Lost OpenFirmware Password - what do i do?

[wyatt23]

i bought my ibook from a member in another forum a few months back. he has since changed his email and i can no longer contact him. the problem is, he put a password on the openfirmware.

my problem is i am trading this away and cannot do a clean install!

how do i go about reseting this or bypassing to reinstall?

 

[Mernak]

Here are some ideas for doing it.

 

[kgarchar]

none of those will work homeboy


hmmm

 

[xsedrinam]

"The Open Firmware Password can be reset and changed by any one of the following:

By any administrator user, as designated in the Accounts preferences (or in Server Admin).
Via physical access to the inside of the computer.
When the computer is started up in Mac OS 9."

Firmware Password Protection

 

[Mernak]

In order to manually remove the firmware password protection that may be setup on your system follow these steps to remove the password (only needed if you forgot or don't know the password that was set)
1) Install or remove a stick of ram.
2) Zap the Pram 3 times in a row.
3) your done.

I know that this works on iBooks, and I believe it will work on other Mac Systems as well.

This is slightly more detailed than on the othersite, but it is still the same basic idea of the RAM.

 

[md11]

i bought my ibook from a member in another forum a few months back. he has since changed his email and i can no longer contact him. the problem is, he put a password on the openfirmware.

my problem is i am trading this away and cannot do a clean install!

how do i go about reseting this or bypassing to reinstall?

I would try to find out the previous owners identity. You for sure know where he was from and his name? Any money transaction traces.
Maybe the forum master (of the other forum) has some records of the nick he was using..
Many ways.

 

[xsedrinam]

This is slightly more detailed than on the othersite, but it is still the same basic idea of the RAM.

I haven't tried super macho bovine testicular extract site, just the Apple recommended site. Whatever works.

 

[wyatt23]

I would try to find out the previous owners identity. You for sure know where he was from and his name? Any money transaction traces.
Maybe the forum master (of the other forum) has some records of the nick he was using..
Many ways.

ha, i have the guys name and phone number. i called him today, but he didn't answer. he changed his email, but he didn't quite change him phone number. lives in kentucky, older guy. real nice, just HARD to get a hold of.

plus i don't think he likes getting calls from strange phone numbers a 1000 miles away! lol.


i did the pram, but when i hold the controls, the silver apple screen comes up. the little spinny circle spins. then the login window shows up. isn't something else supposed to happen?

 

[spinne1]

Mernak had the answer, but you maybe didn't follow his instructions exactly.

Here are more details about this issue:

http://archive.macosxlabs.org/documentation/firmware_security/configuration/config.html

And:

http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12142

The same info can be found either way, but you can get some perspective by reading both.

 

[wyatt23]

AHHHH! WOO! Closure!

ok. so all you need is the Firmware Password Utility located on the Tiger install disc. It is in Applications/Utilities/. Open it. Put in any password or turn the password option off.

click ok. put in administrator password. DONE!

much easier that i thought it was and i'm glad to know it now. however, i don't know why there isn't more mention of this anywhere even in other threads i found on google. no made any mention of it and like *most* things apple, it proved to be pretty painless! thanks for all your help.