Why is it so tedious to reset CMOS?

[frogger9]

I've been doing a bit of overclocking lately, and as generally happens during the initial testing of CPU/Board/Memory, I managed to push some settings too high and cause the machine not to POST anymore. Each time, I have to open the case, use the jumper to reset CMOS, reboot, and change all BIOS settings back to what I need them at.

After repeating this process 5 or so times, I got to thinking: "why is this such a pain?" Couldn't motherboard manufacturors make this process simpler? Maybe if you hold down a certain key during boot up it will reset for you? Or maybe the board could somehow notice that the POST is failing and reset at that point? Or perhaps at least it could store your previous working settings so you could revert back to the them rather than clearing and having to manually reset them?

Are there any current boards that have features similar to what I've mentioned above? Is this type of thing possible? If so, is it something others would like to see implemented in future boards? Am I the only one who finds the whole test, reset, test, reset ad infinitum process to be a huge pain?

Maybe I'm just too lazy to overclock these days

 

[Fern]

Some boards have dual BIOS, I beleive you could just switch to the other in the case of a lock-up.

You could hook up a switch outside the box to accomplish the same thing as clearing the CMOS manually.

Or, you could approach your OC methodology a little more cautiously

Fern

 

[professor1942]

Haha - a 'clear CMOS' switch on the side of your case... that might be taking things a little too far...

 

[frogger9]

Doing a bit more research, I see that the latest DFI boards have "CMOS Reloaded" where you can save and reload certain CMOS configurations. It seems like this addresses at least one of my issues (assuming these saves are persistent after a CMOS reset).

Reset CMOS, reload saved 'good' settings, try again. That would at least save the going through a bunch of menus to reset everything (e.g. boot order, memory timings, etc.).

Do the dual BIOS boards automatically switch over to the backup if the primary fails or does it still require a jumper? Either way this could be convenient in some situations.

Indeed, an external 'clear CMOS' switch may be a bit too extreme

 

[Yreka]

I believe the new ASUS boards do this as well. When I overdo my A8N32-SLI board, it comes up with a message saying "OC failed, F2 to enter setup F3 to load defaults". My older MSI and EVGA boards would just black out and make me move the jumper. Not sure if this is new or not, this is my first ASUS board in a few years.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

On my A8N-SLI Premiun and on my A7N8X Deluxe, if I overdo the overclock, I'll get a black screen, I reboot it, and it automatically loads the failsafe defaults (but everything is still set up the way you had it. )

 

[Westmassguy]

You can also hold down the "Insert" key while pressing the power button to boot the machine.
Most boards will reset the BIOS to "Failsafe" default settings.

 

[frogger9]

Originally posted by: Westmassguy
You can also hold down the "Insert" key while pressing the power button to boot the machine.
Most boards will reset the BIOS to "Failsafe" default settings.

I didn't know about holding the "Insert" key. I'll try that next time I manage to screw things up. Thanks for the tip.