Underclocked PC problems

Lucifer · Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:32 pm Post subject: Underclocked PC problems

I have an old P3 933Mhz desktop with 320MB RAM which i had to underclock to 790Mhz since it kept freezing my system.

Now the problem is whenever it resumes from hibernation, the power supply fan starts making a loud noise. I bought it not long ago and clean it frequently so i doubt it's dusty or broken. I have to hibernate and resume it at least 3 times to get rid of the noise.

Besides that, the CPU speed would occasionally jump back to 933Mhz causing system to freeze. A shutdown is then needed to restore underclocked speed.

Some help or suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks.
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ddogt432 · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 12:22 am Post subject:

apologizes for the ignorance, but how does underclocking help anything?

what os/software are you running?

Lucifer · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 12:56 am Post subject:

My system used to freeze for no reason so i figured it has something to do with my SDRAM or the processor if it isn't the OS.

Memtest86+ detected many errors so to fix the problem, i would either need to lower the SDRAM Cycle Length or decrease the CPU speed so it can retrive instruction from the memory much faster.
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thugangel · Ronin Samurai Joined: Aug 27, 2005 Posts: 713

How are you underclocking this? If done through the BIOS, then the settings should be saved in the CMOS and there shouldn't be any need of changes.

But then again, my motherboard would randomly lose it's BIOS settings as well once in a while.. It happened often when I had a bad power supply. And it would happen once in a while when improperly shut down.

Thing about hibernation is that it's good when you need to save power for some extended period of time. What it does is it copies the state of the OS from the RAM and save it onto the HDD and then shut down the system completely. Disadvantages are that the booting back up is slightly faster than a clean boot (could vary depending on the system), it requires HDD space, and you won't have clean memory/RAM compared to a clean boot (especially when you're running Windows). Hibernation is ideal for notebooks.

Lucifer · Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:24 am Post subject:

Like you said, my BIOS setting will also go wrong when the computer fails to resume from hibernation. A reboot would allow me to enter Windows but the CPU speed would revert to original 933Mhz, i can't change the BIOS settings unless it shuts down.

I don't use this computer for gaming so it hasn't crashed or freezed since the underclock. Memtest shows ALL my RAM have compatibility issues with the motherboard so nothing can be done about that. I'm planning to buy another power supply soon, hopefully that would solve my problem.
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Lucifer · Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 9:40 pm Post subject:

Some update, it's confirmed that the power supply is responsible for the noise. Smokes came out from it but the computer can still start up Shocked

I replaced it with a new one and no more noises.
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thugangel · Ronin Samurai Joined: Aug 27, 2005 Posts: 713

lol, it's probably about time it gets replaced.