PC Building

[Vynski]

As a builder and user; How many times have you had to reset the BIOS?

In the 35+ years that I have been building computers I can safely say "countless".  When I first began back in the late 1980's, I had a pair of forceps to hold the little jumper to short the clear CMOS jumper.  The clear CMOS jumper always seems to be in a precarious place to say the least.  At times I've had to remove the GPU just to get to it.   Somewhere along the way I left it or misplaced those forceps and went to an alternative.  It was similar to the one I just made a few days ago because once again I have misplaced one that I made many years ago.Jumper toolthe jumper

I used a jumper from a HDD or came with a motherboard and used JB Weld to attach it to a piece of scrap plexiglass.  This allows you to reach down into those tight places to short the clear CMOS jumper.  It takes about 5 seconds to Reset the CMOS to default.  It is very simple to make.  You can use any kind of glue.  I tried the Super Glue but it is too thin and runny and you need something that is thicker and will dry quickly.  I had JB Weld handy so that is what I used. 

I think some of the motherboards today have a reset button.  If I'm wrong feel free to correct me.  

However; if this will make the job easier use a popsicle stick or something similar and fix your own little tool to "Clear The CMOS".

[MADZyren]

Before overclocking: not often, sometimes. Back in the days some motherboards actually had jumpers you could use to write protect BIOS just in case some outside malware tried to damage it (I think this would be a good security feature still!)

After doing a lot of testing with clocks, voltages and especially memory timings, a lot... I use a flathead screwdriver of a Swiss army multitool to short the pins. Have considered buying an actual switch for the purpose, but have not yet done it.

Also, oh the days you had to fight with IRQ settings and all that stuff to get AIB's working 🙂

[Vynski]

OHhhhhh! you had to mention those d... IRQ's didn't you.  I had completely forgotten those days and for good reason.  Man the fights I have had with those settings, and it was far worse when trying to troubleshoot on a network error. 

[MADZyren]

Then I remember a case when plug'n play already existed, but didn't always work too well or didn't talk to non-p'np hardware so you had to find out which IRQ's were reserved by p'np to figure out what is still free. I think the problem was, when you chose one of the free ones, then suddenly p'np decided to change which ones it used or something. Also there was something else than IRQ's too.. Was it DMA's you sometimes had to manually set or something.

[Vynski]

The DMA's didn't really bother me too much.  They were on the same principle as a static address on the networks I put together.  If my memory serves me correct on the DMA's, I think you had a max number of 15.  Thank the Lord for SCSI and then USB devices.

[Vynski]

My mistake, it was the IRQ's that were limited to 15.  See what happens when you don't use it you lose it.

[mengelag]

Countless times here, I don't know how many times I've screwed up my bios while overclocking or trial and error memory timings, etc. I won't buy a board that doesn't have a clear CMOS or bios button these days.

[Key-J]

I've actually never had to do that, but I am not big into lots of customizing my BIOS other than the standard XMP profiles and boot drivers and such.