I was looking around a swap meet in my area and found this old Thinkpad 365ED
I plugged it in and it actually works but there's a BIOS password on it - does anyone know how I can bypass this?
I would rather not delete everything on the machine because I kinda wanna see how people used computers back then, it appears this machine shipped with windows 95 but was word even a thing? What kinda browser do you think is installed, was internet even used back then, I wanna see how it was used without wiping everything.
So, does anyone know how I can get around the BIOS password?
I'm surprised that the computer even works at all - at the swap meet I found it at, it was sitting on the ground outside and covered in dirt and shit.
Luke Martinez
I find this question so interesting because it shows how it leads to retro circlejerks making up BS answers.
>how people used computers back then In an office
>Was word even a thing? Started in 1983 so therefore yes
>Browser do you think is installed Internet Explorer 1 - 4 and at the time it was possibly a separate purchase in a box, this is what lead to monopoly lawsuits
>Was the internet even used back then it was around in the 80s as the vocal bbs turds around here will certainly let you know
>Wanna see how it was used without wiping everything take the drive out, get an adapter and mount it in a PC
>BIOS password You can't without soldering but probably nobody ever cared enough to post how for this particular model
now then you can read this or you can ignore everything I've said and go join the 2 luddite circlejerks and get wrong information because you want the past to be "the lost golden age" where you won't accept this laptop was part of some boring, shitty office
How old are you mister user??? Thanks for the info btw
So your saying this laptop is p much worthless? I was under the impression windows 95 and earlier operating systems weren't designed with any thought for security so they were fairly simple to bypass - I remember seeing a video of someone getting around the login screen to win95 in like 30 seconds by opening the print menu, there's nothing like that for the BIOS password?
>laptop was part of some shitty boring office
It wasn't. Under that sticker is the name of the original owner. She was a professor at Caltech in the 90s and is on the National Academy of Sciences, she now lives in China and is in the Academia Sinica, there's probably some really cool top level research shit on here
So I'll have to solder shit? Looks like I'm gonna have to take out the hard drive instead
Luis Flores
You cant remove the password of a business laptop easy.
Sell it in parts.
Logan King
user I bought this laptop for $10
If I sold it in parts I could probably make $11
Nathaniel Evans
If it's like the 600, it's possible to open it up, solder a couple wires and resistors on a memory chip and connect it to a serial port and run a program to retrieve the password.
Been so long since I've done it, I can't remember the name of the program, but if I found it with a bit of Googling, I'm sure you can too.
Josiah Wilson
btw theres a difference between simple bios password and a hdd password (common on some laptops)
Jordan Barnes
lenovo.com/psref/pdf/twbook.pdf page 18 is your system, it shipped with 95 and a couple pre-loaded utilities, MSO as we know it today was already like six years old by then, if you want a really autistic IBM-tier software stack lotus smartsuite would be a more accurate choice, other than IE for a browser there's also netscape and a whole bunch of other shit
once you get it unlocked you'll probably find it isn't really all that much different from modern gear fundamentally other than being very underpowered and underfeatured when it comes to multimedia and web use, winworldpc and vetusware both have plenty of software you can pick up for more specific/niche shit you might want to do with it
Colton Richardson
I'm your age but I remember that certain things were just shit. The bypass you're talking about was discovered at least a decade after the OS wasn't used anymore and hadn't had updates for longer. You can just mount the hard drive to get the stuff off of it. You will need one of these. Don't recommend using the 3.5 IDE to usb adapters as they sometimes fail on random drives. Best way is to use pic related in a PC that has IDE on it.
Lincoln Mitchell
assuming you get the bios reset using the solder method you could sell it for at least $80, go check ebay. you could also sell it here in one of the many luddite circlejerks. Just paste on RETRO COOL VINTAGE RARE on your post. Pretend to be old and go on about "back in the day" and "kids today with their phones". It really is that easy.
Matthew Flores
Can't you flash the bios with a bus-pirate? Would that reset everything including the password?
i have a 380ED with windows 98 166mhz pentium mmx, 48mb of ram, 1mb vram, 2.1gb hdd and a glorious 2 hours battery life
with the bios password... long story short you cant do it without soldering on a bunch of shit to pull the password off and use it its complicated, its not newbie level stuff by any means
>how people used computers back then on a fundamental basis, not much has changed, you use it to write things, create spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations and database managing
it probably had IE 1 or 1.5 to browse the internet
with my 380ED i can use a PCMCIA to Ethernet adapter to browse Sup Forums and even post
Austin Ross
I have a 380D, but the keyboard does not register.
I believe someone removed the hard drive and pulled out the keyboard ribbon cable. I've never got around to taking it apart and trying fix it.
I'm just so tired all the time.
Jayden Smith
Ok you guys are gonna have to dumb things the hell down for me the extent of my computer experience is setting up a nickname in IRC and slightly playing with MATLAB, I've never touched a soldering iron before and don't know what IDE means
When you say I'll need one of those, what is that and what does it do lmao
And I don't know if I'm willing to buy a soldering iron and learn how to use it just to get this thing to work
I'm assuming its referring to BIOS password all it says is enter password
I'm assuming computational research programs or modeling type stuff didn't exist back then? or was most research with computers and programming done on super computers?
Jaxon Hill
Connect one side to 2.5" laptop hard drive. Connect other end to IDE cable in a PC. pic related. boot off usb or cd with some light linux distro like DSL. access the drive. poke around. copy files to flash drive if you want.
Again the 2.5 / 3.5 USB adapters are hit and miss for some IDE drives which is why I do not recommend. They are 100% perfect for sata.
Jacob Scott
also, have you tried just pressing enter or "password"
Aaron Clark
Holy shit yours is in perfect condition
my keyboard is covered in dust and ash and smells like it was owned by a smoker (which is kinda weird since I don't really think a 60 year old female Chinese academic would smoke) it still works, doesn't appear like there's any way to remove the keyboard though, it's attached to the laptop at the edges
Even the track point is covered in dirt
Here's a pic, it says don't push but I pushed the hell out of it anyways but nothing happened
Would the hard drive be under that black piece of paper? Where is the hard drive in here?
even ebay/tpg sheep aren't coughing up more than $50 for those hunks of low-end shit justin, let's not give OP any delusions of financial grandeur
think I picked up my 365XD for like $2
>I'm assuming computational research programs or modeling type stuff didn't exist back then? you could get pretty much anything for a PC back then if you knew exactly what you wanted and had money to throw at it, that's why the Wintel platform was so popular in the first place >or was most research with computers and programming done on super computers? not really, supercomputers have always been more for big dataset problems, but it really depends on what kind of "research" you're talking about
if you're just trying to figure out what to expect to find on the drive, most of the shit she was working on at caltech was probably on remote systems but you might still find some fun personal shit and maybe a loaded inbox or two
Yeah I can't even find a screw driver in my house much less an IDE cable
Doesn't look like I'm gonna be able to take out the hard drive today desu
Damn I thought you guys were computer wizards who would easily be able to bypass this with a few keystrokes, you all dissapointed me... this will be way harder than I expected...
Charles Cook
Are you posting on Sup Forums from it right now
Do you use it for anything? Is it comfy to use or not at all
Parker Thompson
>who would easily be able to bypass this with a few keystrokes,
You are talking about the >Basic >Intput >Output >System
Samuel Ward
no im on my desktop, its good for DOOM and i use it at work to communicate with old as fuck CNC machines its comfy, great keyboard and functions as intended
Juan Brown
Yeah of course I've even tried password with a capital P and PA55W04D, those didn't work, my gmail password didn't work, my dad's password didn't even work
>Basic Input Output System
...I expected bios to stand for something way more complicated desu
Honestly that's a kinda dumb acronym, isn't it? The computer people back then should have named it something related to computer start-up, it's name doesn't relate to its function at all.
Why do you hate old computers so much anonymous stranger just because it's a piece of shit by modern standards doesn't mean it isn't kinda cool
and besides they are cheap as fuck, even $50 is pretty cheap for a working computer but any computer this old is gonna be way cheaper than $50
Robert Martin
ok fuck it
I took apart the 380D and reconnected the keyboard and track point
it was a complete bitch to do
but they work now
it booted the windows 2000 cd
but fuck that
cracked a 16 year old CD-R case in order to burn a copy of DSL
Brandon Sullivan
don't hate them at all, they just are what they are, 300s were the low end, they did their job, make fun toys now and deserve to be preserved as much as anything else but they aren't all that special and worth a lot, that's all I was saying
im not the first guy you quoted, that's probably Justin the eternally buttblasted false flagger
Lucas Richardson
Who the fuck is Justin and why do you know him? Is he your boyfriend?
Parker Evans
It worked
now I have to buy a fucking adapter and install a compact flash drive as the HDD
