Packard Bell 486SX/25 "Multi-Media Supreme" Not POSTing

[FiveGHz]

Just wondering if you ever got this to work? I have a similar system (PB410 Legend 125) with the same issues. Removed leaking battery, cleaned the area, and hooked up an external battery. See this post for details on that.

I would also get the shutdown failure message and could press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup utility. Pressing F1 would flash the light on the A drive and then repeat the same message. Pressing F2 would just lock up the system. This was all with the external battery (3 x AA) connected to the 4 pin external battery connector. Having no luck with that, I’m assuming there is an issue with the BIOS chip. It’s an EEPROM, so not sure if it somehow got corrupted.

 

[DonLafferty]

And here's another person wondering about the Shutdown Failure message. I have a PB Multi-Media with a Kingston 586 that won't get past the initial messages. Just like the others it will attempt to boot but fail if you press F1 and lock up if you press F2. anyone ever figure this out?

 

[GiGaBiTe]

I would start suspecting potential bad RAM. Unfortunate though that it has RAM soldered to the motherboard, all of the chips would have to be removed and replaced with known good chips.

 

[DonLafferty]

I would start suspecting potential bad RAM. Unfortunate though that it has RAM soldered to the motherboard, all of the chips would have to be removed and replaced with known good chips.

I believe mine has only socketed RAM and I've changed it out with what I think is good but who knows.

 

[DonLafferty]

I figured out it actually has 4 MB of soldered ram. I supposed I could remove it, or not. Retroweb has a board that's very similar. I believe it's a PB442. They have a 430/440 and it looks like the same board. I revisited it today and still no luck. Not sure what to try next. I had put it in my pile of motherboards beyond hope then got it hooked up again because technically it does POST. I just can't get past the F1/F2.