Resetting ME Password on IBM T61 Notebook

[manu555]

I have a laptop t61 ibm with intel amt 2.5.18.000 and i forgot the intel me password. I wanna upgrade to the latest version 2.6 can i do that without my password I mean will it ask my password when I restart the system after i clik on the upgrade package from my lenovo site ( intel amt 2.6). ALso let me know do you have any supervisor password to overcome my set password. I have read somewhere that we can remove the comos battery to reset the password But i do not have cmos remove instructions please let me know what to do I have already posted this quesiton many times in the lenovo forums and nobody is answering my question and I really do not know what to do. Please suggest me what to do.

[Gael_H_Intel]

Hi There and Thank You for posting your question on our Forum. Ajith has just posted a blog addressing your problem - check it out here.

And here are the basic steps as well:

• Power on the system and during the boot up, holding onto F1 key will let you into BIOS.
• Once you are in the BIOS, browse to Config->Intel AMT
• Change the Intel AMT settings to "disabled", save the settings and exit
• After the BIOS settings are saved, the system will automatically reboot
• On the power up, you will see a message about finishing the unconfiguration of AMT, do you want to continue (Yes/NO) -- Select Yes
• This will unconfigure all of AMT/ME settings and all the passwords are reset
• You will need to enter BIOS again, browse to Config->Intel AMT, change Intel AMT setting to "Enabled"
• After the BIOS settings are saved, next time when the system is powering up, you will need to hit "ctrl-P" to configure ME/AMT again.
• This time you will be using the default ME password ("admin")
• You know the drill from here

[Ajith_I_Intel]

Hi,

You can certainly upgrade the firmware to 2.6 and it wont ask you for ME password. Please follow the instructions from Lenovo to perform the firmware upgrade.

Regarding the ME password issue, there is no such thing as a master password that can bypass the login to ME. I have recently tried the process of resetting the ME settings to factory defaults on a Lenovo T61 laptop and blogged about it here. Depending on the type of platform and the BIOS implementations, the options to resetting factory defaults varies. Let me know if the instructions in my blog worked for you.

Thanks for using the manageability forum.

[manu555]

Hi Ajith & Gael,

Thank You soooo much for guding me , you know what I was soo frustrated and confused after searching the whole internet to reset the ME password for my T61 and for some reason could not get a proper link nor solution to my problem, I have also searched and bugged the Lenovo support but still no go, but Ajith has tried in the T61 and gave me a clear cut solution. Gael & Ajith , thanks once again for the help, I appreciate ur immediate response. You guys need KUDOS from your manager for sure :) .And also if you dont mind can you please send me the best configuration settings to configure in the Intel ME page. I mean after pressing ctrl+P ,what are the settings I should use for my T61 with 2.6 ME update.

Have a good day.

Thanks & Regards,
Manu

[manu555]

Hi Ajith & Gael,

Thank You soooo much for guding me , you know what I was soo frustrated and confused after searching the whole internet to reset the ME password for my T61 and for some reason could not get a proper link nor solution to my problem, I have also searched and bugged the Lenovo support but still no go, but Ajith has tried in the T61 and gave me a clear cut solution. Gael & Ajith , thanks once again for the help, I appreciate ur immediate response. You guys need KUDOS from your manager for sure :) .And also if you dont mind can you please send me the best configuration settings to configure in the Intel ME page. I mean after pressing ctrl+P ,what are the settings I should use for my T61 with 2.6 ME update.

Have a good day.

Thanks & Regards,
Manu

[manu555]

You guys are superb....I am happy because I was worried to open d damn laptop to remove the cmos battery nor d jumper. i love you both :-D...bye bye

[manu555]

Hi Ajith,

I have reset the password, thanks a lot. But now even after upgrading the intel me from the Lenovo site I could still see the old Intel me 2.5.18.00000 version while booting up. Can u please help me and also what settings should I use for my home/personal laptop, should I disable the Intel AMT feature like the Managebility option in Intel ME should I put to NONE r INTEL AMT r ASF. Please advise these two questions as of now. Thanks and I appreicate ur reply.

Regards,

[manu555]

Hi Gael,

Hi Ajith,

I have reset the password, thanks a lot. But now even after upgrading the intel me from the Lenovo site I could still see the old Intel me 2.5.18.00000 version while booting up. Can u please help me and also what configuration settings should I use for my home/personal laptop, should I disable the Intel AMT feature like in the Managebility option in Intel ME should I put to NONE r INTEL AMT r ASF. Please advise these two questions as of now( upgrade not showing & Managebility). Thanks and I appreicate ur reply.

Regards,

[Ajith_I_Intel]

Hi,

Thanks for your compliments. We are glad that you got the answers to your questions.

From an architecture perspective, AMT is an application running on top of ME. So even though you will see the ME version as 2.5.18.0000, AMT can have different version than this. To verify the AMT version, you can do it in two ways. You can using GetCoreVersion API from a remote system. Another way is to configure AMT in SMB mode, login into the webUI (http://AMT-IP-Address:16992) and check the AMT FW version on the system status screen (shown in small font at the bottom of the screen).

If you do not want any manageability options, select NONE for manageability options in ME settings. Hope this answers your questions. Let us know if you have further questions.

Thanks.

[manu555]

Actually I have used AMT in the managebiity option in INTEL ME configuration and I did not set up any commands or instructions in the INTEL AMT configuration. I want to know what all the settings given in the Intel AMT , like for eg hostname, ipaddress etc...In my case all are blank for Intel AMT except hostname, I have given my computer name. I have tried to enter the site(http://AMT-IP-Address:16992 u have given its not opening in my IE browswer, So I think that is because of my Intel AMT settings blank, is that right. If yes please let me know what should be given and how do I configure my intel AMT. I just use this computer as my personal laptop with wireless configuration and it will not be connected to any network or LAN. Please suggest the settings accordingly. Also let me know why is it showing Intel ME 2.5.18.00000 configuration at the post instead of 2.6.30.1014 that too after successful update of the Intel ME. In my computer if I check the version in the device manager its showing as 2.6.30.1014 for the intel management engine interface. So obviously it should show the same at the post as well right. SO in brief

1. Intel ME configuration should be 2.6.30.1014 at post, is it not related to the desktop update. Then no problem.
2. Do i need to configure Intel AMT settings if I do not use LAN or any n/w connection. I mean does it make any sense or improve perf if I configure AMT or just ignore it after setting it to NONE in the INTEL ME page.

[Ajith_I_Intel]

Hi,

Like I mentioned in my previous post, AMT and ME are two different firmware elements and can have seperate versions for them. When we ask for the firmware version, we are interested in AMT firmware version which is 2.6 in your case. So hopefully this answers your question.

Configuring AMT does not increase your system performance but it sure does help out a lot with remote management of the device. In order for you to use AMT, you will need to connect it to the network and access it via another machine. If you are using it for home and will not be connecting it to network, I would not configure any AMT options, it will not add any value.