Hello everyone.
I have an old thinkpad laptop. It used to be my old school computer, which had a Microsoft school account. When I finished, it was wiped and I bought it. Haven‘t had any other issues.
Now I tried to reinstall windows. I removed all personal files for a factory reset. It worked I guess, but I cannot enter the OS as I am being blocked by being forced to login with a work or school account. I am not prompted to choose between that and a personal account. I also cannot create a local account.
What I’ve tried so far is downloading a windows media installation file to a flash drive, via windows website. I then went into the BIOS to change the boot order and rebooted Windows from my flash drive. The same problem persists.
My only guess is that the problem is that the problem arises from the fact that it was once a school computer. I disabled the Computrace but perhaps there are other options still?
I cant find a single thing on the Internet about someone having the same issue and I don’t have the slightest idea of how to proceed.
ANY help is much appreciated. Thanks!

Hello everyone.
I have an old thinkpad laptop. It used to be my old school computer, which had a Microsoft school account. When I finished, it was wiped and I bought it. Haven‘t had any other issues.
Now I tried to reinstall windows. I removed all personal files for a factory reset. It worked I guess, but I cannot enter the OS as I am being blocked by being forced to login with a work or school account. I am not prompted to choose between that and a personal account. I also cannot create a local account.
What I’ve tried so far is downloading a windows media installation file to a flash drive, via windows website. I then went into the BIOS to change the boot order and rebooted Windows from my flash drive. The same problem persists.
My only guess is that the problem is that the problem arises from the fact that it was once a school computer. I disabled the Computrace but perhaps there are other options still?
I cant find a single thing on the Internet about someone having the same issue and I don’t have the slightest idea of how to proceed.
ANY help is much appreciated. Thanks!

One question that I cannot find as being discussed here:
Is there an external test (e.g. via scapy or some other tool/program if necessary) to see if Absolute Computrace is active / enabled on a machine?
I am going to permanently disable via Bios, but it would be nice to:

1. test and see that it is enabled / active
2. test and see that it is permanently disabled

It is one thing to trust that a BIOS backdoor coming directly from China for US business consumption--albeit with legitimate use cases--is disabled, it is a whole other enchilada to be able to test that it is disabled.
If testing like this cannot be done I honestly do not understand how US businesses would be comfortable or even compliant with due diligence by purchasing Lenovo machines... unless there is some kind of known and ideally official non-absolute bin for flashing? I did see something to that affect, but it was an old post and it wasn't clear if it would mess up future BIOS updates.
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I want a cheap laptop that will be viable to install Windows 11 on, preferably one that is easy to repaiupgrade and has many ports (I moistly want to use it in an electronics lab to run the chip programming, oscilloscope, and other diagnostic/electronics software on). The Lenovo T480 seems like my best bet as they are 8th gen and an enterprise model, and look like they can be had for about $100-150.
Most eBay listings mention a possible lack of RAM and/or SSD, Battery, OS, or AC adapter.
Lack of RAM is not an issue, I can easily install my own. Originally I was very worried about the lack of battery and/or charger but then found out that they tend to have an internal battery as well that is very unlikely to have been removed and that they charge by USB-C instead of some proprietary charger that locks out 3rd party ones (Plus the OEM one is cheap used on eBay).
The lack of a HDD though, some mean that just no HDD/SSD is installed which is also not an issue as I can easily install my own, others mean that the entire caddy is missing, many don't clarify. I wanted to know, just like how the laptop has two batteries, is the caddy needed for storage? I wasn't able to find information this, even in the manual, but does the T480 have any M.2 slots so I can just install an internal NVME and the caddy is just for if you want a 2.5 drive or a secondary NVME? I saw what looked like two M.2 ports on the motherboard (not counting the HDD caddy connector) and I know that one is used for the WiFi card, but it wasn't clear if the other was an unused M.2 port or something else. So do I need the caddy to have storage or is there an internal M.2 slot (that is not used by the WiFi) on this?
Also in terms of the OS, many of the screenshots show it booting into the BIOS and a mention of an embedded Windows key. I know that this is common, but did all T480s have a key in the motherboard? Many of the listings claim "no OS" but I assumed that just meant they didn't install one (Especially if there is no HDD/SSD on the system) but is it possible for the system to not have a Windows key in the motherboard? I asked one seller and they claimed it didn't have a key, were there models sold without a key, or can the key possibly get removed/disabled or something? And if so, if the photo shows a Windows key appearing in the BIOS, does that mean that Windows will activate on that system or that it's possible that key can have become invalid?
And if the battery is "not included", which almost always means the external battery and not the internal, how useful is the laptop with just the internal battery? Is it meant to be able to run off of that battery or is that more of a smaller backup battery? I know that laptop batteries are notorious to replace since the OEM ones are laughably overpriced if you can even find them, and most marketplaces are flooded with 3rd party and counterfeit ones that are full of complaints that they die after a few months. Is it possible to rebuild the internal (not external, I know people have done that) battery by purchasing your own cells? Any guides or videos on that? Could only find ones for the external battery.
And finally, what if the BIOS is locked? Is there anything in place to be able to clear that if you have physical access to the laptop or is it near-impossible without soldering skills if the BIOS has a password to disable the password? I know that you can't disable Computrace since that's the whole point and that from what I have heard if you aren't the original purchaser of the device it's near-impossible to get it disabled, but what about the BIOS password?
Anything else I should know about when trying to buy a used T480?

I recently bought a used surface pro 7 that was used by a buisness and I wanted to be sure if computrace was enabled or not, so I started looking for files in my system32 folder, looked for the rpcnet.exe in the task manager but could't find anything. Then I found this computrace checker that searches for all these diffirent exe's that may indicate that computrace is enabled on my laptop, but it could't find anything.
How sure can I be, that computrace is disabled on my device?
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So I have bought a used Dell OptiPlex 7010 Mini-Tower and it came with CompuTrace deactivated but I messed around with BIOS configuration and accidentally turned it on (Activated it), Is there a way I can deactivate that back or disable it permanently?, It isn't interfering with the OS but it prevents me from downgrading BIOS from A29 to A01.
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A year ago I bought a refurbisched T570 with Windows 11. Last night I found a 'tutoral' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyeEeJ48sOc how to force install the 22H2 update.
When I open the laptop and boot in windows, it asks for an autorised e-mail address from an organisation. The bios is not locked and I have Computrace permanently disabled. There still is warranty on the laptop and I can still use Ubuntu 20.04, as it was dual boot.
My plan was already to re-install Windows 11 (or W10) completely. Will this get rid of the ms auto pilot function? Is there something I need to know before doing this?

Hello all and greetings. I buy and sell a couple dozen computers each year and the latest stuff has been Thinkpads. Recently one of my buyers came to me saying things have been acting up on the Yoga X1G5 he purchased and started to narrow it down to the Absolute module likely online and getting a wipe command from the console.
So, again, this isn't a question on how to circumvent it or anything. The question is actually how are these Absolute settings referred to in the BIOS anymore? My T490 HAS the Absolute settings under the Security tab in the BIOS, and I have it set to PERMANENTLY DISABLED, which is great. But this Yoga X1G5 and a T14s that I have in stock do not have any sort of Anti-Theft or Absolute/Computrace menu item. They are indeed on the "W" BIOS, so I would expect them there, but no user or supervisor password is set, and so I'm unsure of the status of each of these machines. Is it hidden in another menu somewhere? Thanks for any info....

First, a bit of a description about Computrace and the hell it puts people through. Skip about halfway down for the bandaid workaround I figured out myself.
Computrace is the devil!!!
(( - Computrace. By Absolute Software. The biggest POS software that so many people have gotten cursed with. Found a great deal for a laptop on eBay? Better check to make sure it doesn't have this bullshit malware on it. Yes, malware. It pretty much is just that. Malware and spyware. It's a separate module installed on the laptops motherboard and is connected to the BIOS. Once enabled, it contains software that self installs itself onto the OS once the OS is booted for the first time. From there on, it connects to the internet and communicates with it's home server. It does this to make sure the computer you're using isn't reported stolen or flagged in some other way. But that's not the end of it. This software also scans your drive and constantly sends details about your system (and of the files on it) back to home. This thing has the ability to lock or completely disable your system at anytime, and can even run other programs on it. Trying to delete all the files associated with this is futile. They will just be reinstalled once the system is restarted.
One other thing to note about Computrace. It has a terrible security vulnerability which could easily allow someone to gain access to your system. To this day I don't think that backdoor vulnerability has ever been patched.
Once Computrace has been activated, it is absolute (pun intended) HELL trying to get it turned off. Often times businesses who had this installed will trash their stockpile of laptops/PC's because of this. You have to contact Absolute Software and get them to disable it. Sounds easy right? Yeah right..... Dealing with Absolute Software is a joke in itself. They are incredibly stubborn about following through on a disable request. You have to keep hammering on them relentlessly just to make sure they get their end of the deal done. Usually once they finally start the process, they will usually tell you to leave the computer on overnight so they can remotely access it and disable it. Then there is no 100% guarantee that it went through. Funny how that works ehh. - ))
I did figure out a way to stop it from even running on Windows. It runs at least 5 different services. And these services can be shut off.
These services are..

1. ctes
2. CtesHostService
3. CtesRarSvc
4. rpchdp
5. rpcsdp

To stop these from running, First reboot your laptop/PC and make sure ALL internet access has been disabled before turning it on. Then, go to Services. You can get there either by opening Control Panel >>> Administrative Tools >>> Services. Or you can open Task Manager, then switch to the 'Services' tab then click on the "Services" button at the bottom. You will need to access Services through the main services window and not the Services tab in Task Manager as that one does not have the options you need. Once in Services, sort the list of services by Description by clicking the "Description" tab at the top. Click it until all of the Services at the top have a blank space for the description. There won't be that many of them. You'll see the 5 services I listed above right next to each other just a few services down the list.
Starting with the first on, right click on CTES and click Properties. Down to where it says Startup Type, change it to "Manual". Then down to where it says "Service Status", click STOP. Then click Apply on the bottom. Repeat this procedure for all 5 of these services. One thing to note about this. Do not change the Startup Type to Disabled. I know that sounds like the more logical choice, but this doesn't work. When you change it to Disabled, once you restart the computer, it gets changed right back to Automatic. Changing it to Manual seems to fool it into thinking it's still running/not disabled, and upon reboot the services are still in Manual startup type and will never run. I've checked Task Manager multiple times over the weeks and none of these services nor their processes were running. And none of the system behavior I've attributed to Computrace running in the background has been shown (Like WMI Provider Host constantly running eating up resources, among other things).
This is only a bandaid fix. This does not get rid of Computrace or completely disable it. This just prevents it from ever running and contacting it's home server and sending it your personal info. And it's a good way to block that backdoor security hole. Every once in awhile I still like to check the list of running services and processes to make sure it somehow hasn't turned itself back on. So far so good.
One of these days I have to get around to trying to contact Absolute and hopefully get them to disable this crapware. Just haven't had the energy to feel like dealing with them right now.

CTES.exe is one of it's running processes, along with CtesHostSvc.exe and SingClientService.exe. Every time I end the processes, they just start right back up again. In the BIOS, it won't let you turn it off. Has anyone ever been able to disable this BS tracking crap? It's literal spyware and seems possibly malicious. Unfortunately I bought this months ago off eBay and didn't see this stuff running in the system till lately.

I had this issue on my X200t and this is how I solved it. Thanks to the people in this sub who helped me out, I thought I'd make a post in case others search for a solution. What you need to do is to install win10 (I used a win10 enterprise ISO) and keep it running for a while, then after several reboots when the computrace does its home calling (which you can't see or control) the option to permanently disable it will be unlocked in the bios, so go ahead and disable it and get rid of windows. That's it! The inconvenience is that if you have already installed another OS and don't want to lose your data you have to use another HDD/SSD which is gonna work fine. I swapped the HDD with another one that I had laying around and after the process was done which was really slow due to old hardware I swapped it back again with the original one with Linux on it. Don't bother calling the absolute software company cause they'll tell you the same thing. Cheers.

Recently purchased a 2nd hand x250, BIOS was not locked and I installed a clean Windows 10 on it.
Installed drivers through the Lenovo System update software, which also updated the BIOS.
I then wanted to get back in BIOS to check the status of Anti-Theft because I forgot to do that at the first place. Then it asked me for a password.
I don't have one so I just press Enter to enter the BIOS just to see what I can do.
I can change "Hard Disk1 Password"(in Security), "Boot Mode"(in Startup) and everything in the "Config" tab. I cannot change everything "Date/Time", "Security"(except for HD1 password) and "Boot Priority Order".
I am confused, how did it suddenly 'obtained' a password?
What can I do to fix this? Does the ThinkPad Setup Settings Capture/Playback Utility help?
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Computrace is Enabled and Not Activated. Bottom Cover Tamper Detection is Disabled. Internal Storage Tamper Detection is Disabled.

Basically, what I want to know is will Computrace be able to do anything if it's deactivated and disabled after I coreboot the computer and run me_cleaner, specifically on a T440p?
And even if Computrace isn't deactivated and/or disabled, then what can I do about it, other than call Absolute and contact the seller to make sure they work with me to get it disabled? I'm planning to install Linux, of course.

A few years ago I bought a new MacBook Pro and it opened my eyes to data security. Everything was encrypted by default and encrypting external drives was trivial. It felt great, even if only for peace of mind. I sold it and am now back to Windows / Linux, where encryption and security is not default and seems like users are left on their own. On older Thinkpads without CPU AES support, is simply putting in an SSD and applying a BIOS password and a hard drive password enough? On a newer Thinkpad with CPU AES support, is simply selecting yes to encryption while installing Ubuntu good enough? Are there any glaring security vulnerabilities on older Thinkpad hardware, such as computrace or other things that can be exploited by a hacker or even a technically minded fellow Thinkpad enthusiast? Could anyone extract the passwords from the BIOS or flash a new BIOS to get around any security features? Is the fingerprint reader still secure? How can I make sure to disable any back doors to the system that are useful for corporate users but not for individual users? I’m not looking for NSA level security, but secure enough that some arbitrary financial incentive isn’t enough to overcome the security on my computers and hard drives.

I have a Dell P1130 that I'm trying to restore with a USB-TTL converter I purchased. I found many resources and guides, and many posts made here directed me to useful resources (thanks, y'all), but I've encountered something I've yet to see mentioned anywhere...
My converter doesn't seem to be "compatible" or isn't working for whatever reason.
The specific one I bought goes by the name: DSD Tech SH-U09C2.
I was hoping I could get a recommendation on a converter that somebody used that worked for them, since almost every link you can find on the net is dead links and stuff people used 6 years ago, and may not even be the same product anymore for all I can tell.
I included the troubleshooting steps that I took below in spoilers just to make a case that this almost certainly isn't user error, but figured I'd spare you if you didn't need convincing lol.
Thanks if you read this far.
When I received the converter, I switched its jumper to 5V, connected it directly to a laptop's USB port and installed drivers for the Operating System that seemed to work fine as far as I could tell. This is an old laptop (Dell Latitude D630) running Windows XP 32-bit, and upon installation, the device showed up in my Device Manager like you'd expect, and rebooted for good measure.
I then tried both the included cable, and a separate set of dupont wires connected directly to the ECS port on the monitor, ensuring that the Ground and 5v/VCC were connected properly, and ensured that I reversed the RX and TX signals. I then ran the batch files expected to set up libraries to run WinDAS properly, and I was successfully able to generate the list of supported monitors and select my Dell P1130 from the list.
It all seemed good... and then I tried to backup the EEPROM. It did attempt to connect for about 10 seconds, and then unceremoniously timed out. "Can't connect monitor! Check the connection!" it basically told me. I double-checked that WinDAS was seeking the correct COM port, and sure enough, it was. I was even more confident when I tried other COM ports because after rebooting the program properly with the new COM config, only the COM ports listed in the my Device Manager would make the program attempt to seek, but timeout. Other COM ports would instantly fail, no waiting/timeout.
I disabled the laptop's native COM port in Device Manager just in case that could SOMEHOW be interfering, rebooted WinDAS, and tried again, but no luck. I then tried to run "Expert" mode, but it required a successful connection on the converter, so that wasn't possible. I then reversed the RX and TX cables again (so they were running parallel now--they got "double reversed") JUST IN CASE that was somehow the issue, but no such luck.
I do have computers with native RS-232 ports if it comes to that, but I don't really know how I can leverage those, and if it's more than a simple cable cut and solder to a few pins, I'm not sure I'm capable of pulling that off right now.

As i said this is my first time buying thinkpad. I'm following this sub for a while to collect as much info as i can and also i have read articles from sidebar of this sub.
I have found 3 thinkpad candidates so I'm in trilemma and i need your advice. First to say for what will be used for. Mostly, about 99% of time, for programming plus testing linux distros on VMs. Remaining time will be used for net surfing and stuff like that. I don't play games so that shouldn't be factor in deciding which to buy. To mention, I will run linux on him, probably manjaro xfce. I'll bring specs and price in favor to get response which has the best price/quality ratio and if some model is worth a couple hundreds of dollars extra than other models.
Candidates:

1. Lenovo Thinkpad p43s - Price: 850€ ≈ $935 Specs: Intel® Quad-Core™ i7-8665U FULL HD IPS 1920x1080 16gb RAM DDR4L SSD NVME 512gb Original Intel HD Graphic 620 + P520 quadro (2Gb DDR5 12.1 direct x) 2. Lenovo Thinkpad T580 - Price: 700€ ≈ $770 Specs: Intel® Quad-Core™ i5-8250U 1.6Ghz - 3.4Ghz Turbo Boost 8Gb DDR4 2400Mhz ( max 32Gb ) 256Gb SSD PCIe Intel UHD Graphics 620 Sound - Stereo Dolby® Advance Audio™ technology Intel® 1000 Gigabyte Ethernet Wireless - Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265, Wi-Fi 2x2 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.1 1 x USB Type C 1 x Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 2 x USB 3.1 3. Lenovo Thinkpad T480 - Price: 650€ ≈ $715 Specs: Intel® Quad-Core™ i5-8250U 1.6Ghz 16gb RAM DDR4 max 32gb FULL HD IPS 1920x1080 Intel UHD620 graphic card 256gb SSD m.2 nvme USB-C Thunderbolt 

Unfortunately, that's all about specs listed on website, I'll request more info for the chosen one. I've read that i need to check is BIOS unlocked and Computrace disabled. How to check that? Simply entering in BIOS while booting and if does not require any password it means that is unlocked or some detailed checking is needed? Where/how to check that Computrace is disabled, also in BIOS? Is there anything more that i need to pay attention when buying thinkpad?
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Thanks in advance,
Cheers!

(This post is a continuation of my previous post - '"Support for non-Absolute Persistence Module version of UEFI BIOS" in latest BIOS update, aka non-Computrace?' - and a post by another Redditor - 'X1C7: Can I flash the "Non-Absolute Persistence Module" BIOS?'.)
If you check the README for the BIOS update utility from the driver downloads section on the Lenovo website, you may find mentions of a "Non-Absolute Persistence Module version". This is indeed a version of the BIOS which does not include the Computrace functionality. In this post, I will describe how I installed this version of BIOS on a T480 (20L5) using the Windows BIOS update utility package for Windows "n24uj17w", and also some miscellaneous findings from this experience.

0. Things you should know beforehand

• The "Non-Absolute Persistence Module version" of BIOS has a version string ending in "P" whereas the normal version of BIOS has one ending in "W". For simplicity I'll call them "P-version" and "W-version" here.
• Installing the P-version requires having Computrace set to "Permanently Disabled".
• After installing the P-version you will not be able to return to the W-version unless perhaps you have previously made a back-up of the BIOS chip.
• Due to the last two points, the process of installing the P-version is irreversible.
• If you have previously updated the BIOS while having Computrace already set to "Permanently Disabled", there is a chance you might already have the P-version installed (see the note somewhere below this).

1. Preparing the BIOS installation media

I tend to make a boot USB drive out of the Windows package, so this is what I will be describing here. It is just like the normal BIOS update process but with an extra step (which I'm not even sure if it is necessary - see note below).

1. Run the downloaded package to extract the files (let's say to C:\DRIVERS\FLASH\n24uj17w), but do not choose to run the BIOS flashing utility immediately.
2. Navigate to the folder where the files are just extracted to (C:\DRIVERS\FLASH\n24uj17w).
3. Open a command prompt, then execute mkusbkey E: (in my case, E: drive is the drive letter of my USB flash drive). This sets up a bootable USB flash drive with the BIOS update files.
4. In the installer folder (E:\Flash if you made the bootable USB), rename the folder ending in W (in my case N24ET54W) to add a leading underscore (e.g. _N24ET54W), or simply delete the folder. It should be the folder containing the BIOS firmware of the W-version. After doing so, there should still be a folder ending in P that is intact (in my case N24ET54P), which contains the BIOS firmware of the P-version.
   • Note: I am unsure if this step is actually needed. There is a chance the update utility might select the P-version automatically but I cannot test this since I've already install the P-version and the action is irreversible. You can help test this by skipping this step and checking the installed BIOS version afterwards.
5. The USB flash drive is now prepared to be used to install the BIOS.

If you would like to install the BIOS update from within Windows, you can skip step 3 and perform step 4 directly in the extracted folder (C:\DRIVERS\FLASH\n24uj17w).
If you use the CD image or the Linux package, different steps may apply.

2. Configuring the BIOS to allow installing the P-version

You must permanently disable Computrace:

• Security -> Anti-Theft -> Computrace -> Curent Settings: Set to "Permanently Disabled"

You should also add the USB flash drive to the boot order and enable the boot menu if you are using a bootable USB drive.

3. Install the BIOS update

If you are using a bootable USB drive, press F12 on boot to get to the boot menu, then select the USB flash drive. You should then be greeted with the BIOS update utility. Follow the instructions to install the BIOS update. It is no different to a normal BIOS update.

4. Verifying the installation

• In the BIOS Setup screen you should see the UEFI BIOS version ending with "P".
• In the Security section, the Anti-Theft submenu should now be absent.

5. Other stuff

• When attempting to install the W-version afterwards, the BIOS update utility gives this error message:
  

  Error The system program file is not correct for this system. 

• If you attempt to install the P-version when Computrace is not set to "Permanently Disabled", the BIOS update utility will proceed as normal past the first reboot prompt. Upon rebooting, however, the SCT Flash Utility will abort with this error message:
  

  ERROR 135 - This BIOS image can not flash to this system.! Status = 3. WARNING: System will shutdown or reboot in 5 seconds! 

  After that, if the BIOS update package also contains a new ECP (embedded controller) update, it will still proceed to install the ECP update.
  
• When both the W-version and P-version firmware are present, the BIOS update utility appears to automatically choose the P-version if the P-version is already installed (as when I run the updated utility it tells me that the BIOS does not need updating).
  
• (Speculation) It might still be possible to force-flash the W-version by executing the WinFlash commands manually, but I won't be able to test it.
  

Hope this will be useful to some of you.

Was just looking for the BIOS/UEFI update changelog for the T480 and I noticed that the latest one released on 11th of Nov has this item in the changelog:

• (New) Support for non-Absolute Persistence Module version of UEFI BIOS.

A bit of quick search gave me that "Absolute Persistence Module" is the "modern" Computrace.
This seems a bit weird as I remember that in the ThinkPad UEFI setup there had always been an option to permanently disable Computrace yet there wasn't a version of the UEFI named "non-Computrace". How is it different in this release? Is this a new setup in which one can actually install the "non-Absolute Persistence Module" version and there will absolutely be nothing related to Computrace/"Absolute Persistence Module" in the UEFI (no config option and binaries), so as to give certain people a peace of mind?
(I haven't tried installing it yet.)
Edit: I've posted an update here: https://www.reddit.com/thinkpad/comments/ejgb6a/howto_flash_the_nonabsolute_persistence_module/