Lenovo and IBM - the Great Motherboard Replacement Scam

I have one of the Lenovo G570 Laptops.

And this is really BAD.

The first one is that the management of Lenovo have done a deal with Microsoft to install an Operating System on the hard drive, and they claim that allocating a "special area" of the hard drive for recovery purposes, is a solution in case of "some kind of OS / Hard Drive problem - but they do not give you a copy of the OS on a DVD, to reinstall it, in case the OS crashed or a new HDD was needed etc....


This means that IF your operating system corrupts, your going to be facing a HUGE and BAD uphill battle to get a copy of YOUR operating system from Lenovo.

No doing on the spot brain surgery on your own lap top by reinstalling the OS... No.

This comes down to you not getting a 20c DVD with your operating system on it, Vs. hours fighting with idiots on the phone and days and or weeks waiting around for the DVD to arrive - if ever.

With the amount of down time a non working laptop can cost you in losses, you may as well buy another laptop. Better yet, don't buy a brand run by people who are prepared to put you out in thin air, on a limb, in the first place.

Take your first hint - only buy laptops, from makers who have excellent reputations for quality, repairs and customer service.  Get laptops that can be repaired by the local agent, instead of having to send them away. Avoid dealing with companies such as Lenovo, who are prepared to cheapskate you out of a quick reinstall of the operating system, in order to save 20c on a DVD.

The problems that arise from this are just not worth it.

Lenovo have EARNED a real reputation for giving people absolutely BAD service.

Get on the net, look up "complain" and "Lenovo" - there are half a million posts.

Mix the words a little with "bad" "ripoff" etc., etc.. etc.. and there are many more.

This could be an indicator that Lenovo ARE really bad to have anything to do withat all ever.

My own personal experience supports the general consensus that Lenovo computers are crap, and their customer service is worse. So do all the other consumers AND other statistics such as extended warranty providers - as to who has the least reliable laptops and computers... Lenovo ranks the worst.



My tale of woe started with the fact that I used the "Supervisor Password" - which means if the CMOS / EPROM chip corrupts the password OR if you forget it, then your laptop is BRICKED.

No Password = No Booting and No BIOS access.


Lenovo / IBM laptops - depending upon which version of the manual / laptop you get... they have up to THREE passwords.

1. The Power On Password.

2. The Hard Drive Password

3. The Supervisor Password.

 

But mine had the password corrupt / chip failure - and there have been a few other people commenting in the forums etc., that the CMOS / EPROM chips - like all the other hardware etc., these chips do on occasion, stop working.

The unit was bricked - and the issue is that they said the would only fix the laptop by me sending it back to them, to have the motherboard replaced.

At my cost.

Now this was not sooooooo bad, except that I didn't forget my password and the likelyhood of getting the people in Lenovo who really do give the WORST (to non existent) customer service ever - to admit a chip failure was as remote as gassing myself on fresh air.

So do I fight with them and deal with the never ending bullshit to get a technical test done on a chip, for months and months and months - if ever, or do I just suck it up and get the laptop working again ASAP.

I opted just to get it working.


The cost of replacing the mother board, I was told is about $450 for a $650 laptop - with more added onto it for insurance, postage and handling. I am thinking this is about $500 I am looking at.

Given that basic MOBO's can be had for $60 new, - paying $450 for a new basic low spec MOBO - I consider that the cost is outrageous.

The cost is not reasonable and it's grossly excessive in light of the cost of low spec mother boards in general.

Adding in the fact that the postage there and back alone would take about 2 weeks all up.

Then we need to consider that Lenovo's reputation for totally bad customer service - every step of the way - they might only take 2 or 3 months to get it back to you - with nothing having actually been done - if you hassle them badly for ages to get it back to you.

These events are listed in my next article "1,001 reasons to not buy Lenovo" and there ARE plenty of people to attest to their standard of service.

The time factor was not an acceptable issue nor was the cost.

I would have been prepared to a $60 motherboard sent out overnight via courier charging $15 freight to the local computer repair shop and to have it running again in 3 or 4 days...

This would have been acceptable. But the people who manage Lenovo (IBM) do not do this.

Lenovo's way - in terms of cost and time, it is not acceptable, and I will not go along with their stupid corporate bullshit.



So this is where all of this gets really nasty.....



I was even prepared to void my warranty, by replacing my motherboard myself - but they would not. As far as I am concerned, is my perogative - after all it is MY laptop..

I NEEDED an operational PC up and running by the end of the week - not to have my hardware sitting in a warehouse doing nothing for 3 whole months gathering dust.

Given that the Lenovo / IBM people "claimed" that there was NO WAY to RESET the password, and given the fact that they stated replacement of the mother board could ONLY be done through them, this somehow stunk of "scam"...

Ticking off the boxes:

1. Exclusive trading etc... .

2.  They would not allow the guy in the local computer shop I bought it from to replace the mother board;

3. They would not send out a replacement mother board to me.

4. And they are saying, "If you forget the password, the whole motherboard MUST be replaced, and you can ONLY send it back to us, to have it done."

5. This must also happen quite often. It's almost like an exclusive trading issue, of reselling the same computer back to the customer - two sales for the price of one.

I began to think, "Something is wrong in this picture."


So I began the wonderful journey of hacking the hardware.

You see on a "normal box computer" if you forget your password, you can reset or erase the password by shorting out the CMOS memory - with the jumper plug on the mother board - and or pull out the CMOS battery - as shown here.

But laptops get knocked around and jumper plugs would come loose - so laptop makers usually use copper contact pads on the mother board, to short out the CMOS / EPROM chips - thus flushing the password/s from the memory.

So I did some research - deep research...

When it came to getting a copy of the actual service manual, for the most part the Leonovo people were giving their "53 phone calls to 27 departments in 19 countries" bullshit.

When I finally did get THE LENOVO service manual from a place on the web, it was rudimentary at best - "Here is the on button, to turn your laptop on, press the on button, to turn it off, press it again. Thanks for buying Lenovo." 

No circuit diagrams, poor assembly drawings, really half baked "guessing games" instructions.... The technical prowess of a first graders colouring in book.

I found that there were people who had the skills and capabilities and indeed for some models they had the equipment for sale or plans to make readers, to read most of the CMOS / EPROM Chips that were on most Lenovo / IBM models.

http://www.ja.axxs.net/g40.htm

http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password/

This was fine except my model was not covered AND if it had of been, while the components being sold are worthy of their asking price, it's not exactly cost effective for just ONE laptop - and if my model had of been covered, it gets complicated and possibly pointless buying / building the chip reading hardware for a bad CMOS / EPROM chip...

It also all gets terribly exciting and detailed... reading code from chips and accessing the encrypted or not, firmware data on them.

These sites and information and discussions were very informative - thus began the dismantling of my own laptop.

So I took a long hard look into disconnecting the CMOS battery - and this was soddered into place.... Eeeeeh, and it was tucked away in a very inaccessable place.

When it comes to replacing the CMOS battery in 3 years time, you have to completely strip the laptop completely down to do it - and the old battery has to be unsoldered and the new battery has to be soldered back in."

Damn - That IS a very expensive battery replacement.

Good one "Oh management of Lenovo" - you shit heads.



Further discovery revealed that the CMOS / EPROM chip is a non volatile - meaning that chips retain the data in them, and disconnecting the battery does nothing.


So I decided to open up and have a look inside MY fucked up laptop anyway and this is what I found - 

The little pictures:

The back of the laptop, showing the motherboard that is underneath the hard drive and very easy to get at.

This is the magical mystical "invisible flap" with the tamper evident sticker over it, the position of which, in this instance, allows a careful and knowlegeable person to carefully pry up the corner of it - without tearing the tamper evident sticker, and to gain access to the CMOS / EPROM password erasing pads.

 

This is section of the mother board that has the jumper pads on them

These pads ARE really really tiny.

 

The close up. The two pads as a set, are about 3mm long.

The synopsis.

I am rather dubious about the whole "your only option is to replace the motherboard" spin, for several rather concrete reasons.

But underneath the hard drive was a sheet of clear plastic film over the motherboard - with a fine spray of tacky adhesive on the under side - making it opaque enough to be difficult to identify anything underneath it......

AND there was an EVIDENCE of TAMPERING sticker stuck across the clear plastic layer - in what later appeared to be a fairly strategic way.

"Uhhhhhhhhhh what a funny place to stick that."

(alarm bells going off)

Further dismantling revealed that this seemingly flat sheet of plastic film had a "U" shaped flap cut into it, that was basically so finely done, it was impossible to see.

It was very cleverly set up, so that you could get to the pads by gently lifting up "most of the plastic flap", without actually damaging the tamper evident sticker, and gain full access to the CMOS / EPROM password erasing pads.....

This is in effect a very cleverly set up system of misleading and obscuration, of a very touchy issue. It's like lock picking...

If the average consumer has little to no idea about any of this and they are forced by the very restrictive evidence to believe that sending the laptop back to the factory IS the only option, then that is what most of them will be forced to do.

Only if you know HOW this sophisticated system has been set up to hide and obscure the actual switches that are there to erase the passwords on the mother board, which is "insider" factory tech information, and you can sell them a story about HAVING no alternative except to get the motherboard replace, and the only place to do it is through the Lenovo service centers.... This would catch everyone else out.


Underneath this flap with the tamper evident sticker over it, on the motherboard are THREE sets of JUMPER PADS to short out the CMOS - to reset the password on the CMOS / EPROM chip, and the pads are marked CLRP1, CLRP2, CLRP3.

These "clear memory" copper pads are exceedingly small and they could be easily overlooked.


I suspect that each of the jumper pads listed as CLRP1, CLRP2, CLRP3 - for Clear Password 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Of all the other sites and research etc., I think I am the very first one to pick this up.


But when I was dismantling the whole laptop to get at everything, the power connector was on so tight, that it pulled out of the motherboard I can't test them...

Shit.



What I am thinking now.

I think Lenovo / IBM have been pulling a global scam on the replacement mother board issue. I think the customers who send the bricked laptops EXCLUSIVELY back to Lenovo / IBM are getting scammed and the people in IBM / LENOVO simply short the jumpers out - thus resetting any or all of the passwords, and are sending it back with a double recoup of the sales prices.

I say this because of the following things:


IF there was NO WAY to physically reset the password/s in the CMOS / EPROM chip/s - and there are up to three passwords:

1. The Power On Password.

2. The Hard Drive Password

3. The Supervisor Password.

 
a) Why are there 3 sets of CLEAR CMOS / EPROM contact pads on the motherboard?

Marked CLRP1, CLRP2 and CLRP3?


b) WHY are they concealed under a semi-opaque plastic film?

c) Why is there a slot cut into the film, directly over the jumper pads?

d) And why is there a security / anti tamper sticker partly over the slot in the plastic film? that allows "clever access" to the jumper pads, without damaging the sticker?


4. This is a good question.

"If the password/s cannot be cleared by shorting out the CMOS EPROM chips - as is the conventional method - what are the contact pads doing on the motherboard in the first place?


5. The pads ARE tiny and hard to see, everything electrical is isolated by being inside the case, and under neath the hard drive, and then hard drive sits in plastic carrier, that isolated it away from the mother board;

So why do the password erasing pads,  have a plastic film over them - when there really isn't any need to have one over them. So why is the plastic film - with the cleverly slit flap, located over the jumper pads?


6. And if the motherboards, are as they claim are worth $450 each - and apparently it's because of ONE locked up chip.

Since MOBO repairs and parts replacement, is little more than "articulate soddering" - why would ONE WHOLE NEW FUNCTIONAL MOTHERBOARD get trashed as they claim over ONE chip?


7. And why are IBM / Lenovo charging $450 for a low spec mother board, that for a similar motherboard that goes into a desk top PC, for around $60?



What I think is happening, is


That the laptops are going back to Lenovo / IBM, and they are pulling the hard drive out, and flipping up the slot in the plastic and they are resetting the CMOS / EPROM - charging $450 for it, saying they have replaced the mother board and then sending it back - with the customers none the wiser.


They are already forcing the consumer into forced inline trading by the exclusive supply of repairing services, when anyone can do it.

A comparable motherboard with similar specifications costs about $60 - so why are they charging $450 each for an alleged replacement.

While they are "kind of discrete" about exactly what a password failure entails, they do nothing about crowing loud and long about it's alleged security function.

Allegedly throwing out a whole new mother board over a failed password chip, is like throwing out a cars entire engine and transmission over a broken key in the door lock..... and then finding that you only need to lift the handle on the door to open it.

It does not add up.

If anyone out there can test this, of setting each of the passwords - including the supervisor password and then erasing them via the CLR CMOS / EPROM contact pads, please contract me and or post your answers here.

The BIG pictures for the tech savvy:

Feel welcome to save this page as a PDF and to share it around.

Site Link:
http://tinyurl.com/dxfnx3b


See my next entry on 1,001 reasons to not by Lenovo / IBM computers.