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Roadgeek 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 1021	Remember Packard Bell's Windows 95 computers? Remember Navigator, Kidspace, Workspace, and all the goodies that came with them? My first computer was one of them. I got it in December of 1995. It was beautiful. Sadly, it was given away around 2000 or 2001. But I bought another one similar to my old one off eBay about a year ago. If you were a Packard Bell owner in the mid 90's, post your memories here.
	Roadgeek: Proud Little Kid of the Mid '90s In Memory of Carolina Circle Mall 1976-2002
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Dawg 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 484	Packard Bell... Packed Smell... one of the worst brand-name computers in our time, which had a bad reputation. I was considering one, once... until I heard the horror stories of many others... the main problem I heard was that the computer just wasn't upgradable. Want to get from 32 to 64mb RAM? Forget it! New 3D video card? Nope... 14.4 to a 56k modem? Don't even joke! I don't know how true the rumors were, but heard that upgrading was a nightmare, and the computers are basically worse than E-Machine computers for the sheer fact of the way the hardware was put together... ...ahh, the earlier days of computers in the 90's... not exactly fond memories so much as nightmarish horrors.
	This Space Is Reserved For My Signature...
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System
8 years 9 months ago
Posts: 74809
hahahaa, my first comp ever was a Packard Bell... that thing was a piece of shit
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Roadgeek 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 1021	My two favorite computers: Retro Computer: Packard Bell Modern Computer: Dell
	Roadgeek: Proud Little Kid of the Mid '90s In Memory of Carolina Circle Mall 1976-2002
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System 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 74809	I had a cute little Compaq Presario in '95. But it was the infamous Intel Overdrive processor I slapped on that got Tie Fighter to run smoothly. That little bastard... It wasn't until '96 that I made another mistake and bought a Packard Bell system. Unbelievably difficult to even access the mainboard...the chassis had a sort of customer "deterrent" build. Well, those were the days when even mom & pop businesses were making good money doing upgrades. Anyways, that was the last year I dished out for a brand name PC.

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Arklier 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 161	My first computer was a Packard Bell, back around 1994. Since this was pre-Windows 95, it ran Windows 3.1. Came with a nice manual and everything. Unfortunately, it was the standard Windows manual, and the Windows install on the computer had some kind of custom shell that was a PITA to use. Since I was new to computers at the time, I tried to change the shell back to the standard Windows 3.1 shell, and somehow managed to delete some essential system file and it kind of exploded. Plus it only had 6MB of ram (that was acceptable in those days, but on the low end) and I couldn't play some of the games I had bought for it before I got the computer. So I took it back after about a week and got a better computer.
	- Born in the 70s, child of the 80s.
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smwutches 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 93	Packard Bell was our first computer. It was nice for about a week. Then years later after my dad bought a new computer, the Packard Bell somehow turned into my computer. I could hardly do anything on it. I hated that thing so much. I'm glad it's gone.

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Roadgeek 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 1021	Am I the only one here who likes Packard Bell?
	Roadgeek: Proud Little Kid of the Mid '90s In Memory of Carolina Circle Mall 1976-2002
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Mad-Mike 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 539	I collect old PC Clones, and Packard Bell sure had some weirdness back in those days. I've had about 5 of them, and they were all strange machines.... First off was a Packard Bell Legend 843+ tower I found in a dumpster near a storage unit with the original sales tag on it. However, the Alabama heat ruptured the CMOS Battery and melted the traces on the motherboard rendering it unbootable. THat's probably the only tower I've ever seen with a Riser card construction on it. I still have 2 cards from a Legend Multimedia model 486 DX2-66 that I scrapped out, both weirdos, a Radio Card, and a TV Tuner Card. Basically, any Windows 3.1 PC can play the radio and television shows through your computer with those cards. They are currently sitting in my 486 white box's case awaiting a replacement motherboard I also had a Legend 416 SX, probably the cheesiest piece of crap Packard Bell ever made. I have yet to find one in working order. It apparently was advertised as a 486 SX, but was really a 386 SX with 8 MB of RAM. Why it was called 416, who knows, was it to lie, or did EVH threaten to sue for use of his instrumental 316 title if they used that model name (well, think about 5150 in Van-Halen and all the 5150 PC's made, I can name a Dell Laptop and the original PC off the top of my head on that one). I dunno. Either way, I stripped the case and stuck an equally as chintzy AST Advantage P60 motherboard in it before chucking the whole thing sans collectable processor. My favorite old computer, the original Compaq Deskpro 8086/286/386 desktops! My main computer is a white box copy of those, and I owned a 286/12 that is now nothing more than a case, and I had a MINT 386 DX-16 from 1987 with the stickers still on it! Here's a pic, man I wish I had not sold it on E-bay! Someday I WILL get another one.

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Mad-Mike 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 539	wapazoid wrote: I had a cute little Compaq Presario in '95. But it was the infamous Intel Overdrive processor I slapped on that got Tie Fighter to run smoothly. That little bastard... It wasn't until '96 that I made another mistake and bought a Packard Bell system. Unbelievably difficult to even access the mainboard...the chassis had a sort of customer "deterrent" build. Well, those were the days when even mom & pop businesses were making good money doing upgrades. Anyways, that was the last year I dished out for a brand name PC. I had one of those too, Compaq Presario CDS-520. It was a 486 DX2-66 with Windows 95OSR2 on it. I upgraded it to a 5x86 133 with 32 MB of RAM, and installed a 52X CD-ROM for an Ex-Girlfriend who lovingly referred to it as the "Giant Laptop".

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System 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 74809	The Packard Bell sitting in my basement collecting dust was our first computer. It ran Windows 3.1, had that amusing Navigator program... The only things I really loved were the Animals software that came with it, and that game where you were the mouse and you had to go get the cheese. I never could get much of anything to install on the thing. Pssshh, wouldn't even let me install Math Blaster. Eventually it started taking 45 minutes to print a piece of paper, so I just used a typewriter. Yes. Typewriter.

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System 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 74809	Dawg wrote: I don't know how true the rumors were, but heard that upgrading was a nightmare, and the computers are basically worse than E-Machine computers for the sheer fact of the way the hardware was put together... Wow...I really liked my E-Machine. It was the only computer I ever owned that did not give me a headache.

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NickMania 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 1039	Mad-Mike wrote: I had a MINT 386 DX-16 from 1987 with the stickers still on it! Here's a pic, man I wish I had not sold it on E-bay! Someday I WILL get another one. Wow that Thing is Ancient!

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Mad-Mike 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 539	NickMania wrote: Mad-Mike wrote: I had a MINT 386 DX-16 from 1987 with the stickers still on it! Here's a pic, man I wish I had not sold it on E-bay! Someday I WILL get another one. Wow that Thing is Ancient! That it is, the scary part is I had it up to spec for Windows 95 at one point (16 MB of RAM). It actually had an EGA card, but the Compaq Monochrome screen could handle it strange enough. When I sold it it was returned to bone stock specs (2MB of RAM, Compaq DOS 3.31 or something like that).

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adventure_of_link
8 years 9 months ago
Posts: 9769
Mad-Mike wrote:

is that ubuntu linux on that presario
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ataristic 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 493	i had a packard bell 486 dx 66. my brother bouth it for about $1200 in 95, he only kept it for a week but at least during that time i was able to play Doom with proper frame rates , how times change i now have a amd athlon 800 sittin in the closet serving as a stool.

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Everglot 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 83	I have some sort of Packard Bell in my room. It has Windows ME on it. It was someone else's computer but that nice person gave it to me 'cause he had no use for it.

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System 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 74809	adventure_of_link wrote: Mad-Mike wrote: is that ubuntu linux on that presario Not sure. I found the pic on the net.

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System 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 74809	Mad-Mike wrote: wapazoid wrote: I had a cute little Compaq Presario in '95. But it was the infamous Intel Overdrive processor I slapped on that got Tie Fighter to run smoothly. That little bastard... It wasn't until '96 that I made another mistake and bought a Packard Bell system. Unbelievably difficult to even access the mainboard...the chassis had a sort of customer "deterrent" build. Well, those were the days when even mom & pop businesses were making good money doing upgrades. Anyways, that was the last year I dished out for a brand name PC. I had one of those too, Compaq Presario CDS-520. It was a 486 DX2-66 with Windows 95OSR2 on it. I upgraded it to a 5x86 133 with 32 MB of RAM, and installed a 52X CD-ROM for an Ex-Girlfriend who lovingly referred to it as the "Giant Laptop". The ex that inherited mine even after adding a 16MB upgrade wanted a laptop instead. I actually found the original documentation and box last year in our garage. If I had the money, I'd love to start colleting retro systems. Damn, I should have never gotten rid of the x286 & x386.

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Roadgeek 8 years 9 months ago Posts: 1021	Remember all the cool software that came with it like My First Encyclapedia. In real life, it WAS my first encyclapedia.
	Roadgeek: Proud Little Kid of the Mid '90s In Memory of Carolina Circle Mall 1976-2002
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