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How to Reset Overclock [Using BIOS]: The Easy Way

Call it gaming, mining, streaming, or any other GHz-heavy work, overclocking is almost obvious. But by the time you don’t need that stretch anymore, undoing the overclock is the wisest move. 

But unlike overclocking, there’s no hands-free guide on how to reset an overclock CPU. And that my friend, can lead you to serious trouble. 

To put an end to all of your questions on this, we’ve crafted a step-by-step guide on how to reset CPU overclock from BIOS. We’ve added up another couple of backup methods for it, followed by a set of handy tips. 

Got an overclocked CPU to reset? Give yourself a few minutes and go through the guide-  

Contents

Why Would You Want to Reset An Overclocked CPU?

As you’ve landed on this page, we can tell that you’ve almost made up your mind about your CPU to reset to stock overclock

Still, for the record, let’s have a quick look at 3 reasons that imply quite an emergency of bringing it back to the stock parameters. 

It was Wearing Your CPU Out

Call it the CPU, GPU, and even RAM, overclocking takes its tolls on the system’s health. At worst, it can lead to system crashes and BSOD(blue screen of death). 

I’m sure you don’t feel good about any of these end results just because you wanted your system to tune up better by overclocking. Hence, if you’ve sensed some wear and drop in CPU’s health, it’s high time to reset the overclock ASAP.

CPU Frequency is Unnecessarily Going High

Overclocking a CPU pushes its clock speed(GHz) to about 15-20% of its raw capacity. 

But for a contaminated overclocking process that has gone wrong, the clock speed can sometimes go unnecessarily high, even when you don’t apply a load on it. And for any given situation, it’s not normal at all. 

Given the situation, resetting it to the normal stays is the only option open for the user. 

You’re Just Retiring Your CPU and Motherboard

Often, undoing the overclock might be a chore before you change hands with your PC.

Why so?

Well, Overclocking is often done having performance-specific tasks such as gaming, mining, rendering, etc in mind. When you think you’ll retire your PC from its job, the overclocking kind of loses its purpose. To get it back on its usual functions, resetting becomes a must. 

How to Reset CPU Overclock from Bios

BIOS happens to be the bottom-most interactive system of a PC. And a handful of hardware optimizations can be done from here, including resetting an overclocked processor. You can even reset bios after a failed overclock as well. 

Credit: programmersought.com

Using this method is our recommended(and the easiest) way of undoing the overclock, and here are the steps- 

Step 1: Access The Bios Setup Utility

It starts with accessing the BIOS settings or BIOS setup utilities from the Windows startup screen. For access, you’ll be guided with which button to press at startup. 

For most PCs, it’s the ‘Delete’ Key. Some of them also do it with any of the F-keys(F1-F12). Whichever way it is, make sure you’ve landed on the BIOS settings and access it. 

Step 2: Press F9 For Factory Default Restoring

Once you’ve landed on the BIOS settings, press F9 for loading the factory reset of BIOS settings. This will bring the overclocked CPU to its normal voltage state as well. 

On pressing F9, it will ask you to confirm the operation. Press OK or ‘Y’ to agree on the positive. 

Step 4: Save Changes and Restart

Upon confirmation, the restoration would start. Typically it takes almost no time to reset every single BIOS setting to default. 

Wait for it to end by itself. Then press F10 for saving the change. It’d take you back to the startup window, or it might restart once again as well. 

Step 5: Check If The Overclock Has Been Restored or Not

Being done with all of the steps above, it’s time to check if the reset has worked or not. 

This can be done in a number of ways, and some of them are built-in monitors like the BIOS. But we won’t recommend it as BIOS GHz reading isn’t always precise. 

We’d recommend going for one of these two processes- 

Using Prime 95

Source: mywindowshub.com

Prime 95 is a trusted software to measure overclocks on CPUs and GPUs as well. It’s pretty fast as well. Download it here and run it with its default test(blend test). You’ll get to see your CPU-Z core speed. 

Using CPU-Z


This is another popular freeware utility that reads out CPU performance parameters, especially for overclockers. This is pretty precise with the measurement, and you can download it for free from their official website. 

While running the software, log in as an administrator. Next on, run an app that’s pretty CPU-hungry(i.e. Adobe Premier). Now, go back and check out for the ‘Core Speed’ on the CPU-Z interface, and you’ll get the max clock speed it’s running at.  

Got the expected clock speed? Congratulations. If not, we’ve got another couple of methods for you. Keep reading.

Can You reset it From The ‘Reset’ Button on Your Board?

Yes, you can. Just in case the Bios resetting didn’t work, this is always a plan B as long as resetting an overclocked CPU is concerned. 

A manual reset can be done in one of these two ways- 

  • Using the ‘reset’ button if the motherboard has any.
  • Resetting the CMOS with the jumper(in absence of the reset button). 
Image Credit: maketecheasier.com 

About the first process, it has to have a reset button on the board by default. Although not all of the boards have it, if it does, follow the steps below- 

Start with turning your PC off. In case there’s any charge(electricity left), press the power button several times. Then locate the ‘Reset’ button on the board, take help from its manual if needed. Finally, press and hold the reset button for 10-15 seconds. 

Reconnect the powers and reboot the PC. the overclock is supposed to be undone by now. 

Image Credit: forums.tomshardware.com 

For the second process, turn your PC off first. Then, locate the small(round) battery first. Beside it, you’ll find a 3-pin block. For a few seconds, change the pin-combination of the jumper(from pin 1-2 to pin 2-3). After 10-15 seconds, move the combination back to where it was. 

This way, your CPU will throttle back to its usual clock speed. Sometimes, this might take some time. 

Will Updating Bios Reset Overclock?

Some of the users might prefer updating the BIOS to reset the overclocked CPUs. And to some extent, it does undo the settings. But with a newer BIOS version, some of the settings might not be as stable as they used to be with the older version. 

With an update, the older BIOS profiles will be all-gone, and you have to manually create them over again. Besides, if there are overclocked profiles done without any software such as AMD Overdrive, Ryzen Master, or MSI Afterburn, you will need to recreate them over again. Unless you know how to reset all overclock settings, this can give you a hard time. 

Therefore, it’s not recommended to update the BIOS to reset the overclock. Instead, you can try one of the three recommended ways mentioned earlier in this article. 

4 Tips While Resetting An Overclocked CPU

We’re about to be at the end of the article. For now, let’s look at a few important tips in mind to make the process of resetting flawless and risk-free

Know Your Board

If you’re first time undoing an overclocked CPU, make sure you know the interface of your motherboard. This is more important if you reset it using the CMOS reset button or the jumper wiring method. 

Combining CPU-Z and Prime95

For stress-testing the CPU once the reset is done, you can run Prime 95 and monitor the clock speed with CPU-Z. This will eliminate the requirement of running any other CPU-heavy software. 

Don’t Do-Undo Overclocking with The CPU

Once you’ve reset the CPU to normal, don’t overclock it over again. Taking the CPU through this kind of tiring loop will eat up its capability and might lead to a collapse at some point. Read also the article on whether gpu overclocking increases FPS.

It’s Good To Take Off The Battery For Awhile

Remember the round batter we talked about in the manual resetting process? Well, a good piece of advice to follow is to take off the battery for a while(10-15 seconds) right after you’ve turned off the power of the PC. This lets any residue charge drain away and makes the restoration safer. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How to reset bios after a bad overclock?

To reset BIOS after a bad overclock, simply go to your BIOS settings from the startup window, and press F9 to reset BIOS settings. This will bring back all of the settings to factory-standard measures. 

How to reset MSI Afterburner overclock?

To reset MSI’s AfterBurn settings, you need to delete all the files from the folder called ‘Profiles’. It’ll be back to the older design and settings and the overclocking will be restored. 

Does clearing CMOS reset overclock?

Yes, clearing up CMOS settings manually or through the CMOS control panel does clear the overclock. But it’s advised to try the BIOS method before you go with CMOS resetting. 

How to reset Ryzen master overclock?

To reset Ryzem Master overclock, look for the ‘Reset’ button on the top right part of Ryzen Master software. If that doesn’t work, you need to go through the CMOS settings restoration for undoing the overclock.

Will updating bios reset overclock?

Yes, updating the BIOS will bring all of the BIOS settings back to the default. The overclocking settings will be in this list too. 

Final Words 

Alright, so this is where we drop the curtain of this discussion on how to reset overclock of a CPU. You might also be interested in how to reset overclock GPU or even RAM. But let’s keep those discussions for another time, as they’re technically different from a CPU. 

That said, we’ve tried to cover everything you need to know about undoing CPU overclocks. Still, if you have any comments or doubts, leave a comment below, and we’ll be back to it.