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.
https://support.lenovo.com/au/en/solutions/ht036206-types-of-password-for-thinkpad
Reset forgotten supervisor password
If you forget your supervisor password, Lenovo cannot reset your password. You must take your computer to a Lenovo Service Provider to have the system board replaced.IMO, Honestly, at this point you probably arent going to miss much.
Youve presumably booted from an external device and installed an OS. I assume the time amd date are right.
Only question really is are you using efi or mbr boot method. If efi, you are probably fine and future proofed unless you want secure boot (windows) you may face an issue then. Thats not to say you will, just you might.
It won’t matter that much UNLESS a specific setting you might want is disabled such as virtualization.
Consider checking now if virtualization is enabled or disabled. If your BIOS settings are fairly permissive it isn’t that big of a deal. But if they are restrictive it can make it a pain in the ass to work around.
You can either try to contact the seller and ask for the password or just erase the UEFI settings by shorting some jumper or something. There should be instructions how to do that for your specific model.
Good reason to only buy computers with free and open source BIOS.
