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How do I reset my BIOS settings?

Luigi Oppido
Computer & Tech Specialist
Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

Luigi Oppido

Computer & Tech Specialist

Expert Answer

You can do this by accessing the BIOS menu. To do so, you'll need to restart your computer by turning it off and turning it back on. Before the computer has fully turned on again, press and hold the F1, F2, F10, F12, or Delete button. This should take you to the BIOS menu. From there, follow the onscreen prompts to restore your BIOS settings.

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Question

How do you flash your BIOS?

wikiHow Staff Editor
Staff Answer
This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

Flashing the BIOS basically means you are updating the BIOS to a newer version. This is a bit too complicated to explain here, and works differently on different computers, but you should be able to find what you need on How to Update Your Computer's BIOS .

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I disabled my monitor on BIOS, and now the BIOS cannot be shown. How do I fix this?

Community Answer

Take out the CMOS battery, wait 10 seconds, and reinsert it into the same spot that you found it. (The CMOS battery looks like a silver coin on the motherboard.)

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Can switching internet providers cause my firmware to update and mess up my computer?

Community Answer

No it can't. You issue was likely caused by something else which coincidentally occurred around the time you switched Internet providers.

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I have one DDR2 1 GB RAM and 2 GB RAM. Can I use both at the same time when my system is not running?

Community Answer

Yes, you can as long as they are both DDR2 and the speeds are the same. Also, check with your motherboard's manufacturer to see what your maximum amount of RAM is.

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Question

How do I reset my BIOS after a failed BIOS flashing or overclocking attempt?

Community Answer

If you tried to flash your BIOS with incorrect firmware, you may be able to reset it using a BIOS Recovery jumper. This jumper's location varies for every motherboard, so refer to your motherboard's documentation to find it. Removing this jumper may allow you to load a BIOS recovery file.

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Question

I am trying to reset my BIOS but I have lost the jumper. How can I reset it without it?

Community Answer

Instead of removing the jumper, remove the battery. The procedure is the same.

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Question

What should I do if my PC won't start after updating Windows?

Community Answer

If you've recently updated Windows and now your PC won't start, the problem is probably not with your BIOS. Resetting your BIOS may help, but you'll likely need to reinstall Windows or perform a Windows repair in order to get it working again.

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Question

How do I reset my BIOS password?

Community Answer

If you're locked out of your computer because of a BIOS password, you may be able to reset it by using the password jumper on the motherboard. If you don't have access to the motherboard, such as on a laptop, you'll need to find a backdoor password to bypass the lock.

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I've done the CMOS battery method, but it did not work. What else can I try?

Community Answer

You can try replacing your motherboard, especially if it keeps displaying Checksum Error or CMOS battery low message.

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Question

What do I do if Samsung's BIOS Boot Priority menu is empty?

Community Answer

This is likely caused by settings in your BIOS. Open your BIOS menu and disable Fast BIOS and Secure Boot. This should allow you to select different devices in the Boot Priority menu.

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Question

I have an Alienware 17 R4, and recently updated the BIOS. Now I have a black screen, a half-lit keyboard, and my computer boot loops with 7 beeps. What should I do?

Community Answer

You can find a full list of beep codes on the Dell support page. 7 beeps indicates a CPU cache error, and is not user-serviceable. Contact Dell technical support to get it fixed.

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Question

Can a virus remount or access an unmounted physical hard drive?

Community Answer

It depends on what you mean by "unmounted." If it is physically disconnected, there is no way it could access that disk. If it is plugged in, however, it all depends on the virus's intentions.

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How do I reset my BIOS if nothing shows up on the screen?

Community Answer

Clear your CMOS and follow the steps above. Be sure to carefully follow method 3 as it will help.

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Question

I changed some BIOS settings not knowing what they were, and now the monitor has no display. What should I do?

Community Answer

If you are comfortable opening the case, check your motherboard manual. There's a jumper setting on the motherboard that will clear CMOS settings and restore them to factory default.

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Question

Should I reset my BIOS when getting a blue screen on my computer?

Community Answer

No. Do not reset a BIOS if you have a 'blue screen of death.' You might corrupt system files that are required.

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Question

My Dell desktop is asking for a password in order to access the BIOS menu. I can't reset the password unless I can access the menu. What can I do?

Community Answer

You have to find the BIOS reset jumper and do it so it can be reset to factory.

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Question

When I start the PC and Windows resumes, I can't move the arrow key to continue. How can I fix this?

Community Answer

Start by unplugging your keyboard and mouse and plugging them back in. If this doesn't work, try testing your keyboard on another computer to make sure it works. If the keyboard doesn't work with the new computer, get a new one. If it does, try a different USB port. If all of the steps fail, try contacting technical support for your manufacturer.

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I have a custom-built PC with an ASRock motherboard. It worked perfectly for about one year until I cleaned the dust inside by removing the RAM and graphics card. Now it won't boot with the hard drive. How can I fix it?

Community Answer

Try rechecking the hard drive cable. It may have come unhooked or be plugged in improperly.

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When I reset my BIOS ,are there any settings I should change or anything I have to configure for Windows to start properly?

Community Answer

Make sure that the first boot option is either the hard drive you installed Windows on, or Windows Boot Manager.

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Question

What does the inside of a computer look like?

Community Answer

There are lots of pictures available online. Just look it up using a search engine. On this site, you can see a few examples in How to Clean the Inside of a Computer and How to Clean Inside a Laptop Computer .

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What do I do if my computer has no display after I add RAM?

Community Answer

The RAM is most likely incompatible with your machine. Check your computer's manual or support site online to determine allowable size/speed of RAM upgrades.

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Question

What makes my case fan run at high speeds?

Community Answer

Maybe a hidden application is running that is causing the fan to run at high speed. Check task manager.

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Question

Windows 10 keeps re-configuring the BIOS. How do I stop it?

Community Answer

Check your cmos battery. If it has gone the ghost, then bios settings will go to defaults every start-up. If the battery is okay, try to turn off 'secure boot' and the uefi boot. You might also have some 'BIOS Configure Application' installed on your hard drive, and this kind of app can change your bios settings, just uninstall this app.

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Question

It's showing a message saying "CMOS setting wrong, press F1 to run SETUP, press F2 to load defaults." My keyboard still isn't working. What do I do?

Adnan S

Community Answer

This message may go away if you change the CMOS/BIOS battery. Try connecting your keyboard to a different USB port.

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I got a blue screen, and had to turn my computer off and when I turned back on it went to bios. What do I do now?

Community Answer

Probably some boot files got corrupted. Generally, when the motherboard is unable to find an OS, it opens the BIOS setup. Try reinstalling your OS or repairing bcd, if you are using Windows.

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Question

Does loading the default settings clear files from the computer?

Community Answer

No, it only resets basic input/output settings. Files and OS are on the SSD/hard drive.

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What do I do if my Windows PC won't start after an update?

Community Answer

If you've recently updated Windows and now your PC won't start, the problem is probably not with your BIOS. Resetting your BIOS may help, but you'll likely need to reinstall Windows or perform a Windows repair in order to get it working again.

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Question

Will I lose personal files (e.g. photos, documents, etc) if I reset BIOS (method 1)?

Sasa Bozilovic

Community Answer

No, because it only resets Bios settings as it is stored in the ROM, not in the hard drive.

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Question

How can I reset my CMOS in an MSI Laptop?

Community Answer

You just have to open it, take out both the laptop battery and the little coin sized battery. Then keep pressing a little white button on the motherboard for a few seconds and then plug in the main power cable. And if it doesn't reset, keep unplugging and then pressing the button until it works.

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