# Need help with a pencil mod.



## Cja123 (Oct 14, 2008)

Hello, I am relatively new to this board and was wondering if I could get some help with a pencil mod. I have little knowledge of the procedure but understand you must shade a resistor in order to solve a v droop problem.

Well I have an EVGA 780i SLI mother board and I think I know where the resistors I am looking to mod are. I don't know what to do in the next step. I know you must have a 2B/4B pencil (Have no clue what the numbers mean or where to get a 2B or 4B pencil) and I think you have to shade it 2 to 3 times back and forth. Anyways I'm pretty ignorant of what I need to do and could use some help. It's killing me to have a Q6600 (SALCR) and have v droop so bad that I have to set CPU voltage to 1.58v to be stable at 3.6ghz.

Once again any help would be appreciated.


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

thats pretty much it. you shade over it until the vdroop goes away.

FYI, dont make it go ENTIRELY away. A little bit of vdroop is a good thing for the safety of the hardware according to an article i read a while back.

(if you set 1.45v and it runs at 1.435v... whatever. its close enough)


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## Cja123 (Oct 14, 2008)

Alright do I need any special type of pencil? and do I need any other equipment?


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

Cja123 said:


> Alright do I need any special type of pencil? and do I need any other equipment?



you need a 2B pencil as you said in the first post.

A way to measure the voltage would be good, i just sat my lan rig in the BIOS and watched the CPU voltage as i stroked the resistor, and then put some tape over it when i was done.


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## Cja123 (Oct 14, 2008)

Alright so it's okay to do this while your computer is on then. And did you use electrical tape? oh and one more thing, do you know where I could get a 2b pencil? Oh and do you shade over the entire resistor or is there parts you should stay away from? (I know man of many questions lol)


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

Cja123 said:


> Alright so it's okay to do this while your computer is on then. And did you use electrical tape? oh and one more thing, do you know where I could get a 2b pencil? Oh and do you shade over the entire resistor or is there parts you should stay away from? (I know man of many questions lol)



2B pencil - anywhere that sells pencils  its one of the most common types.

I just used regular sticky tape, electrical tape tends to leave too much of a residue for my liking.

You shade from end to end, slowly.

its kinda like this
[]=[]

The part that does the actual resisting is in the middle, and what you're doing by shading over the top (connecting the two side parts) is letting some power pass through the pencil lead instead of through the resistor, increasing the voltage/total power. Just take it slowly, because you dont want it to raise up suddenly (EG, you set 1.4V and 1.6V comes out and boooom)


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## sneekypeet (Oct 14, 2008)

um shouldnt the fact that a digital multi meter is a must on this mod as well? Look at the ohms and see how much its changed/lowered b4 you turn it on and realize its way too much pencil.


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

sneekypeet said:


> um shouldnt the fact that a digital multi meter is a must on this mod as well? Look at the ohms and see how much its changed/lowered b4 you turn it on and realize its way too much pencil.



not if you're doing it lightly and real time.

THe thing is, even if he checks the resistance he wont know if its enough or not without powering it on. I did mine with it running and without a multimeter, and had no ill effects - but i did go slowly, and i watched the voltage reading in the BIOS to know how it was going.

If you had NO reading whatsoever, then i would most certainly suggest a multimeter - but this aint a video card, and he CAN see the readings from his BIOS.


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## Cja123 (Oct 14, 2008)

Alright thanks man and just to confirm you can have you computer running and monitor your voltage through your bios correct?


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

Cja123 said:


> Alright thanks man and just to confirm you can have you computer running and monitor your voltage through your bios correct?



thats how i did it.

It may be a lot easier to do it out of the case, so that you have more room/easier access. I had mine setup on a table when i did it.


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## RadeonX2 (Oct 14, 2008)

I also have a question regarding pencil mod coz my mobo asus commando I have done d pencil modding trick to reduce vcore the vdroop is entirely gone but when on load it goes up by .01-.03 is this normal? on my vcore now it is set to 1.25 @ bios idling @ 1.24 when full load it goes up to 1.26 is this fine? it's not dropping but its increasing the vcore


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

RadeonX2 said:


> I also have a question regarding pencil mod coz my mobo asus commando I have done d pencil modding trick to reduce vcore the vdroop is entirely gone but when on load it goes up by .01-.03 is this normal? on my vcore now it is set to 1.25 @ bios idling @ 1.24 when full load it goes up to 1.26 is this fine? it's not dropping but its increasing the vcore



increasing means you went too far. IMO, that would slowly degrade the life of the chip.

(I read an in depth article a while ago, and it stated that vdroop was actually intentionally left there to prevent damage during bootups of a PC. Thats why i feel that reducing Vdroop is better than totally eliminating it)


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## RadeonX2 (Oct 14, 2008)

Mussels said:


> increasing means you went too far. IMO, that would slowly degrade the life of the chip.
> 
> (I read an in depth article a while ago, and it stated that vdroop was actually intentionally left there to prevent damage during bootups of a PC. Thats why i feel that reducing Vdroop is better than totally eliminating it)



 should I undo and erase d pencil mod I did?


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## Mussels (Oct 14, 2008)

RadeonX2 said:


> should I undo and erase d pencil mod I did?



or at least reduce it a little.


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## Hayder_Master (Oct 14, 2008)

wow , you need go higher , good luck


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## Cja123 (Oct 15, 2008)

Alrighty well all done with the mod and I'd have to say it was a success. I was experiencing .08 v droop under load and am now experiencing no v droop =). Thanks for all the help mussels =)


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## Mussels (Oct 15, 2008)

no probs CJA.

its easier than most people make it out to be, simply because they did it on video cards where its more complex.


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## RadeonX2 (Oct 15, 2008)

Mussels said:


> or at least reduce it a little.



I have erased using Q-tip set 1.25v bios vcore and now: idle in windows 1.23 under load using prime 95 1.23  tnx for your useful tip mussels


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## Mussels (Oct 15, 2008)

RadeonX2 said:


> I have erased using Q-tip set 1.25v bios vcore and now: idle in windows 1.23 under load using prime 95 1.23  tnx for your useful tip mussels



sounds good.

No probs guys, its the kinda thing you want as much info as you can before starting.


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