Resetting Cmos in Bios?

[anurok]

So I recently built my new PC and it is asking me to reset my Cmos settings in bios or reset the memory frequency. I do not know how to do this...I consulted the manual for the motherboard and it says nothing about how to do this.

I have an Asus P5NSLI Board w/ an Intell E6600 proc. I do not know if the comp is set up wrong but it seems that way because my icons on the desktop have some sort of ugly pixel shadow on them...

Does anyone know how to fix this? It also says that the computer is running in Safe Mode when this happens...gah =(

System Specs:

8800GTX by XFX
Pent E6600
PQI Turbo DDR2 Ram 4GB
Asus P5NSLi Board

Help please =(

 

[randomizer]

Well safe mode is causing the shadow issues since its in like 16-bit colour or less. You havent changed anything in the BIOS yet have you?

 

[anurok]

Nope...not really. I have never built a computer like this before and I am not sure on how to set it up too well...

 

[randomizer]

I read up on your board and it should automatically reset the BIOS if something is wrong when you power off and on again. But since you probably havent overclocked or anything, it probably wont do it, so you should do it the old fashion manual way. 8)

If you look at the image I grabbed and photoshopped from the ASUS online manual:

The blue highlighted part in the bottom left is what you need to change. Its called CLRTC I think. Maybe a bit hard to see. The jumper cap on your board should be on two of the 3 pins in that area (pins 1,2). Turn off the computer and the power supply switch if its got one (otherwise switch off the power at the wall outlet), and if you want to be really safe, pull out the power cable. Next, move the jumper cap so that it covers the pins on the other side (pins 2,3). Some people say you should remove the button battery as well, but its a bit of a hassle on some boards, and I never bother with it. But again, if you want to be super safe, remove it before moving the jumper cap. Leave the cap in the second position for at least 10 seconds to drain the BIOS chip of power. Then return it to pins 1,2. Replace the battery if you removed it and the power cable for the PC. Turn on the power and try and boot up. You may get an error, asking you to press a key to reset to defaults (often F1) and continue, or press DEL to enter BIOS and manually set stuff.

This info is in the manual online if you want to look it up.

EDIT: Here is the link to the manual download. Get the one at the bottom, as I didnt check the others to see if they contained the same info.

Manual download

Its in section 1.9 "Jumpers", the first one.

 

[anurok]

ty ty, I will try this on the next shut down and see how it will get going. But do my bios still need to be set up for the system or should it get everything defaulted?

 

[randomizer]

Well your system clock will probably be completely thrown off (although some boards somehow keep this info still) but you can set that easily. I will look up your BIOS, and see what you should set.

Heres the page you should be interested in, in case you cant find it. BIOS is highlighted blue just coz I was searching for it in adobe acrobat.

 

[anurok]

thank you a lot for the help sir. I reset the Cmos and I did not get the error but I am still kind of oblivious as to what to set the bios to...where are you finding this info?

 

[randomizer]

Did it ask you that question you said originally about resetting the CMOS or memory frequency? Also what RAM do you have?

Well for resetting the CMOS, I already knew how to do that as I've done it many times before (failed overclocks :lol: ). All the info you need should be in the manual I linked to.

EDIT: Didnt see you already listed your RAM etc, soz.

 

[randomizer]

I gotta go out soon, so I might have to leave it till tomorrow.

EDIT: As for the RAM, is it DDR2 533/667/800?

 

[anurok]

I wanna say 667 but I am not sure...I don't have the box anymore or the receipt haha...the ram changed from what I originally wanted because it was not compatible with the board so the guy I ordered parts from changed it for me

yeah it is 667 for sure...I looked it up heh

 

[randomizer]

Ok lets get this BIOS configured. I'll outline generally what you should set in each of the menus. I'll assume your BIOS is similar to the one in the manual, with the menu options across the top, starting with "Main" and with "Exit" last. Tell me if some of the things I say arent in your BIOS, as the one in the manual is probably the original version, and your mobo probably has a more updated version already (the manufacturer pre-programs it with the current version at time of manufacture). Anything I dont mention is either not in the manual or doesnt need to be changed.

Main: Fairly simple here, just set the system clock if its not already correct. Make sure if you have a floppy drive, the "Legacy Diskette A" option is set to the default of 1.44M, 3.5 in. You cd/dvd rom drive should be listed under one of the Primary/Secondary Master/Slave options, as well as your HDD if its not a SATA drive. SATA drives will be under the "Sata" menus. SMART monitoring you can leave enabled or disabled, depending on whether you measure hard drive temps etc.

Advanced:

JumperFree Confguration - Even if you dont intend to OC, in the Jumperfree Configuration, set it to Manual.

J/F config -> Frequency Control - Set the System Clock Mode to "CPU/MEM manual-mode". New FSB Speed should be around 1066mhz I think if its talking QDR. Make sure New MMEM speed is whatever your RAM is to run at, which from what you said before, is 667mhz (or as close as possible to that).

JumperFree Configuration -> Voltages Control - Under DRAM voltage, set it to +2.000V (this is what I found on the PQI site, if you know that your RAM is different, set it to that). Set the Vcore to 1.3250V.

PCIPnP - Set the pri. display adapter to PCI-E.

Onboard Device Configuration -> IDE Function Setup - Turn off anything not being used. Eg, if you have a DVD Rom drive as IDE Primary Master, a SATA HDD in port 2, you can disable IDE Channel 1 and SATA Port 3,4. Refer to the Main section to find where you have installed drives. IDE Channel 0 = Primary Master/Slave; IDE Channel 1 = Secondary Master/Slave. If you have any problems booting into windows, then just enable everything. Its more to save a small amount of system resources, but its not necessary. Leave DMA transfer and Prefetch options on "Enabled".

Onboard Device Configuration -> NVRAID Config - If you have a RAID configuration, enable it for each of the drives in the configuration, leave the rest disabled.

ODC - Enable the LAN boot ROM if you boot the computer through a network (which few people do unless they run a large network). If you have a sound card, disable the HD Audio, otherwise leave it enabled. For parallel and serial ports, leave at defaults if you use them, otherwise disable them.

Power:

APM Config - Most of these settings are up to you. Leave the HDD down in suspend feature disabled as you can do this in windows, and you dont want conflicts.

Hardware Monitor - Not sure what the Q-fan thing is, leave it disabled for the moment. I'll look it up and tell you if it needs to be enabled.

Boot:

Boot Device Priority - Usually you would set CDROM or Hard Disk first. Just tells the computer where to try and boot from first, second etc. If you want to reinstall windows, then you want CDROM first or it will keep booting your old installation from the HDD. Set floppy first only if you want to do a BIOS update etc. For the quickest boot time, set Hard Disk first. Disable any devices that you wont ever boot from (eg, LAN).

Removable Drives - If you have more than one Floppy or a ZIP drive etc., set the boot order for these devices here (floppy is best).

Hard Disk Drives - Whatever drive has windows on it, set it first, the others dont matter.

Boot Settings Config - You will probably know if your case is open so you dont need your system to tell you. Set Full Screen LOGO to disabled if you want to see the POST screen instead of the ASUS logo (I assume thats what it is) when you boot up. I like to personally, in case errors appear.

Security - If you can be bothered with BIOS passwords, and you think kids are gonna play with your BIOS, make a supervisor password. If you want to have a password entered every time you try to boot up and get into windows, enter a user password (since windows has this feature, its not really necessary). Password Check should be "Setup" if you want the supervisor password required, and "System" for the user password. Dunno how you can make it ask for both.

Tools:

ASUS EZ Flash 2 - A bios update program, but there are several ways to do it.

Exit:

You didnt do all that only to discard changes right?


Hope this helped, took me about an hour to do. Any questions, just ask.

 

[anurok]

fantastic. Thank you sir. I will have to print this out and do it this weekend some time. I was out of town on saturday so I did no have a chance to catch this till now. Thank you again.

 

[randomizer]

No problem. I hope it covers what you need, as it took be a long time to get through the BIOS section in the manual and write something about it. It was all in paragraphs originally with me saying "go back and select this" etc, and wasnt very clear, so I modified it so that you have the menus and submenus in a [menu]-> [submenu] kind of pattern. Much more tidy and easier to read.

 

[anurok]

I changed the volt and the PCI-E thing and still the same issue..I will try and reset the Cmos with the battery out this time...hopefully it will work. If not I may have to take it somewhere and get it checked out...

 

[randomizer]

So its the memory frequency that its asking about? I may have missed something then. I'll check and add into the guide before in a different colour what to do.

 

[randomizer]

Check back at my guide and read the green part.

 

[anurok]

Well, I set the bios to those specs after resetting the CMOS with the battery out and the jumpers and it still throws it into safe mode...I am really lost as to what to do. I may have to take it in somewhere and figure it out

 

[Shadow703793]

Dude, if your system boots up to Windows there should not be a problem with the BIOS or the CMOS. Try changing the resolution or installing the required drives for the chipset/graphics if you are using Windows 2000 or some times XP in order to get the icons right. Any of your BIOS problems should have been fixed by the info given by randomizer. If these do not work check if all connections are securely plugged in, correct place, etc. If that don't fox it u got a RMA in your hands.

 

[randomizer]

It definitely sounds like a software issue now. Uninstall all your drivers first and then see if it puts it into safe mode. If it goes into normal mode, install each driver one at a time to see which one trips the system. Start with motherboard drivers when reinstalling them. You could always format and reinstall windows, but for the moment, do the above.

 

[anurok]

Well...I uninstalled my drivers and reinstalled them and restarted on each one. I did not get the error those times.

However, what is odd is that if I shut down for the night and turn it on the next morning it seems to give me the message. I dunno why that is...

I also got the BSOD earlier when I was working on Adobe Premiere (good thing I save a lot haha). That is the first time I have had BSOD on this since the reinstall of windows.

I am thinking if I get that error again it is windows messing up (once again).

However, what sucks the most, is that I think my XP CD is messed up because it gave me a really hard time on the install initially.

Think I should op out for Windows Vista Ultimate?

Bleh...I dunno if it supports my gfx card though...effectively...

 

[randomizer]

Ultimate is pretty expensive, why not home premium? Or will you use the features of ultimate?

 

[anurok]

Ultimate is about 250 isnt it? That is not too bad for an OS although I would rather not get vista NOW....however once Crysis and Assassins Creed hit the market I will need DirectX 10 and I will have no choice.

Ultimate has the better user features for gaming from what I understand kind of like the live services?

I also like to overkill everything...so if I think I MIGHT one day use something in ultimate I would rather buy it now than buy one copy and another later...

But yeah, I am going to have to check my PC when I get home tonight and see what happens when I boot it up. It seems to be an overnight thing.

If I leave it off for a night and turn it on it does the error with Bios message thing but I have not tested it since the uninstall and reinstall of drivers...

Gonna try it and if that does not work I will try a windows repair. And if that does not work, then a full reinstall of windows (dont like to reinstall my progs but w/e)...and if that does not work then I will go with Vista.

 

[randomizer]

Is that price for the full retail version? Here in aus its about $AU750.

 

[anurok]

I would be doing the OEM upgrade from new egg most likely. It does not have a manual or box or anything...just the DVD but I don't really need the other stuff.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116213

If I am not mistaken this should be all I need for a vista upgrade. However, with all of the negativity hitting Vista just like XP's release I may have to hold out and fix this issue some other way like a fresh windows install...which is still a pain.

 

[randomizer]

I've heard about issues with the upgrade and OEM versions of vista. Something like for the OEMs if you upgrade any major hardware, you cant install it again. Its meant to last the current pc until you get a new OS. The retail requires you to install XP and activate it first, then install vista over the top, very messy and will need a nice long defrag after. This is what i've heard, so you better verify this info first, as I may be wrong. Since vista is of no use to me in the short term, I have no reason to care what version has what issues, as I dont intend to upgrade for at least 2 years.