How to reset CCC overclocking settings if the settings prevent your system from starting

[JonSmith]

One common issue I have seen but with no concrete solution is what happens if the CCC overdrive settings are set incorrectly and subsequently cause your system to hang.

The issue is that even re-installing the drivers does not fix this, nor does removing and re-installing the card (including physical removal and re-insertion). The solution is actually rather simple, but I had to discover it myself. Boot the system into safemode using F8, open up regedit and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ATI\ACE\Settings\Dashboard\Graphics\Overdrive5\TimeUnlocked

Change the data to NEVER

This will disable the unlocked state of the card and reset the overclocking settings back to default.

 

[JonSmith]

What I'm saying is that if you overclock your GPU and these settings cause the system to crash, CCC saves the settings in the registry and if you reboot will cause a crash loop, that can only be resolved by entering safe mode and manually resetting the CCC overdrive settings back to default by editing the registry. Because they are saved into the registry, even uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling/updating does not reset the overdrive overclocking settings. It's very bizarre that there isn't a simple way to reset the settings.