Packard Bell help

[fatty1931]

My Dad has a Packard Bell Multimedia 945 computer he bought in 1998. I was wondering if anybody knew of any upgrades he could do to it? It has a 333 mhz Celeron processor and 64 mb sdram. That's all I know about it. I didn't think he would let me open the case to peek around to find out more about the computer. Thanks.

[Lycia]

Originally posted by fatty1931
My Dad has a Packard Bell Multimedia 945 computer he bought in 1998. I was wondering if anybody knew of any upgrades he could do to it? It has a 333 mhz Celeron processor and 64 mb sdram. That's all I know about it. I didn't think he would let me open the case to peek around to find out more about the computer. Thanks.

The only thing I could find were 64meg memory upgrades. The thing about Packard Hell is that they use propritary parts. Meaning the case is built around a certain motherboard. So you probably wouldn't be able to swap out the motherboard.

OK, first thing you're probably thinking is to change the CPU. Well, you might find a faster celeron to fit that motherboard, but I doubt it. The Celeron is probably slot 1 and new celeys are Socket 370. So changing cpu would mean changin Motherboard. So you run out and buy say a new celeron cpu and motherboard, about $125-150. Now, you see about the case, it wont fit, so add on another $50. Next is video. The video on the Packard Bell is probably on-board. So you'll need to get a new one, about $50-70. Sound is probably onboard as well, so tack on another $40-50. Modem? $25. Ram? Another $30-50. Now abou the only thing you can use us the monitor, keyboard and mouse...and maybe printer..

Take all the low number and you get about $320. That's not including new harddrive.

So finally, my advice is to save up about $500 or less, and buy a new computer...Packard Hells are not made to upgrade.

[Doomer]

I've never seen a Packard Smell system that used Propriatory memory so memory upgrade should be easy. You're probably going to be limited to PPGA CPU's for upgrade choices which means 533 Celeron max.

btw : If he won't let you pop the hood, you're going to be severely limited as to what upgrades you can make.

[psygenius]

hard drive update:

you'll get problems but I have a solution

aquire the new hard drive

install it as normal

insert your packard bell red emergency boot disk floppy

insert the red disk1 I think it is into your cdrom

let it go through the procedure

there will be an error saying something like missing hidden sectors

anyway to correct this ... when it lets you into dos... type Q:

this gives you your cdrom

now type

exths /restore

it will ask you fro a password which will be pbe98, pbe99, pbe00 and so on


depending on the year you bought your computer....

once past the password screen .....

select all your hardware and software configs (I advise you to put the software settings to max cos you'll get everything that doesn't require a cd to use)

and its setup run the setup as normal and your machine is set up with the new drive



any problems email me..... dave@psygenius.com

[Southern Belle]

heyal,

peckerd pill :o ooohhh i mean packard bell they are definately priortitary systems as mentioned previous posts. hard drives upgradeable, memory ...you have to check or do some research on the motherboard itself [built for pakbel] but as an example for propriatory memory its more to the sort of the way the memory chips are layed out that it might have a problem with.

as in the Triton 3 motherboards with intel chipsets they are able to upgrade to 128 megs of memory and was a new start to [somewhat] support both 72pin simms and 168 pin sdram where with this board able to utilize both if added correctly [supposedly] could use -3 sim 1 sdr etc.

Anyway back to pointed example in order to utilize the max 128megs of memory they had to configured specifically to 8 [chips to =]X 16mb. Now that isn't the exact config but same layout thingamajig. The piticular chipset config wasn't a popular set so they weren't that easy to come by.

in the packard bell ---- the [one i can't believe i worked on] found that the memory upgrade was ok buuut the pickle was that if offset with say 2 banks of 8megs and 1 or banks of higher or lower value had to just switch banks till it liked it ie: lower in front higher in back banks or visa versa.

now the modem is [in this one] was a combo board with sound. upgrading the ol` system's OS to win98 /winMe made that go bye bye sooooo point there is the options of operating systems limit. wasn't just that packard bell didn't want anyone to change anything after purchasing it unless it was by them for them from them leaving you with a [Microsoft Mannerizm] buy a new packard bell...

the motherboards generally had an add-on style of adapter for ports/slots. motherboard laid flat had a card inserted into a slot and [horizontally]and cards connected to that horizonal card.

hmmm hard drive? [old and long story, funny and amazing] they used western digital i believe as their main and only hd's for their systems and then changed to seagates and no longer could use the wd's in pc for some reason put the western digital drive in a translation mode and to the extent of it thinking it was a seagate with a 100 extra megs on it [don't ask cuz that part was from experience and with a tech/designer/extroindaire``lol]

hey other than those possible probs ...should be a piece of cake

oh I did notice that Computer Geeks sells a couple of packard bell cd's/disk for their setups and stuff. lmao for around a whoopin .95cents lol

hmmmm
was that helpful at all?

good luck,
sb


*******************

Originally posted by Doomer
I've never seen a Packard Smell system that used Propriatory memory so memory upgrade should be easy. You're probably going to be limited to PPGA CPU's for upgrade choices which means 533 Celeron max.

btw : If he won't let you pop the hood, you're going to be severely limited as to what upgrades you can make.

************************

[Southern Belle]

heyal,

peckerd pill :o ooohhh i mean packard bell they are definately priortitary systems as mentioned previous posts. hard drives upgradeable, memory ...you have to check or do some research on the motherboard itself [built for pakbel] but as an example for propriatory memory its more to the sort of the way the memory chips are layed out that it might have a problem with.

as in the Triton 3 motherboards with intel chipsets they are able to upgrade to 128 megs of memory and was a new start to [somewhat] support both 72pin simms and 168 pin sdram where with this board able to utilize both if added correctly [supposedly] could use -3 sim 1 sdr etc.

Anyway back to pointed example in order to utilize the max 128megs of memory they had to configured specifically to 8 [chips to =]X 16mb. Now that isn't the exact config but same layout thingamajig. The piticular chipset config wasn't a popular set so they weren't that easy to come by.

in the packard bell ---- the [one i can't believe i worked on] found that the memory upgrade was ok buuut the pickle was that if offset with say 2 banks of 8megs and 1 or banks of higher or lower value had to just switch banks till it liked it ie: lower in front higher in back banks or visa versa.

now the modem is [in this one] was a combo board with sound. upgrading the ol` system's OS to win98 /winMe made that go bye bye sooooo point there is the options of operating systems limit. wasn't just that packard bell didn't want anyone to change anything after purchasing it unless it was by them for them from them leaving you with a [Microsoft Mannerizm] buy a new packard bell...

the motherboards generally had an add-on style of adapter for ports/slots. motherboard laid flat had a card inserted into a slot and [horizontally]and cards connected to that horizonal card.

hmmm hard drive? [old and long story, funny and amazing] they used western digital i believe as their main and only hd's for their systems and then changed to seagates and no longer could use the wd's in pc for some reason put the western digital drive in a translation mode and to the extent of it thinking it was a seagate with a 100 extra megs on it [don't ask cuz that part was from experience and with a tech/designer/extroindaire``lol]

hey other than those possible probs ...should be a piece of cake

oh I did notice that Computer Geeks sells a couple of packard bell cd's/disk for their setups and stuff. lmao for around a whoopin .95cents lol

hmmmm
was that helpful at all?

good luck,
sb


*******************

Originally posted by Doomer
I've never seen a Packard Smell system that used Propriatory memory so memory upgrade should be easy. You're probably going to be limited to PPGA CPU's for upgrade choices which means 533 Celeron max.

btw : If he won't let you pop the hood, you're going to be severely limited as to what upgrades you can make.

************************

[fatty1931]

thanks everyone.

[Tabraea]

I became the Packard Bell Queen back at the call center... Upgrading is very limited with these machines.. Also, most everything is integrated... Follow the previous advice given above.. Put this "cow" out to pasture and get a new computer..