Unable to order recovery cds for used Thinkpad T60p's

Question

I picked up three thinkpad t60p units second hand from my university's surplus auction, but per their policy the hard drives were totally wiped (including all partitions). I have looked up the FRU part numbers (43T8618 & 46V2346) here and wish to purchase the cds & dvds as spare parts. I tried to enter the part numbers here but it said the part could not be found in the database. I then tried calling the phone number on that page (1-800-765-5944), but I kept on getting bumped around to different numbers. I DO NOT wish to pay for a tech support call, I just want to order the parts! In fact I can't call support at all since they require a serial number but I do not have a way to get this information. This is due to the fact that the bios have been password protected but I do not have the bios password (the surplus guys have no clue), the stickers on the bottom having seen better days (serial number is not legible on two and only partially legible on the last), and obviously there is no OS to boot into. The only information I have is the model number (8741-CTO) and the operating system that was on them prior to the wipe (two were xp professional and one was vista ultimate). Anyway, I'm not concerned about trying to get this covered under warranty, as I am prepared to pay for the parts, if only I could actually order them! Please, somebody from lenovo, how the heck do I order these parts?

Answer 1

Yes, I know all about the supervisor password situation. Unfortunately these were part of 1000+ notebooks the surplus depot was auctioning off in lots and the supervisor password situation seems to have be on departmental level and unique to only a small subset of those sold. This is a state institution and, as such, little details like passwords tend to fall through the cracks. Since they were auctioned off and are no longer university property, the records (such as who had them/serial numbers/etc) were removed from the auditing system. I'm not going to return them because I got them for a song. Thus, I am going to be spending the next couple of months using some of my spare time to track down the department they came from using the tried and true method of trial-and-error. In the mean time, I would like to have them operational and having the supervisor password is irrelevant for this, since the system tries to boot from the optical drive and then the hdd. You know, why can't they put the serial number and what not inside the battery bay where it is less likely to come into contact with foreign substances/greasy hands/sharp surfaces? But more importantly, why is it such a hassle to order these disks? I mean, I have had to order restore disks in the past from HP and it is easy as pie. I just place my order with the parts system online, no serial numbers, no calls to tech support, or any other nonsense needed. Seriously, it isn't like these will work on a non-Lenovo system since you still need a valid key/slic in the system's eeprom. The search continues, but I think I will go the e-bay route for the XP Pro disks. I still need the Vista Ultimate recovery disks, however.
Message Edited by nwourms on 01-31-2009 10:28 AM