Saturday, July 17, 2010

Reset CMOS, BIOS (how to reset/revert BIOS errors)

I had this problem with my graphics card: It stopped working. So after playing with stuff I didn't really understand I ended up disabling my on-board graphics chip, resulting in some long beeps at startup and having no display to fix the problem with.

So I had to reset the BIOS or CMOS or whatever, so I could work again. Google said I should find a jumper (those tiny rectangles that you put on those pointy pins) on the motherboard and moving it will reset the CMOS. I didn't find it anywhere, so I did the next best thing: Removed the motherboard battery (or CMOS battery if you really want to call it that).

I used the power supply switch to turn it off, then found the 3v batt underneath the graphics card and removed it. This guide said I should wait at least five minutes. I think one minute is enough but I waited 5 anyway. After which I put the batt in again and it worked--My stupid change reverted along with any other changes I made over the years.

[ My motherboard is GA-MA78GM-US2H (Gigabyte) ]

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Disable Hibernate - Windows 7

I'm tired of the hibernation file taking up space and being all fragmented and annoying. So if you never use it, here's how you disable hibernation on Windows 7 forever and delete the huge file that comes with it:
  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator.
  2. Type "powercfg.exe -h off" (without the quotation marks)

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=1493