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My Packard Bell Legend 2276 486 Tower - repair, restoration, and upgrades:

S

Simplethings

Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
24
Location
New Orleans
Greetings VCF. I have not made a real forum post in a while. I'm getting tired of the format of FB groups and Reddit so I'll start posting a bit more here.

This is my Packard Bell Legend 2276. I would consider this to be my "unicorn" PC. It's the same as the original PC my family purchased in 1993, our foray into the internet age.

PBLOREZ.jpg

I am aware of the battery problems 486 Packard Bell motherboards of this vintage often have, and since this computer was somewhat able to POST, I was willing to take a chance on it. Especially considering it included the matching display, keyboard, and mouse (I really like having complete systems)

pb410screen.jpg

The unit arrived well packed, I got it home to inspect to what extent my board had been battery damaged. It didn't look bad at first compared to some others I have seen:

PB10 battery.jpg

I did a bit of cleaning, but after magnifying the damage a bit more with my phone it became apparent that cleaning alone would not repair the damage to this board:

PB410IC damage.jpg

It was apparent to me I'd have to have a friend of mine look at my board. He's very good at soldiering and SMT repairs.
That evening I did some research and found anther person with nearly the same board who had just about the same problem I had. Apparently if you have a PB410 motherboard, battery damage is likely to damage U49. Here is the other example I found:
https://erickenny.wordpress.com/2019/10/27/resurrecting-a-packard-bell-486/

This is the first image he send me, taken with his phone through his microscope:
badboard.jpg

He got to work repairing the board traces and removing acid and corrosion from the chip. Here is a progress pic he sent me a few hours later look closely at the tiny traces he repaired under the microscope. I placed it next to a "before" image so you can see what he had fixed:
repair.jpg

And finally, as it sits now. This is the factory chip, it looks new. My friend asked me to go ahead and test the system out. He was concerned that heat applied to the chip during repair and removal of corrosion may have caused damage and advised me the check it out so we could order a replacement for U49 if necessary.
repair2.jpg

I attached an improvised 3V external battery to the external battery connection and booted up the system. BIOS configuration was able to be set. No random keyboard, checksum errors, beeps, or other stuff.

Couldn't get the system to boot from drive A. Probably another bad 3.5 floppy drive. No problem, unlike my PS/2 systems these standard drives are pretty easy to get. I went ahead a placed an order for a silver ALPS from eBay. I installed a floppy emulator, booted DOS, then ran Norton diags for a basic checkout:

diags.jpg

cool. 486DX/2 66 and 4MB onboard ram. A little better than the original system my family had with a 33MHz 486. Next up, BIOS update. Minor annoyance is that this system is not Y2K compatible. Setting the clock past 1999 causes errors. I'd like to update my BIOS, but I don't think this system is capable of being flashed. Bios menu is kind of limited. No BOOT order, limited HDD options etc.
bios.jpg

I'd really like a 1.01.24E BIOS chip (or a copy I could burn) if anyone has that. I don't think I can even do a Pentium overdrive with the current version.

I heard that Micro Firmware made one also, if anyone has information on how I could track that one down it would be great.

Next up: Hard drive, OS (windows 3.11 / MS Dos 6.22), new A: drive (B 5.25 works great) 486DX/4 -100 and 32MB ram. My system already had the video memory updated to 1MB. 512KB cache upgrade also.

board.jpg
 
Simplethings said:
I don't think I can even do a Pentium overdrive with the current version.
Click to expand...

You can't use a Pentium Overdrive at all, the motherboard doesn't have the correct socket. You need a motherboard with either Socket 2 or Socket 3, and it appears yours has Socket 1. The latter two sockets have 238/237 pins while Socket 1 only has 169 pins. The POD utilizes the extra row of pins and won't fit.

A DX/4 also won't work in this machine. It's a 3 volt part and Socket 1 only supports 5 volt CPUs. The only way you'll get to 100 MHz is by using a special 486 Overdrive, or one of the 3rd party upgrade solutions like the Kingston Turbochip or the Evergreen 586.

If you already bought a DX4, DO NOT install it in the motherboard, you will damage or destroy the CPU.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
You can't use a Pentium Overdrive at all, the motherboard doesn't have the correct socket. You need a motherboard with either Socket 2 or Socket 3, and it appears yours has Socket 1. The latter two sockets have 238/237 pins while Socket 1 only has 169 pins. The POD utilizes the extra row of pins and won't fit.

A DX/4 also won't work in this machine. It's a 3 volt part and Socket 1 only supports 5 volt CPUs. The only way you'll get to 100 MHz is by using a special 486 Overdrive, or one of the 3rd party upgrade solutions like the Kingston Turbochip or the Evergreen 586.

If you already bought a DX4, DO NOT install it in the motherboard, you will damage or destroy the CPU.
Click to expand...

This is a Packard Bell PB410 motherboard: PB410MB.jpg
My CPU is installed currently in the overdrive socket. Earlier revisions of the board had a non-removable CPU socket onboard, but mine is not populated.

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/410.htm

Unless I'm totally mistaken it will support my DX4ODPR100 just fine, with the correct jumper settings. and a Pentium Overdrive 83mhz with a BIOS update.
 
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I have found what may be an update for my PB410 BIOS on The Internet Archive. A user FooneTuring has uploaded the contents from this IC, from an apparent PB410 motherboard:
https://archive.org/details/packard_bell_PY4307_03_bios
This is SYS ver 1.01.18E, my current BIOS is 1.01.17E. I don't have the hardware to make a copy at the moment, but I'll probably give it a try later. I'd really like a rip of 1.01.25 as I believe that may have been the final version of the BIOS by Packard Bell for this system.
 
Simplethings said:
Unless I'm totally mistaken it will support my DX4ODPR100 just fine, with the correct jumper settings.
Click to expand...

DX4ODPR100 is an Overdrive CPU designed to upgrade early 486 motherboards with Socket 1, or the overdrive socket. They have built in circuitry to run clock doubled or tripled, and a built in voltage regulator to drop the 5 volts socket down to 3 volts. Overdrive 486 CPUs should not be confused with regular 486 CPUs. A 486 DX4 is not an Overdrive DX4.

Simplethings said:
and a Pentium Overdrive 83mhz with a BIOS update.
Click to expand...

Like I just said in my previous post, a Pentium Overdrive has 238 pins, while your socket only has 169 pins. It will never work because it won't fit.
 
overdrive.jpg

This is my socket? I'm not sure what's going on here? What are you trying to explain? Are you telling me I have a 169 pin socket one? It's not like I'm just pulling this stuff from thin air. I did plenty of reading before I came here. I know what my PB410 motherboard is. Earlier revisions had a soldered in 169 pin CPU with a vacant overdrive socket, later versions came with a non-populated 169 pin CPU socket (see the vacant spot on my motherboard?) with a 486 overdrive processor already installed in the overdrive socket from the factory. The documentation for this board states that a P24T Pentium overdrive can be installed in the socket, but only if a bios update to version 1.01.24 or 1.01.25 is done beforehand.

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/410.htm
 
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Why don't you just take your CPU out of the socket to see what you have? I don't know what's difficult about explaining that 238 pins will not fit in a 169 pin socket. The pictures of your motherboard that you provided appear to have a 169 pin socket, which is this:

Socket_1_ZIF.png


And this is a normal 486 compared to a Pentium Overdrive. The 486 is on top and the Pentium Overdrive is on bottom. Notice that the Pentium Overdrive has four rows of pins compared to 3 on the 486? It will physically not fit in a 169 pin socket and will not work.

fsRJER3l.jpg


The picture you just linked to is Socket 3, which has 238 pins and is REQUIRED for a Pentium Overdrive to work. The reason I say you don't have this socket is because if you did, there'd be a vacant row of pins around your 486 overdrive that could be seen from above, which is not the case in all pictures you have provided. Without removing the CPU from the socket, I can't be 100% certain which socket you have.
 
also I CAN PHYISICALLY SEE THE VACANT ROW ON THE OUTSIDE OF MY PROCESSOR. You are making be prove something I NEVER ASKED YOU. YOU KEEP TAKING MY THREAD OFF TOPIC.
 
Simplethings said:
also I CAN PHYISICALLY SEE THE VACANT ROW ON THE OUTSIDE OF MY PROCESSOR. You are making be prove something I NEVER ASKED YOU. YOU KEEP TAKING MY THREAD OFF TOPIC.
Click to expand...

Good, so it is determined you have a Socket 3 and can potentially use a POD. The screenshots you have posted and the information on the page you previously listed made it look like only specific motherboard revisions had the correct socket, and there was no information I could find online about it otherwise.

The whole purpose of me asking these questions is to keep you from wasting money on a POD that may not even fit in your board, there's no reason to get bent out of shape. If you don't want to discuss aspects of your computer, why did you even bother posting this thread?
 
I had posted this thread to talk about my build and maybe to learn about aspects of my Packard Bell I was unfamiliar with. I didn’t post this thread to discuss why my socket 3 is actually a socket 1 after never asking the question because it never was a question. I knew what socket this computer had before I even purchased it as I had the exact same model in 1993. Your repeated “verysmart” posts about why I can’t run an overdrive processor in my computer because you assume it has a socket it does not have basically ruined my thread.
 
If you re-read your first post, you yourself questioned whether or not a POD would work. I wouldn't have bothered to investigate otherwise. My first post was quoting something you wrote on the matter.

I'm not psychic, I can't know information you know. I certainly can't deduce what you have when given confusing information and hostility.

If you think your thread is being ruined, it's because of your hostile standoffish attitude. We're here to help, but you apparently don't want any.
 
pb410POP.jpg

Fully populated with 512kb cache and now a 486 overdrive processor. Even though I can't run a Pentium overdrive processor due to not having a later version of my BIOS (non-flashable), I don't plan on running one in this system anyway as I already have a lower end Pentium.

I did a bunch of benchmarks during the upgrade process. The jump between 0kb and 512kb cache on my original overdrive 66 processor was pretty impressive, and with the 100mhz overdrive installed I like the speed of the system.

I'm going to be burning a more current version of the BIOS someone has uploaded to the internet archive. Hopefully that will fix the Y2K bug. It's not so much of a big deal with DOS, but more of an annoyance with windows 95 for me (I plan on installing that later on)
 
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