How To Reset Bios To Factory Settings

How to Reset Your BIOS to Optimal, Default or Factory Settings

Published by Timothy Tibbetts on 03/09/2020

If your computer is having issues that you believe are BIOS related, then resetting your BIOS to the factory defaults may be required. Doing so is very simple, only complicated by the many different motherboard layouts and where you can find the reset options.

-=- Advertisement -=-

1: Reset Your BIOS From Settings

The easiest way to reset your BIOS is from the BIOS settings. This is accomplished by rebooting and pressing the proper key to enter setup. You should see the correct key when the black screen appears and before the Windows splash screen.

As you can see, my key is DEL or F2. Yours could be F10, F12, or one of the other Function keys. You can guess, or Google the name of your computer or motherboard, followed by BIOS to find out.

As we mentioned, each BIOS is different, but almost all of them will offer a keyboard shortcut at the top or bottom of the screen with other frequently accessed settings. As you can see in our BIOS, there's a Default(F5) option next to a few other settings.

Remember, your settings could say optimal (always a good choice) default or factory. If you can't find the reset option, it can sometimes be hidden in the Exit screen. Feel free to poke around. The BIOS is some pretty geeky stuff, but you can always exit without saving, a choice you will be given before you exit.

2: Reset Your BIOS From the Motherboard

If your computer isn't bootable due to a BIOS issue, you can still reset to the factory defaults manually. Once again, this takes a bit of looking around, because all computers are the same, yet a little different. Remove the cover on your computer and get a flashlight. Look for the battery on your motherboard. It looks like a watch battery because, well, it's a watch battery. Almost always, with an inch or two of the battery, you will see two pins with small white letters (hence the flashlight) that says CMOS, CLR_CMOS, C CMOS, CLRMOS, or similar. On small factor motherboards, these pins might be in the corner of your board with all the other pins.

In most cases, these pins will have a jumper on them that is only one pin. Unplug your computer first, and we like to make sure we're grounded and not getting a small shock by gently touching or tapping the power supply with one hand. Remove the jumper and place it on both pins. This completes the circuit and resets the BIOS. Remove the jumper and put it back on one pin, plug your computer back in and restart.

If you don't have a jumper, you can use almost anything to "short" the two pins. We like to use a screwdriver here, but be careful not to touch anything else, or you could fry your motherboard. Use both hands and keep steady.

Hopefully, your BIOS is reset, and your problem solved.

Similar:
How to Check Your BIOS Version
How to Fix Boot Device Not Found Error

comments powered by Disqus