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.

Enable more simultaneous Downloads in Firefox

If you prefer to use Firefox (which, like IE7 defaults to only two persistent connections to a given server), here's the Firefox-approved version of the above tip:

Open Firefox and type 'about:config' in the address bar.

Scroll down to the 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server' entry.

Double click the entry and change the value to anywhere from 4 to 10.

Restart Firefox.

Tweak the mouse scroll wheel

If your finger is getting sore from all the scrolling around you do on web pages and documents, you can actually tweak the resolution of your mouse's scroll wheel in Windows Vista. By default the OS scrolls 3 lines at a time, but if you want faster scrolling and less finger abuse, this is easy to change with a small registry edit.

To increase mouse wheel scroll speed in Vista:

Open Regedit (open 'start' menu and type 'regedit.')

Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'

Scroll down to the 'WheelScrollLines' value and double click it to edit.

Larger values equate to larger 'notches' on the scroll wheel, but this will require a restart before it's effective.

Assign priorities to applications

All recent Microsoft operating systems have contained the concept of priority, meaning in this case, which process gets the most attention from the CPU. In Vista, you can customize these priority settings so that your hardware is concentrating most on what you want it to.

Vista has a range of available settings ranging from 'low' to 'real time'. It should be noted here that any full screen application (including games) is automatically given high priority by Vista, so there are no frames per second increases to be had here. What you can do is tweak your commonly used windowed apps to get the desired level of performance vs. system resource consumption.

To assign custom priorities to applications:
Start the desired application.

Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and choose the 'task manager' option.

In the 'applications' tab, locate the desired program and right click on it. Choose 'go to process'.


This will bring you to the 'processes' tab, with the process that drives your application highlighted. Right click on it and choose 'set priority'. The priority list will open. Choose your desired level, but note that choosing 'realtime' is not a good idea if you want to run anything else at the same time.

Note that all settings will be reset to default when you restart the computer.

Editing BIOS settings

Several tips in this guide involve making changes within your computer's BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The BIOS is the set of instructions your motherboard has built into it which allow it to work with the rest of the hardware in your system.

Some BIOS settings can be changed, and the changes stored in a small area of memory built into the board (the CMOS) which is powered by a single coin-cell battery. The actual BIOS itself cannot be changed (though it can be completely written over by a newer BIOS version, see Tip 11).

To edit the BIOS settings, most systems require you to press the DEL key while the computer is going through its initial POST (Power On Self Test) the first screen that appears after turning your system on. Once you are in the BIOS screen, changes can be made to the available settings by highlighting the item, pressing ENTER then choosing from a list - usually with the +/- keys.

Note that these changes will not take effect until you have saved them (using the menu option) and restarted the computer. It is possible that your motherboard's BIOS may not contain some of the settings that we will edit below, as boards from various manufacturers differ widely.

Again to edit the BIOS settings:

Press DEL several times immediately after restarting your computer. Other manufacturers like IBM may require a different key (such as F2, or F6), but this should be listed on the POST screen.

Select the menu and item you wish to edit, press ENTER and choose the correct setting.

Save and exit the BIOS, which will restart your system and put your changes into effect.

Creating a system restore point in Windows Vista

Like XP before it, Vista includes the useful system restore utility. Under ideal conditions, this feature allows you to roll back the entire operating system (excepting personal data) to a previously created 'restore point' allowing you to undo errors caused by faulty programs or changes made to the system. Before we continue further with tweaks, it's a good idea to create one of these restore points and to understand how to return the operating system to a previously created restore point.

To create a system restore point:

Open the 'start' menu and right-click on 'computer'. Choose 'properties'.

From the tasks pane on the left, click 'System Protection'.

Click the 'create' button and give your new restore point an appropriate name like 'system before tweaks' and hit 'create'.

To restore Windows Vista to a previously saved restore point:

Open the 'start' menu and type 'system restore.'

Click 'next'.

Choose the restore point you wish to use by highlighting it and then hit 'next'.

Make sure you have saved any documents, then click 'finish'. The system will restart and revert to the settings saved in the restore point.