? Questions about a Packard Bell 486 ?

[thompjo]

It would be cheaper to start over rather than spend your money upgrading. Go to pricewatch.com and hunt down some systems. Before you make your purchase your new system or parts, make sure you check resellerratings.com. Checking this site will show you if the netdealer is a screw over or a good place to shop. Most of the Packard Hells are proprietary like the others were saying. 9/10 the ram is 72 pin fast page edo ram. The ram cost is double of what todays systems will cost you. Also the video card can't be upgraded to anything new and great because it's a ISA slot. Buy new! You can get a lot better system for $500-$700 if you look enough. My favorite sites.
axiontech.com
sunshinestar.com
and more more more.
Favorite Products:
IBM and Western Digital Drives
Toshiba and Sony CD Roms (Mitsumi if on a budget)
Leadtek TNT2 32 meg ($99) can't beat the price.
Okay I'm done blabbing.

[alondra]

I concure with the previous posters, I am presently working on an old 486 for a neighbor, so she can get on EMail,
first is the problem stated that yours is propriatory, this would be enough in itself.
all Iv'e done to this one is a half gig HD, 20 megs SIMMS win 95, and an ISA modem, these are hard to find, and a 66mhz CPU.
it will work, but that is about all. can't put in a CD ROM only 1 eide. wouldn't put another dime into it. hope this has not been to disapointing to you.

[emcron]

It doesnt matter if this is the most upgradable 486 ever made, it is just not worth it. If you want something faster, but dont have the money for something brand new then buy used parts from this board right here. I bough a pentium 166 and motherboard for $30. And now I'b buying a k2-350 for $30 to put into this board and see if I find another motherboard to put the 166 in and give to my sister. You could put a decent system for few dollars over $100. Just asked and there are a lot of people who will help you find the parts you need.

[This message has been edited by emcron (edited 01-16-2000).]

[thompjo]

How much money do you want to spend?
I just couldn't see putting even $100 into small parts here and there. You could get a 100mhz intel working on there with a giant heat sink and fan if you are lucky.
Geez, if you are on a super budget, I would rather see someone with a Emachine rather than a Packard Hell. My Mom lost her Job at Zenith because Packard bought them out. They also bought part of NEC. I hate that company, that is why I'm trying to steer you away from it. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif www.spartantech.com (http://www.spartantech.com) (intel 100mhz 486 $32 including shipping)
I don't know where the best place for Ram is. memorymonster.com shows a good price, but I think the shipping is high. All these vendors of course you will want to look on resellerratings.com to make sure they aren't screwovers. Hope I helped.

[thompjo]

Opps...
Forgot to add.
You can get a 56k isa modem for it. Just make sure it's not a winmodem. If it is a winmodem, it will slow down your system. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
Normally you only have one place for a hard drive on those computers. You might see if someone will sell you one like the others suggested on this post. The best price hard drives on the market are 13.6 gig, but if you are on a budget...by one from a friend or someone on sysopt.

[alondra]

dont forget what a previous poster said, the MOBO you buy may not fit this box.

[twinkie]

I am writing to try & get some answers about my computer. I have a Packard Bell 486 computer; & it is just not doing like I want it to. I mean I have had some problems off & on with it. I still have a problem with the media player (I give up on it). But what I want to know is if anybody out there knows if my computer is upgradeable? I mean it only has 12MB RAM & that is just not enough to do too much with. Can I expand the memory? Is it possible to put in a larger hard drive? I only have a 518MB harddrive. I need more storage. And will this computer run a 56K modem? The reason for all the questions is that someone told me it could not be upgraded because it was a flatbed instead of a tower. Is this true? Any answers will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[JimG]

Is a 486 upgradeable?? That's an interesting question. First of all, let's start with the RAM. Do you know the specific type of RAM in your computer? It's probably SIMMs, which means if you upgrade the RAM, you install it in pairs (if you want 32MB, you need to install (2) 32 MB SIMMS). This can get to be pretty expensive.
Next, your HD. Your BIOS will not be able to recognize a hard drive partition above 2 Gigs. This means, that if you get a 10 Gig HD, you need to partition it into (5) 2 Gig partitions. The only way around this is to install a new motherboard (I doubt if that 486's BIOS can be flashed). But, if you install a new motherboard, especially if you plan to use a P2 or P3 processor, your case will not work. It's a cooling issue, as well as a power issue. Your current motherboard is an AT style. All motherboards are now ATX style. This means you need a different type of power connector. So you would need to buy a new power supply. And unless you install many case fans, I don't think your CPU and other components will survive in the flat case due to heat build-up. Overall, it would be a pain to due all this, and you'd be better off in the long run to buy a new computer or build a new one.
As for your 56K modem, I don't know if it would run in the 486. It's probably all ISA slots, and I don't know of a 56K modem that operates in an ISA slot. When my 486 got it's final upgrade, a 33.6K modem was installed, since that was the fastest available.

[Ed_S]

It's being a desktop style is not the problem. Several things stand in your way, actually.
1) Packard Bell's are proprietary construction, meaning they are based on a case & board style unique to them. Standard parts will not fit. Motherboard upgrade will always be out of the question.
2) Ram upgradeability depends on what type and how many simm slots it has open. Most likely 72 pin simm slots. Might be hard to find now, will be costly.
3) Harddrive addition will be an issue, as it's bios is unlikely to recognize larger drives without a special drive manager util (which have their own problems)
Finding a drive small enough to be recognized properly might be tough. Probably has 540mb limit in bios.
4) 56K Modem should be do-able, but will have to be ISA. (this assumes you have an open slot...)

Strongly recommend you think long & hard before putting money into it!!!

[Ygor]

First.... Welcome to SysOpt! Home to some of the best minds where computers are concerned!

Actually, you are in a better position than I was when I found this site. I shipped a Digital 166 using what I hoped was adequate packaging cross country. It wasn't...
You are in a position to use your existing computer to get all the info you need while you put together a new system. Check the user reviews here at SysOpt to decide what you want. Ask any questions you want to here.
Some inaccuracies I noticed above however... AT boards are still available. Most of those have both AT and ATX connectors on them. The current standard is atx, but the I8x0 series is coming along.
ISA modems can still be found but are getting scarce. PC Magazine had an article on these a year ago which stated that ISA's worked better. At that time pci's were still kinda new.
Keep in mind that new technology is usually buggy. Unless you really have to be on the cutting edge, it's a good idea to wait till it's out about 6 months and watch what others find out.
You can build your own new computer yourself if you want to. I think a lot of us who post here began with a factory built computer, but as we learned, we found a better way for our purposes. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[800XL]

I have to agree that you should be looking to rid yourself of the Packard Bell completely, but I can offer some insight into upgrading it.

More ram is going to help a lot. From the sound of it you probably have one of the boards with 4MB built into the motherboard and 1 or 2 72 pin simm slots. You do not need to add simms in pairs for a 486 system, so feel free to get creative. The processor is another big one. Dropping a little more CPU in the box could also help. The best you could get would be some AMD X5 133mhz based upgrade, but those run about $70-80. However, anything else above 66Mhz will probably give you fits getting it to run. For upgrades, look at Evergreen, Powerleap, or some of the others. Intel Overdrive chips might work, but not as likely as the others really.

Best advice is to get a newer barebones system. You'd need just about everything from RAM, CPU, hard drive, case, motherboard, video card, but that would get you into a lot better system for not a huge amount of dough.

[twinkie]

First of all I would like to say Thank You to each one of you that have took the time to answer my questions. I am very happy to know that you guys are there for me when I need a helping hand with my computer. Because before I found SysOpt.com I was getting very frustrated with the whole thing. But just having someone to support me whenever something goes wrong; means alot. I am really glad I have somewhere to go & ask questions & know that someone will be there to give some answers on my problem. Support is everything when you are working with a computer & the internet. It can really get confusing sometimes.
Well there it is; I just had to say it! Thanks for being there!
I have some decisions to make on this system I have. I bought it from a friend for the kids to start out on. And it does help them with their school projects & such. I do Email; & the kids have their's as well. But it just gets old having to constantly keep it cleaned out so they can play around on the internet. It gets really slow if I don't clean it out weekly. So I will really give all these suggestions some deep thought. I will let you guys know what I decide to do. In the meantime; it means alot just knowing I can come here for help with my computer problems whenever I need help. Thanks for being there!!!!!!!!!

[Randy]

I still have an old PB486 DX2-66. Mobo: PB-450
Look in your BIOS, in hard drive area and if you have an LBA option you will most likely be able to use a 2.1 gig HDD, but nothing bigger, as was stated earlier.
I did not have to install SIMM's in pairs. I had 4mb onboard and a 4mb/16mb. Upgraded to 16mb/16mb for a total of 36mb.
I also had a 28.8 ISA modem and upgraded to a 56k-Flex V.90 ISA and it worked great.
You can go to the Packard Bell site to get get drivers and download Mobo manuals.
Go to PackardBell.com , click on Service & Supprt, then click on Downloads.
To find out what MObo you have- when your 'puter boots at the top of the screen it should say PB-450 or something similar. In this case the 450 is the series of Mobo used so you can download the manual for it and get all the info you need.

Randy

[Ed_S]

Just remembered a link I saved that might be helpful for you!

Ray's Packard Bell Site (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/8774/)

Looks like a lot of info specific to P-B!!!

Ed

[alondra]

good luck to you, If you decide to build. believe me the folks on the forums will hold your hand all the way thru, they did with me, I had never built one before, I would not concider buying one in a "big box" either build it or get one built by. a builder. there may be one on this forum near you. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Butchk]

I had a PacBell 486 sx25 which I used for about 5 years. In that time I have increased the CPU two times the chip I used both times was the Intel overdrive chip. The last chip I unstalled was a Intel 60 mhz pentium. As far as the ram is conserned I installed 16 megs of fast page 72 pin ram. The machine had 4 megs on board with 1ea 72 pin slot. I have seen them with 2ea 72 pin slots. Now for the hard drive I had three different ones in it the largest on I had in there was a 4.3 gig. I did have to use a software overlay so the bios would read it. The answer is yes you can upgrade. But the availability of the CPU's might be a little scarce but the rest should be still available. Good luck in what ever you decide.

Butchk