contact with ANYTHING other than the correct SDA and SDA EEPROM connections points and ONLY AFTER;

You have traced the wire you are using for your probe right back to the label on the I2C header on the KeyMaker board which reads SDA for YOUR SDA lead and reads SCL for YOUR SCL lead.

You have absolutely confirmed that you have correctly identified the SDA and SCL connection points on your ThinkPad System Board.

3% of customers who purchased a KeyMaker Board have somehow managed to damaged their KeyMaker board.

NOT ONE of those customers can tell me exactly what he or she did to damage it.

I have tried all sorts of seriously ridiculous ways to damage a KeyMaker board and I have NOT BEEN ABLE TO DAMAGE ONE !

I only tried MILDLY STUPID THINGS like connecting a solid 9 Volt source to SDA and SCL - theoretically that should have damaged the I/O pin on that KeyMaker powered from 3.3 Volts, IT DIDN'T.

Your KeyMaker board is a delicate piece of equipment, treat it with respect.

Do NOT experiment or connect to anything if you are not certain you have the correct connection points identified.

There are voltages much higher than 3.3 Volts inside your ThinkPad, in fact up to 20 Volts. 

20 Volts is not a danger to YOU but it is to the KeyMaker KMX1 or KMX2.

Connect SDA and SCL leads ONLY if you have double checked and are CERTAIN you have correctly identified SDA and SCL connection points

The above is VERY IMPORTANT - don't ignore it else you WILL damage your KeyMaker KMX1 or KMX2 board and that is expensive, wastes a lot of time and is not much fun.

Read more on Safety Precautions here

In the text below any reference to KMX2 applies equally to KMX2 PRO and KMX2 PRO Plus

Before you can use KMX2 to unlock any TP you must first Activate it

If the Green EEPROM Activity LED on your KMX2 is flashing continuously that means
it has not been Activated

The images below show a KMX1 board, for the functions described below KMX2 performs in the same way as KMX1

Please read this entire page, more than once if you have to, until you have a really good understanding of ALL the steps involved, only then start unlocking your ThinkPad

KMX2

Recovering or Clearing a Supervisor Password (SVP) from a TP is fairly straightforward.

Once you know how to avoid all the TRAPS IBM/Lenovo have set for you the customer.

I know this is all very exciting and you are ready to start stripping down your TP and jump into it, but WAIT! read all of this first.

Most people are absolutely certain they have a Supervisor Password (SVP) set.

There is a chance you may not have a SVP set in your TP.

I have exchanged emails with many people who have gone through all the SVP unlocking thing read the EEPROM, wasted days,  only to discover there is no SVP set at all.

How is that possible, are these people really dumb or something.

The answer is NO, these are all perfectly sane intelligent people. 

The real problem is IBM/Lenovo and their warped sense of humour.

When you really do have strong security, you challenge people to try and defeat it, you invite peer review  to make sure it is in fact secure.

When you have flimsy pretend security and you obstinately pretend it is so secure even you cant unlock it, well you have to get all secretive and vague about everything HOPING people wont find out, in other words an illusion of strong security where none really exist, which is what we have here.

Trap number 1, the Hard Disk Password (HDP)

If at any time you see this Password prompt icon

That icon with the small number 1 (it may be a small number 2 or 3 if you have more than one Hard Disk] means the HDP is set. You will not be able to easily recover or clear the HDP, KMX2 will NOT recover or clear HDP.

It will cost you more to clear the HDP than a new Hard disk is worth.

Clearing a HDP is only worth the expense and effort if there is valuable data on the Hard disk that MUST be recovered.

If HDP is set then remove the Hard Disk [HD] before continuing so that you can determine which other passwords (IF ANY) you need to recover or clear.

There may not be any other password set!

Ok, you removed the HD and you see yet another Password Prompt icon.

Trap number 2, the guessing game - is it  SVP or POP -

The trap is that IBM/Lenovo in their wisdom chose to have THE SAME PASSWORD PROMPT ICON for BOTH SVP and Power on Password (POP)

The password prompt icon pictured above
Does NOT define which PASSWORD it is asking you to enter.

It can be either POP or SVP

Only ONE way to find out for sure which one it is and maybe save a LOT of time.

1. Identify your TP model
   

2. Download the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) for your TP model

The link above is to the IBM/Lenovo site, if it doesn't work, don't panic, it isn't broken, their site is shut down daily for maintenance and at those times they display spurious messages like the page you requested cannot be found, wait a good while and try again.

Using the HMM link above, once you select a model and are on the page that has the PDF HMM for that model, it is best to right click on the PDF HMM for your model then select Save Target AS, that way you will have the PDF HMM on your PC to refer to any time you need it.

Spend the time to read the first part of the HMM which deals with Cautions some of which like for example Shock Sensors  are very important, you would not want to roughly handle your System board to find out when you power it up to unlock it that in fact you have ruined it.

Read the HMM section dealing with Passwords and become familiar with how to remove Power on Password [POP] 

Then follow the instructions for POP Removal 

After performing POP Removal if there is no password prompt icon displayed, you are done, your TP is unlocked.

if you have performed POP Removal and you continue to see this password prompt icon

It does NOT mean you didn't perform POP Removal correctly

It means that with POP removed, you have now absolutely confirmed that you do indeed have a SVP set and you can now put the time and effort into removing or clearing it.

How to recover or clear SVP

You must ACTIVATE your KMX2 before it will do anything useful.

If you jumped straight in here without reading all of the above information - STOP - and read all the information above FIRST!

Recovering or Clearing a Supervisor Password (SVP) from a ThinkPad (TP) always involves these steps.

1. Identify your TP model.
   
2. Find the location of the EEPROM connection points and EEPROM Type.
   
3. Download and save the HMM, then follow the HMM to enable you strip down the TP [without damaging it as you would if you don't follow the HMM] down to the point you can access that EEPROM location, depending on the model this could be ONE Screw or a total strip down.
   
4. Connect 3 leads between the EEPROM's connection points and KMX2 I2C connector
   
5. Switch on the TP and use the KM9A Menu to select the EEPROM type which you would have from the EEPROM connection points;
   
   At the TOP of each EEPROM LOCATION page you will find a message, for example for R61 you would see;
   
            R61 R61i EEPROM you treat it as a 24RF08
   
   That is the eeprom type you select at this point from the menu for your model TP if you are unlocking an R61, check for your own model and select what that page says is the EEPROM in your model TP.
   
6. select the command to Recover or Clear your SVP.
   

More detail on those 5 steps follows below, please continue reading

It will lead to this

The connection Points on KMX2, VCC - GND - SCL - SDA

Most times we only use GND - SCL - SDA and leave VCC NOT connected.

When you purchase KMX2 you are supplied with a 4 wire lead.

Most of the time you will ONLY be using 3 of those 4 leads.

In the photo above on the right, the 4 wire lead is connected onto the I2C header pins

NOTE: The orientation, by convention, much like a car battery, RED is Positive Voltage, in this case it is called VCC.

Black is Negative or as we will be referring to it as GND which stands for Ground, in plain English Ground is the negative or common point in a circuit.

You do NOT connect VCC [the RED lead] unless you are reading an unsoldered 24xx series EEPROM and I can't see you doing that very often if at all unless you run a Laptop Repair Shop.

All the EEPROM location pages show 3 connection points;

1. GND which you connect to the BLACK lead above.
2. SCL which you connect to the YELLOW lead above.
3. SDA which you connect to the WHITE lead above.

Make it a habit of connecting the 4 wire lead as per above with the RED wire over VCC.

When it comes to making those 3 connections between KMX2 and the EEPROM you have the choice of using;

1. Clips to make the connections
   
2. Using Sharp Probes, for example multimeter leads that are skinny and come to a sharp point, they also have an insulated handle for you to hold without your sweaty hands interfering with the low power signals on SDA and SCL.
   

Read more about Clips and Probes

Whichever method you chose to make the 3 connections is up to you, so long as there is a good electrical connection during any Read or Write operation between the connection points at both the EEPROM and KMX2 I2C CONNECTOR all is well.

You really want to unlock your TP and use it again?

It does not get any easier than this!

Yes, you can easily do it yourself!

 

If you have read all the preceding information on this page and not simply skipped all that boring IMPORTANT information,  - if you skipped it, go back and read all of this page above.

 You should already have:

1. Identified your TP model.

2. Downloaded and saved the HMM, then followed the HMM POP removal procedure to be certain it isn't simply a POP and NOT SVP you are faced with

3. Having confirmed it is a SVP, found the location of the EEPROM connection points and EEPROM Type for your TP Model.

4. Followed the HMM to enable you to strip down the TP [without damaging it as you would if you don't follow the HMM] down to the point you can access that EEPROM location, depending on the model this could be ONE Screw or a total strip down.

Having found the EEPROM connection point for your TP Model, having decided if you use clips or sharp probes to make the actual connections.

The time has come to actually make those connections.

Whichever connection method you chose, your KMX2 should be switched ON, your Terminal software should be connected to your KMX2 and you should be at the Main Menu displayed on the screen

If you really really skipped a lot of preceding information, here is a clue, the Terminal software runs on a second PC or Laptop, the USB port on that second PC is connected to KMX2,  NOT ON THE LOCKED TP as clearly that is mission impossible!

A quick lesson: IBM and Lenovo used three different key layouts for country specific keyboards:

QWERTY   for US English
QWERTZ   for DE German
AZERTY     for FR French

Since some keys are in different places, the password could be different for each keyboard if those keys were used.

Use Command 6 first to select your TP keyboard language.

KMX2

Pay attention to Selecting ThinkPad's Keyboard if you are doing different Language TPs.

Keyboard Selection Menu

First, you connect the 3 wires (GND, SDA, SCL) from the KMX2 I2C header to the EEPROM connection points on your Password Protected TP.

You can solder the 3 wires, or you can use a clip on each wire, or you can use a clip for GND and sharp probes for SDA and SCL.

The 3 connections MUST be made to the correct connection points.

Double check you have not mixed up the 3 wires.

With some models, you will have a totally stripped down bare, yet able to be switched on and run TP for this operation. 

In that case make sure the metal parts of the keyboard cannot come into electrical contact with any part of the circuitry on the system board you can use paper or plastic or insulating tape to keep things electrically isolated. 

Make sure you do have attached the CPU heat sink and that the CPU cooling fan is connected and will operate when the TP is switched on, else you will fry your CPU.

On some models it helps if you open the LCD screen at 90 degrees and stand the TP vertical so one side of the LCD screen and one side of the Machine are resting on the table surface, that way you can access the front and back of the TP after it is switched ON.

If you are using sharp probes to make the connections then you can wait until the locked TP has Powered UP and is at a password prompt before making the connections using your sharp probes.

You have made sure nothing can 'short out' ?

Plug a mini-USB cable from one of the USB Ports on your unlocked laptop or PC to the USB socket on your KMX2, that will power KMX2.

Switch the KMX2 on and run the Terminal software on your laptop or PC, NOT THE ONE LOCKED WITH A PASSWORD, ANOTHER PC OR LAPTOP.

Connect the GND wire from the ThinkPad to the KMX2 I2C interface.

Of course you do need to connect some power to the ThinkPad via your TP AC adaptor, else nothing useful will occur.

Switch the ThinkPad ON.

PRESS AND HOLD DOWN the ThinkPad F1 KEY

If you don't hear the sound of the CPU cooling fan running, switch off and check it before continuing, normally the fan runs the instant you switch the TP ON, it may stop in the next few seconds, that's OK, so long as it does run at start up you know you have not forgotten to connect it during re-assembly.

WAIT until you see the message 'Entering Bios setup' or similarly worded message or you see a Password Prompt icon or you see an error message that is NOT about a boot error.

ONLY THEN RELEASE THE F1 KEY

If the ThinkPad has booted to any operating System, switch it OFF and pay MORE ATTENTION, hold down the F1 key and continue to hold it down while switching the ThinkPad ON..

VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT continue unless the ThinkPad is displaying the message 'Entering Bios setup' or similarly worded message or you see a Password Prompt icon or you see an error message that is NOT about an operating system boot error.

If you see this password prompt icon with either the number 1 or 2 or 3 etc

That means, that like a LOT OF PEOPLE, you are rushing and you completely skipped the important information at the start of this page, please switch the TP OFF, and start reading from the top of this page, this time do NOT skip anything!

You should be seeing this icon

One final reminder for those in a huge rush who skip important information, you did already follow the POP Removal procedure detailed at the top of this page, YES?

Did you notice that each page showing the location of the EEPROM connection point for your TP model, starts off with, for example for R52;

R52 EEPROM you treat it as LSI

That is telling us that the EEPROM TYPE for an R52 is LSI.

That EEPROM TYPE will be your first Main menu selection

Go ahead and select your TP's  EEPROM type LSI, 24RF08, 24C01, 24C03 or 93C46  from the main menu. 

Type in the command number for the EEPROM Type in your TP.

Depending on the EEPROM Type selected, you will then see either 1 or more Command options.

Recover LSI SVP is always the number 1 Command.

Notice in the display above - 5 second delay -

That delay is to allow YOU to start an operation and then during the delay connect your SDA and SCL Probes to the System Board so that when the delay counts down to zero and the operation starts the SDA and SCL probes are already connected and all is in place for the operation to succeed.

Without the delay you would need someone else to help you to start the operation once you had the probes in place - problem is you ONLY HAVE 2 HANDS and without the delay you would need 3 hands or more !

Do not press a command button before YOU are ready to connect SDA and SCL before the countdown expires, you can set the delay to 0, 5, 10 or 15 seconds.

The GND connection needs to be made before we start an operation, so make the GND connection now using a Clip so that you do not need to hold that in place.

Now press the command number for the operation you wish to perform and perform that operation.

If you are using sharp probes to make the EEPROM connections, you must now apply them to the EEPROM connection points for SDA and SCL before the delay countdown reaches zero.

If for example we had select LSI as the EEPROM type and then selected Command 1 for Recover LSI SVP we would see the following screen.

Recovered Password ABCDEFG displayed ready to type in a the password prompt using a QWERTY English Keyboard

The Supervisor password (SVP)

The copy of the SVP (CSVP) which on some older models contains the Hard Disk Password (HDP) can also be recovered and displayed.

NOTE: on newer models, Hard Disk Password cannot be recovered from anywhere inside the TP, the Hard Disk itself internally looks after the HD Password.

NSC The type of Scan code decoded, in this case Normal Scan Code. Will also decode R series  Scan Codes RSC

Now that you KNOW what the Supervisor Password is.

Your TP is asking you to enter the Supervisor Password? 

Well now you have it!  

You simply type in your recovered SVP 
and press the ENTER key.

Your TP is now unlocked,  as a reward, you are greeted by this welcome sign of an UNLOCKED TP

Now you have full access to your TP

Time to congratulate yourself on a job well done.

To permanently remove the Supervisor Password,  follow the instructions for turning off the password option in the setup.

I would recommend that you set a new Supervisor Password, one you can remember. If you don't set one someone else can and you may have to do this all over again, much easier to set your own password so no one else can set one and frustrate you.

To avoid confusion between different language keyboards, you can select which Keyboard language you wish to use to display your recovered passwords, see sample Screen Shots further down at the foot of this webpage. 

If you really skipped a lot of information and did NOT BOTHER to check which passwords are set and in fact there is no SVP set you would see *BLANK* displayed which means there is NO SVP set and you wasted a lot of time recovering a SVP that is NOT SET.  Always check first which passwords are set.

If the optional TPM/TCPA  Security (encryption) was enabled, then the SVP cannot be recovered - it isn't a word or phrase that can be displayed.  In that case you would see something like this instead of your recovered SVP,  *BADCS* or *NVPC** as per the image below - that simply means the SVP is encrypted and cannot be Recovered to be typed in at the Keyboard, instead you need to use the KMX2 Clear SVP command to Clear that encrypted SVP

An encrypted SVP is NOT a problem for KMX2 !

As you can see in the screen shot above, command 2 lets you Clear LSI SVP.

This will clear ANY password including the encrypted TPM/TCPA  SVP or as some people call it Reset TCPA.

You press the 2 key, a message appears asking you if you are ready to Clear SVP

You type Y for Yes     and make the SDA and SCL connections BEFORE the delay reaches zero.

A few seconds later there is no longer an encrypted SVP and TCPA has been reset.

The encrypted SVP is gone, however there are important remaining steps you MUST COMPLETE

DO NOT SKIP THESE VERY IMPORTANT STEPS BELOW

CAUTION: IF your laptop is set to boot over a Corporate Network then you will need to find out and set teh correct BIOS settings for your Corporate network.

 After the Clear SVP operation is completed, AND YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE VERY IMPORTANT STEPS ABOVE 

if you press 1 for Recover LSI SVP

and you type Y

when the operation is completed you will see the screen below, see *BLANK* that means - NO SVP -, gone as if it never existed.

Final quick lesson;

When using KMX2, connection leads to the EEPROM inside a TP can be connected whilst the TP is switched OFF or ON, the leads can be left connected while the TP is being switched ON and OFF.

If you are new to TP unlocking you might be thinking - so what! well read on and you will see what a significant difference that can make.

RS-232 based simple interfaces when connected to the EEPROM inside a TP impose a substantial load on the EEPROM's signal lines and if left connected will interfere with the power on and power off functions of the TP. 

Which means that when using an old RS-232 interface the EEPROM leads  must be disconnected while the TP is powering up, connected to perform a function then disconnected again before switching the TP OFF. 

When using an old RS-232 interface the EEPROM leads can ONLY be connected after the TP has been switched ON and has completed its power up functions.

A lot of TP unlock operations require that you Power Cycle the TP, in other words Switch OFF, Switch ON the TP, having to disconnect leads from the EEPROM and  reconnect those EEPROM leads each time the TP is switched ON or OFF becomes tedious and can lead to mistakes.

Another plus for Joe's KeyMaker KMX2.

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Disclaimer

I make no warranty that any of my information is correct, or safe, or does or does not breach any warranty clause,  or anything else, it is up to you to decide if you will follow all or any of the instructions to recover the Supervisor Password from a TP. It is up to you to decide, I am not responsible for the results or for any consequential or incidental damages whatsoever.

If you have any questions, email Joe at