Restoring BIOS defaults

It's quite possible that during the course of some of our overclocking tips presented later in the Beginners Guide, your motherboard could seize up and refuse to boot. Don't panic. It is easy to restore the default settings of any modern motherboard fortunately.

If this happens, what you need to do is power off your system, open the side of the case and locate the CMOS battery.

This small battery provides the necessary power to store the changes you have made to the BIOS defaults. If you remove the battery or switch the BIOS clearing jumper (generally found next to the battery, but this may vary, consult your manual) the CMOS memory that holds the changes will be cleared and the BIOS defaults restored, along with your ability to boot your system.

To clear the CMOS settings:

Locate and switch the CMOS clearing jumper, then press the power button once (nothing should happen, but the BIOS will be restored) before resetting it in its original position and powering your system on.

Or

Remove the battery with the aid of a flat head screwdriver. Leave it out for about 10 minutes to be safe, then replace it and restart the system.

Or...

Some motherboard makers allow you to load in the BIOS defaults when you boot up, without having to crack open the case and fiddle around with jumpers or batteries. This may not work for every single motherboard, or computer out there, but it is worth a shot.

First power off the PC, then while holding the "Insert" key down, power the computer back up, and don't let go of that key. If things go as planned, the computer should boot up, and give some little warning about "BIOS checksums loaded." From there, you can let go of the key, and go right into the BIOS and reset it completely, or set your own favorite performance settings. Of course if this doesn't work, then go back and follow our directions for how to reset the CMOS as described above.

Disable IPV6 in Windows Vista

Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system to feature IP Version 6 as a default networking protocol. This despite the fact that essentially nothing uses it. Since each of your network interfaces is running both IPV6 and standard TCP/IP by default, wouldn't it be a good idea to disable the unnecessary protocol? i think so.

To disable IPV6 in Windows Vista:

Start Regedit and navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip6\Parameters\
Right click on an empty area of the right-hand pane and choose 'new\DWORD value'.

Name the DWORD 'DisabledComponents' and give it the value '0xFF'

You will need to restart your system for this to take effect.

Update Vista's DirectX9 files for better game compatibility

One of the fixes for getting games to run in Vista that do not normally (such as FEAR and 3Dmark06 as two examples) is relatively simple. These games require the latest version of Directx 9. Vista does not actually contain a full installation of Directx 9, just some elements for compatibility purposes. So, install Directx 9.

To install Directx 9c on Windows Vista:

Unzip the file into a folder on your desktop or in your documents.

Run the DXSETUP file.

You can delete the folder after the install has finished.