• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Packard Bell Axcel 635 No Video.

D

DOS lives on!!

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,303
Location
East Tennessee
Sources say that Packard Bell put used components in their PCs, so that might be the problem. My PB Axcel 635 won't produce any video when I turn it on. Some of my computers with this problem have been fixed, but the computer place won't tell me how they did it.:angry: Everything turns on, fans, hdd, floppy drives. The turbo button also responds when I push it and the turbo light changes from orange to green. What's wrong with it?

EDIT: I just tried putting in a video card since the video port is on the motherboard and that still doesn't work.
 
The bigger problem with Packard Bell was that they used low-quality components in the first place. The used parts scandal was more of a problem of perception than anything else.

PB power supplies were notoriously fickle, and they usually weren't a standard form factor so you couldn't just pull one off the shelf to replace it. But the first thing I check with no video is the IDE cables. A backwards IDE cable was the most frequent cause of that issue in that vintage of machine, in my experience at least. And it's the easiest fix. So I'd just unplug all the IDE cables and try powering on again, as a first troubleshooting step.
 
All the cables are in properly. The 5 1/4 drive has a different connection, one more like an MFM hard drive. It has the usual connector and another smaller one next to it. The power supply is about gone so I connected another one.
 
Ugh. I think I had one of those things at one point. Not a machine I have fond memories for...

IIRC, to use another video card, you have to set some jumpers on the motherboard to disable the onboard video. Check on the inside cover for jumper settings, or, failing that, on the motherboard for markings, something labeled "VID" or something.

It might not actually be the video - does the computer POST? You should hear the happy *feep!* from the speaker shortly after powering on. Does the keyboard flash, num lock/caps lock work, does it try to boot from disk?

-Ian
 
It doesn't appear to pass the POST and there isn't a beep. None of the floppy drives ever make a sound either. I'm away from it right now, so I'll check it tomorrow. The only Packard Bell labeled part other than the case is the power supply. That's the only part (so far) that isn't working right. That shows you PB's part quality.
 
The power supplies were junk, but the motherboards, whoever was making them for them, weren't much better.

A number of Packard Bells came my way over the years, because they sold them by the truckload. I always just parted them out. The floppy drives, hard drives, and CD-ROM drives were more or less the same as what everyone else was using, so those were fine. I'd re-use those, then sell the motherboards or power supplies, whichever was salvageable.

The card-edge connector on the 5.25" floppy is normal.
 
No POST beep tells you something is failing before it can truly run that test. If it has a failure later on it's supposed to give you a beep code so that you would know it failed before the video process could initialize but that the CPU and power are working. Have you tried reseating the cards and chips in the system? (i.e. reseat the CPU and RAM and any other cards).

Does the keyboard light up and respond to caps/num/scroll lock being pressed? If so does ctrl+alt+del work?

A power supply tester is really cheap at most stores, just make sure it can test AT (guessing your system isn't ATX) but I think they have testers which do both power supply types as well as the component (cdrom/drive) test for about $12.

The other basic test is to disconnect all your peripherals and try booting without them. If it's still bad you know it's something before those get in the loop, if it works then you can start putting each card or device back in one at a time (if you're not used to it do make note of which way the cables go) .. usually the red stripe side of the device cable goes towards the power cable.
 
barythrin said:
No POST beep tells you something is failing before it can truly run that test. If it has a failure later on it's supposed to give you a beep code so that you would know it failed before the video process could initialize but that the CPU and power are working. Have you tried reseating the cards and chips in the system? (i.e. reseat the CPU and RAM and any other cards).
Click to expand...

Another trick here is to pull the RAM out and see if you get error beeps. If you don't, then it's not even getting that far.

A power supply tester is really cheap at most stores, just make sure it can test AT (guessing your system isn't ATX) but I think they have testers which do both power supply types as well as the component (cdrom/drive) test for about $12.
Click to expand...

I doubt you're going to find a power supply tester for an AT supply. Those little plug-in testers really didn't become popular until ATX supplies were common (because ATX supplies don't turn on when they're not plugged into a motherboard). Just use a multimeter and check the voltages that way. If you don't have a multimeter, then you really should...

But, it sounds like he's already subbed out the power supply with a working one.

As with all troubleshooting, bring the system to it's most minimal configuration (no attached disk drives, no other controller cards, just keyboard and monitor) use known good RAM, and see if you get anywhere. Check for board corrosion near the CMOS battery, make sure your power supply is good, make sure the jumpers are set correctly for the installed CPU, etc.

It's possible you just have a bad motherboard. These Packard Bell machines were, eh, what's the word... crummy - that'll do. They were crummy. I would not be at all suprised if the board is bad.

-Ian
 
The power supply went out this morning so I will try to (cram) a different one in there. There doesn't appear to be any RAM in it, unless it is hidden under the modem. There is an open slot for a regular stick of memory near the top. It doesn't beep when I turn it on. None of the keyboard lights come on automatically but they will come on if I press the num, scroll, caps lock keys.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
There doesn't appear to be any RAM in it, unless it is hidden under the modem. There is an open slot for a regular stick of memory near the top. It doesn't beep when I turn it on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it won't do a whole lot without RAM. I forget if this has RAM built into the motherboard or not. It might not.

-Ian
 
My 64mb card was too big, so I put an older card in. That didn't help. When I got it, the case had never been opened. So, it must have been running off built in RAM.
 
I pulled out the Axcel 635 again tonight. I tried a putting in a video card, and changed the jumpers (J11, I think) to disable the onboard video. Still, it won't produce video and shows no signs of POSTing. The only other signs of "plugged in life" is that the lights on the keyboard will light up.
 
A few other things I tried.

There's an option to boot off the EPROM boot block. I set the jumers to that, but still no video or beep code.
Took the CPU out and started it, still not any signs of POSTing.
 
It really sounds to me like the most useful thing at this point would be a post code reader, to see if this is doing anything at all (or hanging at a certain point). Another thing to try would be a different known working CPU to see if the processor originally in it is bad for no cpu=no post.
 
Compgeke said:
It really sounds to me like the most useful thing at this point would be a post code reader, to see if this is doing anything at all (or hanging at a certain point). Another thing to try would be a different known working CPU to see if the processor originally in it is bad for no cpu=no post.
Click to expand...
I thought about that, but do they fit into the ISA slots of a 386? I'll see if I have an extra working CPU laying around.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top