Dolch PAC 64/ PAC 65 troubleshooting/ eventual upgrade

[RadRacer203]

Just picked up a pair of Dolch luggables today, a PAC 64 and PAC 65.

The PAC 64 is the standard Pentium 1 120mhz and is absolutely disgusting outside. Inside it looks pretty clean apart from some sand inexplicably, and my goal is to put in a 233mhz MMX cpu and if possible upgrade the video card and add a sound card.

For the moment I need to try and figure out why it isn't working. I can't tell if it's stuck in a loop when I turn it on or if it's just making a beep code, but it beeps steadily with about a half second between each beep.

The PAC 65 is in nice shape, just a little dirty, and it does post but the internal screen seems to be dead and just shows a white screen. I've heard the screens often go bad so I would guess I'm probably going to be looking for a replacement. My goal with this one is to also upgrade it with a slot 1 Pentium 3 I have laying around, upgrading the ram, and if possible adding a Voodoo 2 or at least a much better video card than stock and possibly a sound card.

 

[RadRacer203]

Looks like the PAC 65 is working now! I have no idea what the issue was but I was going to start troubleshooting today and it started working all of a sudden!

 

[RadRacer203]

And apparently the PAC 64 also works fine! It had a dead cpu and I had to reseat a few chips but works fine now. I just have to clean up all the rust on the brackets that the cards screw down to and probably paint it and the video card bracket because it's very rusty too. It was just caked in filth outside but it cleaned up fairly well. The only real damage is a small chip out of the keyboard and some bumps and bruises

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Looks like the PAC 65 is working now! I have no idea what the issue was but I was going to start troubleshooting today and it started working all of a sudden!

I had a PAC 65 for a while, and my observation is that the cabling between the screen and the video card is unreliable, or at least it aged badly; it’s also possible the connector on the LCD itself goes bad. If it decides not to work you’ll get that white screen, because the backlight inverter wiring seems more robust than the video signals, but then just diddling with the cable or simply moving the machine will get the screen to work.

 

[RadRacer203]

I had a PAC 65 for a while, and my observation is that the cabling between the screen and the video card is unreliable, or at least it aged badly; it’s also possible the connector on the LCD itself goes bad. If it decides not to work you’ll get that white screen, because the backlight inverter wiring seems more robust than the video signals, but then just diddling with the cable or simply moving the machine will get the screen to work.

Yeah, I'm sure that was the issue. Any idea if the video can be upgraded at all?

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Yeah, I'm sure that was the issue. Any idea if the video can be upgraded at all?

Not easily. They video card in them uses a C&T chipset with direct LCD panel support, finding something significantly better with the same ports is probably mission impossible. It may not be outside the realm of possibility you could configure one of those generic LCD driver boards you can buy cheaply off eBay to drive it from VGA or DVI, but that sort of falls into advanced-level hackery.

 

[RadRacer203]

Yeah, and I don't have that kind of skill...

 

[hagelaars]

I had a PAC 65 for a while, and my observation is that the cabling between the screen and the video card is unreliable, or at least it aged badly; it’s also possible the connector on the LCD itself goes bad. If it decides not to work you’ll get that white screen, because the backlight inverter wiring seems more robust than the video signals, but then just diddling with the cable or simply moving the machine will get the screen to work.

Hi!
I have a PAC 62 with screen issues. Please see my video below. Do you know if this can be a cable issue or something else? Please let me know, thanks!