I purchased a second hand ThinkPad from an ebay outlet. When it arrived I wiped windows 10 from it and installed ubuntu with no issues. It runs perfect without any weird fixes needed. However, after just checking the bios to see if I could change some settings, I realised it has a supervisor password.

I contacted the seller and they gave me a few to try but they haven’t worked.

They said their tech will be back next week and will contact me then but I may have to send it back.

My question is, will this be an issue in the future? Or does it depend on which settings are locked?

I don’t really want to send it back unless it’s critical, as I have a lot of work to do and my previous laptop is moments away from death.

  • @[email protected]
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    fedilink
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    181 year ago

    The password will be stored in EEPROM in newer laptops. Removing the battery will not clear the password and could make things even worse since you won’t be able to change any settings that get reset.

    The best thing would be to return it and find a different one that’s not locked.