diff --git a/scripts/test-free-shards.ts b/scripts/test-free-shards.ts
index 8381c152b..7fd8e6814 100755
--- a/scripts/test-free-shards.ts
+++ b/scripts/test-free-shards.ts
@@ -339,8 +339,14 @@ export function wallTimeoutForShard(fileCount: number, baseMs = DEFAULT_WALL_TIM
  * slow Playwright files), so packed shards get max(base, predicted x 3) —
  * generous against seed drift, still bounded.
  */
-export function wallTimeoutForPackedShard(predictedMs: number, baseMs = DEFAULT_WALL_TIMEOUT_MS): number {
-  return Math.max(baseMs, Math.ceil(predictedMs * 3));
+export function wallTimeoutForPackedShard(predictedMs: number, baseMs = DEFAULT_WALL_TIMEOUT_MS, fileCount = 0): number {
+  // Predictions transfer badly across machines: the committed duration seed
+  // is recorded on fast CI, and a syscall-supervised sandbox replays those
+  // files 2-4x slower (observed: a 253-file shard predicted ~242s wall-killed
+  // at its 725s predicted-x3 wall while genuinely still progressing). The
+  // packed wall may therefore be LOOSER than the count heuristic, never
+  // tighter — it keeps the per-file floor the runner has always guaranteed.
+  return Math.max(baseMs, Math.ceil(predictedMs * 3), fileCount * PER_FILE_WALL_MS);
 }
 /**
  * Full-suite parallelism: leave RESERVED_CPUS cores for the parent runner +
@@ -1444,7 +1450,7 @@ async function main(): Promise<number> {
       // cost BY DESIGN, so the 5s/file heuristic would undersize a shard
       // holding few expensive files.
       wallTimeoutMs: packed && !options.wallTimeoutExplicit
-        ? wallTimeoutForPackedShard(packed.predictedMs[index], options.wallTimeoutMs)
+        ? wallTimeoutForPackedShard(packed.predictedMs[index], options.wallTimeoutMs, shardFiles.length)
         : shardTimeout(shardFiles.length),
       verbose: options.verbose,
     })),
diff --git a/test/test-free-shards.test.ts b/test/test-free-shards.test.ts
index 08887364a..0e7daa157 100644
--- a/test/test-free-shards.test.ts
+++ b/test/test-free-shards.test.ts
@@ -654,4 +654,15 @@ describe('test-free-shards: duration-aware packing (full-suite LPT)', () => {
     // Tiny prediction: base still floors it.
     expect(wallTimeoutForPackedShard(1_000)).toBe(WALL_BASE_MS);
   });
+
+  test('packed walls never undercut the per-file floor (predictions do not transfer across machines)', () => {
+    // The duration seed is recorded on fast CI; a syscall-supervised sandbox
+    // replays the same files 2-4x slower. A 253-file shard predicted at ~242s
+    // got wall-killed at predicted×3 = 725s while genuinely progressing —
+    // the count-based floor (253 × 5s = 1265s) the runner always guaranteed
+    // must survive duration packing. Looser is allowed, tighter is not.
+    expect(wallTimeoutForPackedShard(242_000, WALL_BASE_MS, 253)).toBe(253 * 5_000);
+    // When the prediction is the larger bound, it still wins.
+    expect(wallTimeoutForPackedShard(600_000, WALL_BASE_MS, 10)).toBe(1_800_000);
+  });
 });