Old Packard Bell

Black_Cat · Dec 11, 2004

I have before me an old Packard Bell that a friend of mine just wants to use for the internet. Just for fun he's allowing me to upgrade this old POS as far as it can go.

Specs:
Packard Bell S606
2 DIMMS Total memory: 32MB
4.3GB HDD
Pentium 233
Intel 430VX chipset
Built in S3 Trio64 graphics
20X CD-ROM
floppy
56k ISA modem

I would like to run Windows 2000 if I could and possibly put a K6-2 processor in it. I think 128MB is the max possible RAM I can put in it and I'm not sure if it will handle double density modules.

If anybody has any info or can provide info, links, etc. it would be much appreciated.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

Ned_Flanders · Dec 11, 2004

hahahahahahaha, that PC rocks

______________________
<A HREF="http://www.moviewavs.com/MP3S/TV_Shows/Simpsons/flanderssong.mp3" target="_new">Audio Sig</A>|<A HREF="http://img113.exs.cx/img113/3772/c3othgrichpls.jpg" target="_new">Bored...me?</A>

Black_Cat · Dec 11, 2004

You're just jealous.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

RichPLS · Dec 11, 2004

Actually, I remember back in the day, having a hard time upgrading memory on PB's. It was very hard to find RAM that would work, and it seems that there was some other compatiblity problem.

<pre>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre>

Black_Cat · Dec 11, 2004

As unbelievable as this may sound, I was digging through my ever-growing pile of pc parts and found two pristine 64MB PC-100 single density DIMMs. If that wasn't miraculous enough, the DIMMs I pulled out of the old PB and the ones I found are all made by Hyundai. If there is a way to get a K6-2 in there and bump up the FSB to 100 that would be awesome. However, the chances of that happening are slightly less than nil. I've been scouring the net looking for any info, BIOS upgrade, anything. So far, nothing.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

Cybercraig · Dec 12, 2004

It's even too slow for a cable modem. That PC and 5 bucks will get you an order of Fish "N Chips.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

Crashman · Dec 12, 2004

No. First of all, I think it uses Intel BIOS, and Intel BIOS won't support K6-2's. If it were a Compaq, HP, or IBM, you might be better off!

Second, it's using the VX chipset. I was hoping you wouldn't say DIMMs, but you did. The VX had this HORRIBLE density limit of 2MB/chip, so a 16-chip double-sided module would support 32MB of RAM. That's 64MB total, unless you can find some old 32-chip double-height modules.

Older technology would have saved you, SIMM boards normally have 4 slots and support 32-64MB per slot of EDO.

You already have a fast CPU in the thing. Congratulations. I think you can get $50 for the system if you're a good salesman.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Black_Cat · Dec 12, 2004

LOL! I'd have to be a really good salesman! It's funny, this POS came in two different flavors, EDO or SDRAM. I guess back when my friend bought it SDRAM sounded better. What a well-informed shopper he was. I almost got Win2000 to load but alas it hung. Oh well. I guess Win98 it is.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

Black_Cat · Dec 12, 2004

And his CD-ROM is dead.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

RichPLS · Dec 12, 2004

It will always make for a ugly doorstop

<pre>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre>

Crashman · Dec 12, 2004

You really need 64MB minimum to get most applications to run smoothly in Win98.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Black_Cat · Dec 12, 2004

He just wants to get on the internet. I could break out Windows 95. I have it here somewhere. I might have to. 3 crashes so far on the Win98 install.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

Ned_Flanders · Dec 12, 2004

Talk about old-school. Oh well - good luck

______________________
<A HREF="http://www.moviewavs.com/MP3S/TV_Shows/Simpsons/flanderssong.mp3" target="_new">Audio Sig</A>|<A HREF="http://img113.exs.cx/img113/3772/c3othgrichpls.jpg" target="_new">Bored...me?</A>

RichPLS · Dec 12, 2004

Dos and Win 3.11 is proper for that rig...I've still got the discs too...

<pre>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre>

bdaley · Dec 18, 2004

Packard Hell, ouch!

I haven't heard that name for a while.

Do your friend a favor, and destroy the thing. Tell him your dog ate it or something.

He'll thank you someday.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than have to have a frontal lobotomy."

Flinx · Dec 18, 2004

Do yourself a favor, find a PC reclclyer and get a company offlease 450 for $120 US including, memory, floppy, hdd, cdrom

Seems not worth the time to find any parts etc.

eg. <A HREF="http://www.pcrecycle.ca/systeme.htm" target="_new">http://www.pcrecycle.ca/systeme.htm</A>

The loving are the daring!

sobelizard · Dec 18, 2004

Hey now, Packard Bell did something for all of us: It gave us a baseline of what to avoid. During it height in popularity - it was a decent 'home' friendly pc. One could pretty much knock any mmx box.

If it were my box and I HAD to use it for i-net surfing, Linux would be my choice. Most flavors of Linux will run just fine on the existing box. You can get iso's at the Linux.org site.

Lizards do not taste like chicken, chicken tastes like lizard.

bdaley · Dec 18, 2004

LOL. We got rid of Packard Hell, now we have eMachines.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than have to have a frontal lobotomy."

Black_Cat · Dec 18, 2004

This thing is officially dead. I got it to boot once. All other attempts to boot failed. I checked all the capacitors and they seem fine. No bloating or leakage. It's really not worth it to go any further with this thing. I was going to check the RAM and the PSU but what's the point? The reason my friend brought it to me was because it wasn't booting. He will get it back in much the same condition.

You've tried and failed. The lesson here is, never try again. -- Homer Simpson.

bdaley · Dec 18, 2004

May it Rest In Peace in Obsolete Hardware Heaven! Maybe it will make friends with a nice eMachine.

Build your friend a nice, inexpensive Athlon XP PC.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than have to have a frontal lobotomy."

Old Packard Bell

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