Packard Bell Multimedia S618 PC Overview
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2014
- I am such a lucky person that I got to upload this video twice! The first time around, it uploaded and was totally watchable in every resolution--UA-cam just refused to publish it, claiming that it was "processing".
Here's a look at a computer that was inappropriately dumped at a recycling center. I happened to be in the right place at the right time, so I grabbed it. Ultimately, I learned that it belonged to an exterminator, which seems ironic given the number of spider webs all over it. My mother voiced a lot of opposition about my picking this computer up. She was also concerned that someone might see me take it, either directly or by way of security cameras.
Amazingly, it's very clean inside and happens to work just fine. It's also a lot less yellowed than most of the other examples I've seen. The spider webs and other stuff on the outside are delightfully ironic, considering that it was an exterminator who owned this PC!
The Packard Bell name was picked up by Beny Alagem, who ultimately started a computer business. Packard Bell had been a manufacturer of televisions and radios, established in the 1930s and acquired by Teledyne in the late 1960s. (This explains the sign-on message that some of their personal computers put up, stating that "America grew up listening to us. It still does.")
Though (or maybe "because") their computers were cheap, they developed a reputation for being quirky. This was especially true if you tried to upgrade or expand one. The company also found itself in hot water when it was claimed that they passed off refurbished or returned parts as being new. Even with all of that in mind, it has been my experience that their computers are generally pretty reliable. I worked on a lot of them back in the day, and most of what I did was just normal maintenance or upgrades.
Packard Bell ultimately fell on hard times as other companies (especially TriGem, with their eMachines brand) undercut them on price. Their somewhat questionable quality control didn't help. NEC ultimately bought them, and sometime around the early ATX era, Packard Bell left the US market entirely. Packard Bell computers, tablets and other things continue to be marketed in Europe. The company is a subsidiary of Acer today (as are some other once well known computer makers including Gateway and former rival eMachines).
As a testament to Windows 95's limited USB support, the USB ports were disabled in this machine's BIOS. I believe that was the default setting, as I've seen it on several similar machines. The Iris anti-virus software (which I'd never heard of) was apparently the product of a company located in Israel. They existed until sometime in the early 2000s. Relative to the date of this video, the number of days since an update to that software had taken place totaled up to 16.7 years. I think it's safe to say that the anti-virus software never got an update.
Going back to the above story, I later attempted to contact UA-cam via e-mail about the issue. I was surprised to find I met the requirements to actually do so (you have to be not only a partner, but also to meet a specific number of video views). I was told the issue had been "escalated to their engineers" and that they were "working on it". Nothing seemed to happen, so I finally gave up on it and just re-uploaded the video. Beats me what happened (and no, I'm not surprised that the problem couldn't be fixed). - Наука та технологія
Unfortunately, by 1997, Packard Bell was forced to greatly downsize the Navigator software to a mere toolbar due to Microsoft's policy banning third-party GUIs bundled with their OSes in 1997. And don't worry, even a die-hard Packard Bell collector like me has done some questionable things with caring for these systems, even allowing my childhood Packard Bell to fall off a desk and smash a power supply on the floor, but thankfully, it survived. This particular system you have is unique in that it was one of Packard Bell's last American oriented machines that was still good, before NEC turned the machines into generic plastic hunks, around the time Windows 98 came around. Anyway, I really enjoyed the video. Thanks!!!
Packard Bell use NEC/Packard Bell japan made component mainboard and case same as nec computer pc
Michael Cisneros %
Michael Cisneros (
"A PC a day keeps the Apple away" - uxwbill My favorite quote.
"0h and we have a lawn mower built into this computer" is the best reference ever :) uxwbill your great at what you do :)
Sooo many computer videos. Loving every single one of them. Keep up the good work uxwbill!
Hey, Bill...been watching your videos for a day now...a real treasure trove...your knowledge is phenomenal and you're really interesting to listen to! I definitely concur with the people who expressed a want for long videos....love it...you might think you ramble on as you've often said in a few videos....you do but that is what we are here for! :)
Cheers for the videos, I really appreciate them!
Awesome! It was only a matter of a time before you made a video on a Packard Bell from around this time period!
Lol I've also seen the Maxtor HDD from 3 miles away !
Theses things were so "reliable" ...
What a beauty! I remember seeing these in store when I was a lot younger and didn't know jack about computers. I was fascinated by these. Some decent specs for back in the day.
I would LOVE to have one of these in my collection. Might sound strange, but I really liked the design and two-tone style of the cases.
LOL Couldn't stop laughing at "Oh, we have a lawnmower built into this thing."
Packard Bell!!! :D! (I am 19 year old computer geek) Seeing your videos and remembering what the technology was back then makes me all giddy :D . Keep up the good work :)
I love to see old PC's with the wee Brag Sheet still stuck to the front.
Takes you on a virtual tour back through time to what these talked about when they were new, and I suppose some hilarity in all the technologies they said would be the next big thing, and never really were LOL.
Loved you puns on the tech.... it was good seeing an old friend of mine
DirectX2. Wowee, up-to-date baby!
I always liked these computers. They were pretty cool looking at the time, and everyone we knew with a computer seemed to have a Packard Bell.
Iris antivirus was Packard Bell proprietary A/v software back in the day...and you had to manually update it every week or so....what a pain......I did enjoy your video as I owned several Packard Bell computers during the mid to late 1990`s.
Your Longer videos are relaxing to watch and better than a mind numbing sitcom.
Another excellent video! I love all of your videos Bill. I especially enjoy the videos on older pc's. I wish you would find a ps2 model 60.
"That actually looks ATX" was my first thought. Then, you turned the case around.
These old computer videos are great. I was going to watch First Contact last Friday, but when I saw that you had posted 2 hours worth of video, I ended up watching the old computers instead. :)
Annoyed_Picard.jpg
Awesome video keep up the great work!
That was very insightful! Since I'm very interested in the pre-2000 era in computing, I found the tour fascinating! I did notice right away that that was not Word 97 installed but at least 2000. I believe it was 2000 because I think Office 2002 did away with the puzzle pieces and instead made them look like squares instead. Hope you find some more interesting computers like this! You're lucky as I never find stuff in my local thrift shops like this.
Congratulations on getting enough views to receive the rare and exclusive privilege of contacting the ever elusive UA-cam support center (even if they were of no help whatsoever).
I remember all of these on my old Packard Bell. I wish we can go back to these days. Not simple, but so simple at the same time.
jezzz, the last time that thing was on the net was about 16 years ago!!
Hmm, Interesting. I was going off of what that anti-virus software said, Being that it said the last time it was updated was 16 years ago. Also interesting that it held time for that long, Impressive!
I have watched your videos for years I am still amazed at all the computer related stuff you have shown. That stack of old computers is really something, hope your family doesn't make you at some point consolidate like mine did with my car hobby,lol. Anyway this winter it is a request you do more broken electronic repair videos it really passes the time and its a learning experience. Besides the computer farm is the car farm still growing?
I wont hold you to the videos but if you find something at the good frills and decide its worth the time to fix then this winter is the time to show it,lol.
I think this is the PC my friend had growing up as a teen. I remember that round sticker on it to.
Man this takes me back. I was working for NCR ( national cash register) in the 90s for 10 years.they picked up all the packard bell computers sold from sears and home shopping club. NCR in my area had most of the guys were over 50 and worked there over 20 years. I was 27 and learned computer system on submarines in the 80s . I even bought a packard bell that was a desk top . It was a 486 sx with 64 meg ram and a 5 gig hard drive, I paid 2500.00 and that was with my discount at the NAVY exchange . I ended up do all the calls since I knew more about computers than any body else . I also worked on ATMs and POS systems. Packard bell would send us the parts I would replace it and send the old part back. Did that for 4 years . Then Packard bell closed in the USA. I was still doing repairs but the did not want the parts back. The even sent some new parts then shut down. I still have motherboards cd drives memory modems hard drive and a few other things. It all sits in a big box in my Attic.
I remember these. My Dad bought a desktop version of this box back in 1997 on discount at I think Future Shop, along with a 17" monitor and it came with the monitor mounted speakers, mouse, and keyboard and yes, it had the gray panels too.
It began life as a P120, but when it began to have issues, it was discovered the motherboard was defective, so under warranty he had it replaced, and coughed up an extra $50 and upgraded to a P200.
I finally had to retire it in 2005 when fixing it lead to a day and a half of trying to upgrade some software, and the poor thing was SO out of date, I said to my now late mother, let's get you a fresh PC. We bought her an eMachines that I now have as she passed on in 2012. I've upgraded THAT pc to be a mini media PC on the cheap and yes, it runs XP. Dad did upgrade the PB box to Win98 back in the day.
Have to agree, these weren't bad for the time for what you paid for them. Mom's eMachines isn't bad either, and has a much better motherboard than you'd think for such a cheap box (we paid $500 for it, sans monitor at the now defunct Circuit City).
However, this was not the first PB we had, My dad's first PC was a PB Legend! 386 from 1991.
Yeahh Computer video
, love your channel, thanks a lot, keep up the good work.
All these years later rewatching this video, and I noticed at 20:41 that it appears this machine or some other machine with the same motherboard had the option of both 10BASE2 and or 10BASET onboard ethernet! Wouldn't that have been an amazing feature for the time.
Darn. Saw a computer video and now I'm gonna stay up late. Awesome. :)
My first computer was a 1996-vintage Packard Bell. AMD K6+ (I think) 333MHz, about 80MB (I think) of RAM, and a 7.5GB HDD. It had the Microsoft Plus! pack, with all the awesome games that came with it. I got it in 2004 and connected it to 2004-era broadband, which after a while I'm pretty sure was the only thing that kept that thing alive.
Also, you'll be happy to find out that I'm soon to be getting another Buick!
Bill it has certainly been awhile since i seen one of these but some older tech still working today shows good quality builds
It looks like the previous owner's name was Greg as at 25:07 on the top nav bar it clearly says "Greg's Computer". Great video!
My mother had one of these. I don't think it was as fast as this one, but I do recall that it was an absolute beast for the time. It even had an early 3D accelerator... the kind you could use with certain DOS games (like Descent II) if you typed in the right command line argument. Unfortunately it was a rental and she had to return it.
I love watching your bids keep doing what your doing
Hi uxwbill I love watching your vids and I have good news I just recently found a computer that I could load windows me and it worked out great would you recommend a crt monitor over a flat screen to clear up the display
Nice @ that "keeps the Apple away" joke :D
While mentioning the "creative loop" part, you could rotate the image upside down for a little while... I felt that was missing...
Otherwise I am just on the second minute of the video, looking forward to the rest of it.
The lack of the now very necessary multiple case fans is probably what kept it so clean. The last "never-opened-in-years" PC I looked at was a Pentium 2 machine a few years ago, Dell or Packard bell, can't remember but it was circa 10 years old at the time. The only fans in it were the PSU and the CPU. The CPU fan was clogged with dust and the vents on the PSU were similar, but inside the system itself was pretty clean.
Do you think you could make a video of the tall PC that has been shown in a few of your recent videos? I'm very interested.
"It is now 6128 days since the you updated you virus signature file."
Well, that's the best thing I've seen all week. :D
You violated the warranty sticker? I thought I felt a disturbance in the Force; a disturbance I'd not felt since...
As much as I thought lowly of Packard Bell, I have to admit that I did like the look of their towers.
I'd love to find one of these for making into a DOS games machine. I have a couple of Quantum Bigfoots to use with one, too.
Great video man!
"Say hello to my main man, Edgar! Alright Edgar, drop a train on 'em!"
I remember having a Packard Bell with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on it as a hand-me-down from my parents when they upgraded to their Windows 98 machine back in the day. I think I used it until 2003 or 2004 when it finally died. Really miss those old machines though. Computers used to be so much more fun and exciting back then, especially when the internet was just starting to become popular. Good times. :)
And especially when the software was in big boxes rather than digital downloads
i would love to see you do a review on the Compaq R4000 !!!
This takes me way back... I had the identical tower to this one, but mine was a pentium mmx @166 mhz, 24 MB EDO RAM, 3.2 GB hard drive. I upgraded it to 48 MB of RAM, and got away with running diablo 2 on it ( which needed a minimum 233) It ran windows 95 Plus. Working on that machine got me interested in computers as a kid!
I noticed you have some Dell XPS's. Can you do a video on them? Maybe upgrading them and/or putting 64bit Windows 8.1/10 on it
That specs menu seems dynamically generated, so I wonder - how does it know it's in a tower case?
Also, G-Nome! Oh, now I have to go reinstall it.
Ah yes, I fondly remember my Packard Bell circa 1994. I remember Packard Bells having a unique electronics/plastic smell to them haha. First computer i had with a blazing fast 2X CD-ROM drive...
wow, a trip back in time.
The automatic subtitles suprisingly work well on this video. It appears Google scripted it to work best with UXWBill :)
Also, was that clock battery still working? Looking at the AV software, 6128 days ago from the 27th of August would be the 16th of November, 1997, which could be correct if the software was never updated.
Can you do an audio recording of onestop.mid from the audio out? assuming you can get the OPL FM Synth to be the default MIDI device under the multimedia control panel... There are ZERO videos on UA-cam of any such onestop.mid playing from one of these sound/modem cards to my knowledge, and you'd be doing something awesome for self-proclaimed OPL purists like myself.
if it's possible to link to a 320Kbps MP3 of the recording somewhere, that'd be completely awesome as well. _this is important!_
0:21 Your Macbook was right there at the top of the video, so I think it heard you.
Are the motherboards in these Packard Bell PCs standard AT or ATX form factor boards? If so, what actual form factor are they?
Have you ever gotten a Zenith computer? I remember finding some in the trash one time, but I was like 10 or 11 then (I'm 14 now) and couldn't diagnose computer problems worth anything and just ended up mangling the motherboard, then threw them out. The other one was a Packard Bell Legend. They were both old AT-style computers, and had Intel i386 DX/SX2 processors.
I also remember the soundcard outputted an extremely loud tone for some reason.
+theblueyoshi33866 Yes. You can find videos I've made about them by searching my channel (which may only work when you use an actual personal computer of some kind, not a tablet or phone).
Yeah, I'm normally watching UA-cam on a computer anyway because it performs much better.
I was in retail around that point in time. Those errormessages are very common to packard bell. If you change one little setting, not even the hardware you never get that system running again. We hated selling those because it always led to problems later on.
Redneck Rampage was a game that came out in the later 90s that used the Build engine, the same that Duke Nukem 3D used.
I grabbed this same model from the local trash dump a few years ago.
The motherboard is an Intel NV430VX. According to my old notes, it officially supports up to a 200MHz MMX, but I guess the 233MHz wasn't available at the time the manual was written.
The Intel manual reveals jumper settings for CPU voltage, multiplier, and FSB speed. Mine came with a measly Pentium 133MHz, which judging from the dates, was a very low end processor at the time of purchase. I feel sympathy for the original owner never knowing how easily overclockable his late production CPU was. All he had to do was move a jumper. The internet says the stepping is locked, but his wasn't.
I ended up liking that sound card. I used it in my nephew's Win2k machine at the time, because it sounded better than anything else I had. It's been a long time but I think it's either SBPro or SB16 compatible. It's also a real hardware modem.
I decided to junk the case but kept the board. Not sure that was the best idea considering it's LPX.. but cases just take too much room.
Regardless of PB's reputation, I think this is a very good system. Intel motherboard, a good and mainstream S3 graphics chip, hardware modem, SB compatible sound and plenty of expansion slots - there's really nothing to find fault with.
Well, 6128 days ago indicates a date in November 1997. That's very amazing is that is around the time I got my first computer.
Speaking of video cards Bill, I miss the fact you could upgrade the memory in your card. There was certainly a huge flood of practically every computer component back during the 90's which is unfortunate that we do not enjoy that today, except maybe in the post pc devices
With memory so cheap these days there is no reason for upgradable memory on video cards. the 4GB of DDR5 on video cards today is really only used to store the 3D textures. I feel they use the amount of memory on cards as just a gimmick to get you to buy the cheaper card with the lower performing GPU that can't possibly benefit from that kind of memory. I miss the choice too, video cards, sound cards, CPU's etc... Intel could probably make a strong GPU, but I sort of think they might have a cross license agreement between AMD and Nvidia concerning Cross-Fire and SLi that limits them on what kind of GPU performance they can incorporate into their Core series CPUs. Mid 90's to mid 2000's was my favorite time in computing. Exciting times for a computer geek!
You have such a great voice and presentation style, and that includes the laughter/humor. There are folks out there making educational videos that do not have this blessing. Your future could be an A+ instructor or the like. (You won't see that phrase often.) Get yourself a free PDF copy of Don Lancaster's "Incredible Secret Money Machine" for inspiration. A little bit dated book, but still valuable.The Israeli's are smart when it comes to electronics and innovation, and I believe this computer benefits from those talents. I wish you would boot it from LINUX live Knoppix or Ubuntu. It should run, and detect the required drivers. This thing about UA-cam processing bothers me. I need to make a vid and try it for myself. Not done so recently. Cheers...
I had this exact model growing up. Great little machine. Ran Windows 95 until 2005 :P
actually, inside-out has USB support for NT 4, and surprisingly, it's pretty universal from my tests, virtualbox, vmware, and a dimension 8300 (yeah, i ran nt 4 on a dim 8300)
I remember the old packard bell computers used to have a system credentials floppy you could boot from to get system specifications. I know my old Legend 386sx had one.
What exactly is a radio card? I've seen printed ads for those in old issues of PC Magazine.
Virus definitions haven't been updated since Sunday 16/11/1997 :P
(It was also the International Day for Tolerance here in Australia. I don't really know why but I find that funny.)
This makes me miss my IBM Aptiva. The AMD K6 roasted itself when the fan went out a few years back.
Damn, this makes my Packard Bell Platinum 55 (1996) look like a chump. :P
I still love it though because of the Packard Bell "Designer Case".
Beachhead 2000, that takes me back. My uncle had that game.
Maxtor HDD.. wow. I had a Packard bell like this with a 1GB Seagate medalist. I never forgot it's seek test sound. I could pick that out from a mile away.
I remember Trigem, there were a set of hard drives that were made by them, which later i believe Samsung bought. Packard bell was part of the Acer group, (gateway, Acer, eMachines, Packard Bell)
Hey Bill,pass me some of those Cough Drops,will ya?...lol :P
I've seen quite a number of computers and monitors from that era with orange VGA ports and plugs, none of which were actually Packard Bells.
The color faceplate thing reminds me of those early 2000s Compaq Presarios that had the same feature.
I liked the video, shared it. and I am now commenting on it.
i have a questions, im a tomb raider fan and i just wanted to know which version of tomb raider was installed on that machine? thanks :)
I just wonder, what's your main, daily use computer?
Hey UXWBILL Have you got any PC's for sale. This one is to week. I'm looking for one that's pretty new. Thanks. Gio.
ACtually the Packard Bell did ship with the intention of being able to make and receive calls as well as sending faxes. I remember seeing some phone dialer program in my 1996 Packard Bell Legend.
Close to the 166 Mhz sticker there is a sticker on the motherboard stating the clock multipliers I think, so they probably just flashed the BIOS to be able to use the higher clock multipliers and put a sticker over the motherboards original multipliers table.
There was some support for USB under WindowsNT 4.0. My APC UPS worked. But there was a supplied driver.
I remember when the 233 came out, many boards didn't natively support it, so Intel made the processor interpret being set at 100mhz to being 233. The USRobotics 56k modems at the time used TI chips so it stands to reason that's why this supports X2.
*YOLO* Cried Wild Bill as he approached the POST!! *lol*
I have an older PB Multi Media PC laying around, the problem is, that if I even just change the hard drive from 1Gbyte to 8, it crashed after the POST
There's this modified version of Firefox i found out about recently called "AOL shield" It's optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections.
12:10 Windows NT 4.0 dose have usb support. dell constructed a driver for windows NT service Pack 3 and later and gives windows NT 4.0 similar usb compatibility to windows 98 (it even comes with the usb mass storage drivers and they work fairly well)
I would love if you could post a link to the exact drivers for that aztech combo card! I have the exact same card.
I don't have one. Even if I did, I think Aztech is long since out of business and it probably wouldn't be valid any longer. The Packard Bell name has been through a number of hands over the years (it's part of Acer the last I knew), and this model has likely long since been forgotten, but maybe you could get lucky with a visit to their support site. Probably not, but...
There are some Packard Bell computer enthusiasts out there, and one of them may have what you're looking for.
I'm pretty sure this computer is the very first PC my family ever bought.
1 quick question about a cd rom drive16 bit i f card 74-1881a
I had a Packard Bell Multimedia PC that ran Windows 95 and it had 1GB of HDD space, 16MB of ram. It had a cool game called Ski Free where you used the mouse to move the skier left and right down the ski mountain.
I just ordered a Packard Bell S618 on eBay. Looking forward to installing an ssd in it.
Now, if I remember right... (and I surely hope I do heh) Back in the late 90s early 2000s I had a Packard Bell and I think it did indeed have a function to answer phones. My father had since sold it to our former neighbors. BUT it was an interesting computer none the less.
PrefrerredCustomer was the default user name for these systems running windows 95, also the "packard bell navigator" gets removed when you upgrade to windows 98....
"A PC a day keeps the Apple away". I haven't heard that one in years :)
Well that means that you’ve been successfully following the doctors advice so he hasn’t had to say it again to you. Well done you! You should be really proud of yourself! #clapforcurtis
I got myself a nice Packard Bell Pack Mate desktop that has an Intel i486SX2-50 with 4MB RAM installed (up to 64MB) and I believe it uses SIMM-72 memory, 1200 baud modem, 3.5" 1.44MB FDD, 210MB Seagate HDD, no optical drive or sound cards for that matter, but it has an ISA NIC, which looks like a 3Com EtherLink III, and I also picked up the keyboard and mouse for $18.02 after tax, excluding the monitor since I have my fully functional IBM 15" CRT after spraying deoxit into the VGA connector. I'm planning on adding a CD drive, which I have no idea if ATAPI drives will work in it, my Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro and Music Quest MPU401 clone card and joystick as well. It'll be a DOS gaming rig since some of my games run too fast or have bad music playing on my AMD K6-2 PC.
how do you remove the yellowing
We had a Packard Bell office 550. Pentium 1 with Windows 98 and monitor with clip on side speakers. I miss that machine, I found the receipt from Harvey Norman Australia and restore disks with manual only the other day :(
Other than that I have found no info on it
I'm having a problem with my Packard Bell. When I turn it on a grey square appears on screen and then a black grid over it. Do you know what is wrong with it and how I can fix this problem?
Michael Pierce You might also want to check to see if the monitor's correctly plugged into the video port, on the back of the computer. If I remember right, I think that's the monitor's way of saying "I'm not plugged in properly", but I could be wrong. I think it might be that, because I know I had a Packard Bell monitor (it had a flat screen, and a bunch of lights on the front, under the screen, for adjusting the picture), and whenever it would do that, that meant the monitor either wasn't plugged in, or the computer wasn't turned on.
I think Windows 95 OSR2 had usb support. I found an iso image of it at archive.org with a copyright date of 1997.
i own a packard bell from this era as well, interestingly i had to cut a metal plate to reveal the second USB port.
and windows 95C had very, very primitive WDM support, but generally wasn't implemented.