Notes on PC 66

Bought 22 December 2025

Bought NEW from Amazon.

Dell 7020, i8500, 3.5 GHz, 16 GB, 512 GB SSD

Intended for Remote Station; paid for by anonymous donor.

Late December 2025

I worked in Idaho to install Anydesk, address 1 655 613 565. Then used AI to figure out how to go into the BIOS and set up so that the response to a power drop was to automatically restart when the power came back on. Then I followed the procedure so that it would not prompt for a PIN. Thus, autostart worked correctly. Then installed as manyapps as possible using Anydesk file transfer and made the desktop look like the present remote PC desktop. Packed for travel to Curacao via Ohio.

12 March 2026

Test installed at remote station. The 16 relay board came up on COM6 and the 8 relay board on COM4. Logged in to Uli's software with password letmein. One in, you can set the correct COM ports for both relay boards.

The amp was hard to connect. I finally started the KPA-1500 utility and clicked a button called "Find KPA-1500." It tried all combinations and found the amp at COM3 with a speed of 256K, the fastest available. Form there I was able to connect to and control the amp.

I used the fourth USB port to plug in the keyboard, and the fifth one (on the front of the PC) to plug in the mouse. There is a sixth USB port, but it is USB-C, and need not be used.

The monitor connected fine to the new PC using the HDMI cable that was there previously. It's HDMI male on both ends.

The previous three USB cables to the RRC box, WinKeyer, and something else are now surplus and I left in place coiled out of the way and marked "NC."

K8ND ran tests of the remote and all worked fine.

But the PC was running very, very hot. I used the AI and it said that a temp up to 60C was acceptable at the rear video ports and that it was in fact expected because that's where the copper heat sink bar bonds to the case and because that's where the output grille is for the fan to exhaust hot air. But it still seemed much too hot to me. So I installed HWMonitor. That program shows many parameters including "Package Temperature." That figure was running as high as 88C, much much too hot.

I researched ways to get to the fan speed control, but they all required getting in to the BIOS. Repeated pressing of F2 did not work to get to the BIOS because my autostart setup was bypassing the sign in routine. AI explained how to go to System > Recovery and I finally got into BIOS and to Thermal Control. On the first entry into the BIOS the PC did an automatic Firmware update. That worked OK. (The mouse and keyboard stopped working in the BIOS but I moved them to the black low speed USB ports and that worked OK.) Unfortunately, this BIOS had only choices "Optimized" and "Quiet." It was set on optimized, so there was no way to change the thermal control to "Cool." I saw the fan control override but did not click it because it would run the fan much too hard. On advice of the AI I went back in to the BIOS to "Performance" and found Intel Turbo Boost and turned it off. Hit "Apply" This had an immediate direct impact on the PC, running as cool as 45C. I could feel the fan blowing out a small volume of air. I also did Start Settings Power Balanced, but the PC ran a little hotter so I set it back to "Best Performance" and the temp dropped to 45C.

Ports: I used the Dymo and made labels. Mouse is plugged into front panel. Viewed from the back, the blue relay board cable goes in the top right black slow USB port. The black relay board cable goes below that port. On the left, the amp goes in the top right (blue) port, and the keyboard below that. The USB C port on the front is unused.

The removed from service remote PC51 is on the bottom remote shelf in reserve. The PC50 that Gene set up as a backup backup is in the general PC population now.