babby's first bios lock bypass:
If you ever get a bios locked ThinkPad X230, this guide by SixFoisNeuf.fr is very useful and 98% correct: (clearing an unknown Supervisor password). It got me most of the way there! Shorting the two pins on the eeprom chip shown did get me into the bios and allow me to change settings. However, after about 10 attempts, I almost gave up, because every time I saved a password, the bios lock would persist upon restart. I tried numerous timing combinations, shorting immediately after power on as the guide said, then shorting immediately after the ThinkPad logo appeared on boot, then shorting until immediately after setting the password, and then trying to short until after I'd saved with F10. Nothing seemed to be working. I knew I was shorting the correct pins because I was able to change the settings and the password, they just wouldn't save.
Finally, after slowing down to think about what was happening on the hardware level/software level, my intuition told me, hey, if shorting the pins is causing the password to not be detected, why would you expect it to save a password you entered while still shorting those password related pins? So I tried one more time, this time I shorted after the ThinkPad logo appeared, and I held the short all the way until after the "enter new password" prompt window appeared on the screen. Once I had that open, I removed the screwdriver/stopped shorting the two pins, entered the new passwrd (blank) and then saved settings, and this time it work! Let's go!
So if SixFoisNeuf's guide isn't working for you, but you're able to bypass the password long enough to get into the bios and edit the password, make sure you remove the short AFTER the "enter new password" window opens, but BEFORE you enter that new password. :D
All in all, it was pretty cool. I got to play with a different eeprom chip for the first time, I got to intentionally short two pins to bypass bios password on a hardware level for the first time, and I got to follow my intuition to complete the job when the instructions only got me 98% of the way there, which was very satisfying!
I've still got a ways to go on this X230, but I'm grateful because I already have an interested local buyer. They offered $300 to pick up the X220, but I didn't see that message until I had sold it on eBay. It would've been a better profit to sell locally, because those eBay fees are insane, but it's nice to have one sold and another customer lined up. The X230 still needs ram, a new battery, a charger, caddy, new cmos battery potentially, network card, firmware flashing, and I think the potential buyer is interested in the keyboard mod, so a new keyboard as well. All-in-all I'll likely put $150 into this laptop and ask $350 without a rear cover. I might offer a new rear display cover at cost, as well as screen upgrade at cost.
-Onio