How can I underclock a packard bell?

MAllen · 17 Jul 2007 at 18:10

MikeHunt79 said:
It's just a shame I can't lower the vcore, and reduce the clock speed really, as this rig only gets used for e-mails and maybe the odd MS word session, so I think that why Prime95 made it go crazy.

The OEM BIOSes in the Knackard Hell PCs are very limited. So no way to change things there. Also no third party BIOSes available, unless you want a dead lump of electronics (from experience

) So you will to go with more active cooling.

Here is a trick I do. Is that single fan an extractor? Then get out your dremel \ hacksaw and clear the metalwork out of the way that is blocking the efficiency of the fan. Often more than half of the hole is blocked by the badly punched out metal. Cut this away, making sure you leave the fan still securly attached. Then buy a chrome finger guard to use instead.

(Obvioulsy take the components out of the case first before you do this... metal shards and motherboards don't mix too well)

MikeHunt79 said:
I've got it so it will turn itself off if it hits 80 deg.

If? Surely you mean when.

Also - have you checked how hot the hard disk is? If data is corrupting, the cheap maxtors usually found in those machines can run hot.

fobose · 17 Jul 2007 at 18:11

MAllen said:
Here is a trick I do. Is that single fan an extractor? Then get out your dremel \ hacksaw and clear the metalwork out of the way that is blocking the efficiency of the fan. Often more than half of the hole is blocked by the badly punched out metal. Cut this away, making sure you leave the fan still securly attached. Then buy a chrome finger guard to use instead.

This sounds like a good idea, should have done it to some of my old cheapo cases.

MikeHunt79 · 17 Jul 2007 at 19:01

fobose said:
Why are you prime95'n it if its just used for email/word?

Because when I turned it on today, it wouldn't even boot, due to missing/corrupted files. Unstable systems can cause corrupt files.

MAllen said:
Also - have you checked how hot the hard disk is? If data is corrupting, the cheap maxtors usually found in those machines can run hot.

I'll check it out - HDTune reported it to be around 36deg, which seems ok.

I may chop out the fan grill thing if I have to - I'll try new cpu goo first.

mattyrigby00 · 17 Jul 2007 at 19:11

it might be the hard drive. just before the hard drive broke in my mums hewlett packard computer it got BSOD's about corrupted files and "stack errors".

MikeHunt79 · 17 Jul 2007 at 19:27

mattyrigby00 said:
it might be the hard drive. just before the hard drive broke in my mums hewlett packard computer it got BSOD's about corrupted files and "stack errors".

I done a scandisk - it said it was fine

I checked the SMART things, again fine....

I'm keeping my eye on it tho... It could even be down the an incompetetant user!

MAllen · 17 Jul 2007 at 19:45

Paranoia backup mode.... ON

Main things to fail in those machines are hard disks and power supplies. Do you have a PSU tester? Corruption could be an early sign of dodgy voltages ready to spike out and fry that motherboard. (And when those cheap PSUs go, 9 out of 10 times they take the motherboard with it....)