• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Packard Bell Legend 125 - PB410 rev. C motherboard replacement needed?

A similar case here re cast offs. One thing that seems to be common with the OEM 486s I have is they either have a 486SX soldered on the mobo which is disabled, or were marketed/sold with 486SX cpus then a previous owner at some stage has upgraded them to a DX2/50 or DX2/66 cpu.
 
Last edited:
The Legend 125 I got has a 486SX-25 in the upgrade socket, but nothing soldered to the motherboard (which is nice, because it won't be sitting there doing nothing when I drop in the DX-33 tonight).

Also, I wonder if it was common for this model not to come with any cache RAM. I actually found 32k x 8, 15 ns SRAMs at Mouser and ordered some before they went away...it should make a difference, though I won't know till they get here.
 
Should be a nice boost for the old girl. Don't forget the TAG. I had an IBM PS/1 486 with no L2 cache at all. I'd imagine that was the case with a lot of lower priced OEM boxes. Any ram in general was relatively expensive back then as well.
 
Last edited:
Hmm. I put in the DX-33, adjusted the jumpers according to the sticker on the case, but it wasn't stable at all. FreeDOS would not boot ("Bad or missing Command Interpreter"), and my NetBSD boot disk would crash with a white screen when it entered protected mode. It makes me wonder if I got a bad CPU or cache memory, since when I turn the cache off in the BIOS, the machine is stable (though a whole lot slower).

Interestingly, running the CPU at 25 MHz makes it (more) stable, stable enough to boot NetBSD (slowly) or run Windows 95. I'd really like to get 33 MHz going. though.

I was under the impression that 486DX-33s didn't need heat sinks, but I ordered one anyway just to make sure. It still hasn't gotten here yet...damned eBay. :p
 
Hmm. I put in the DX-33, adjusted the jumpers according to the sticker on the case, but it wasn't stable at all. FreeDOS would not boot ("Bad or missing Command Interpreter"), and my NetBSD boot disk would crash with a white screen when it entered protected mode. It makes me wonder if I got a bad CPU or cache memory, since when I turn the cache off in the BIOS, the machine is stable (though a whole lot slower).

Interestingly, running the CPU at 25 MHz makes it (more) stable, stable enough to boot NetBSD (slowly) or run Windows 95. I'd really like to get 33 MHz going. though.

I was under the impression that 486DX-33s didn't need heat sinks, but I ordered one anyway just to make sure. It still hasn't gotten here yet...damned eBay. :p

lee4mhz, I just found a Packard Bell Legend 125 myself! I bought some 15ns, L2 cache on eBay and a 486DX-50(not a DX2, but a plain old DX-50!). I put a 72-pin, 60ns EDO SIMM in this computer and it would not run. I'm thinking I need the L2 cache to allow it to address more than the onboard 4MB of memory. How has your experience been with this system since you upgraded the L2 cache, RAM, and CPU? I'm worried I may misconfigure the cache. Also, did you need to fill all 5 L2 cache slots?

Thanks!

/I must apologize for the bump on this old post, but we are dealing with decades old computers. Please forgive me.
 
lee4mhz, I just found a Packard Bell Legend 125 myself! I bought some 15ns, L2 cache on eBay and a 486DX-50(not a DX2, but a plain old DX-50!). I put a 72-pin, 60ns EDO SIMM in this computer and it would not run. I'm thinking I need the L2 cache to allow it to address more than the onboard 4MB of memory. How has your experience been with this system since you upgraded the L2 cache, RAM, and CPU? I'm worried I may misconfigure the cache. Also, did you need to fill all 5 L2 cache slots?

Thanks!

/I must apologize for the bump on this old post, but we are dealing with decades old computers. Please forgive me.

Yes, all 5 cache sockets should be filled. I used 32k x 8, but I understand 8k x 8 and 128k x 8 will work as well.

I'm not quite sure if this machine chokes on EDO or not; the RAM I'm using is 32 MB, fast page memory from Other World Computing (which is a Mac shop, but also stocks a lot of older RAM that will work in anything), and it seems to do OK (if, again, slow). I have a Pentium OverDrive on the way to see if I can get 33 MHz working with a different CPU; I know the POD isn't fooprrof, but I'm hoping it'll at least show if my DX-33 is damaged.
 
Yes, all 5 cache sockets should be filled. I used 32k x 8, but I understand 8k x 8 and 128k x 8 will work as well.

I'm not quite sure if this machine chokes on EDO or not; the RAM I'm using is 32 MB, fast page memory from Other World Computing (which is a Mac shop, but also stocks a lot of older RAM that will work in anything), and it seems to do OK (if, again, slow). I have a Pentium OverDrive on the way to see if I can get 33 MHz working with a different CPU; I know the POD isn't fooprrof, but I'm hoping it'll at least show if my DX-33 is damaged.

Since my post I gambled a bit and upgraded EVERYTHING! I have 32K x 8 28-pin SRAM cache for 128KB total. I also have 32MB of 70ns EDO Parity (ECC) ram added and a Cyrix DX2-80. The last thing I found was the 20-pin ZIP VRAM for to upgrade the graphics memory to 1MB! I had to buy a 10-pack of it so if you want one I can send it to you. Send me a PM if you're interested. I doubt I'll ever use the other 9 haha.

My system is performing about as good as it can. This isn't the most efficient 486 board for memory so my TopBench scores are low comparatively. Tomorrow I should receive an AMD am5x86 133Mhz chip (it is 5v tolerant!) that should spice things up a little.

Thanks for your reply!
 
Good to hear! I actually do have the ZIP memory for the on-board video, but upon installing it, the video had problems (specks on the screen). I'm sure I have the right memory (MT44C16256Z), so I'm suspecting the lower 512k RAM on the motherboard may be bad---and it's soldered SOJ. :( I'm using an ISA CIrrus 5428 for video in the meantime; throughput isn't as good as the onboard video, which is local-bus, but it has a blitter (good for Windows) and can do 16- and 24-bit color if asked.
 
Good to hear! I actually do have the ZIP memory for the on-board video, but upon installing it, the video had problems (specks on the screen). I'm sure I have the right memory (MT44C16256Z), so I'm suspecting the lower 512k RAM on the motherboard may be bad---and it's soldered SOJ. :( I'm using an ISA CIrrus 5428 for video in the meantime; throughput isn't as good as the onboard video, which is local-bus, but it has a blitter (good for Windows) and can do 16- and 24-bit color if asked.

The Headland chipset has some timing issue that can cause issues. My ZIP memory seems to work fine for the most part. The incompatibility problem I have, which is a known issue, is with SimCity 2000.

Have you benchmarked your ISA vs the VLBus onboard VGA? I have two other ISA VGA cards but they're pretty slow; an Oak Technology OTI037 and Tirdent 9000i-1. Check out Elianda's VGA roundup from VOGONS: ftp://retronn.de/docs/eliandas_isa_vga_roundup.pdf

It looks like you have a VERY fast ISA VGA card in there.
 
I have a bit of a request for info from anyone who can help! Just got a PB Legend 125, and it looked great until I got inside. See the album linked to for pics, but as you can see there are several areas with some serious leakage/corrosion going on around the battery. Who knows what else, it looks pretty extensive. Is there any chance of a salvage job here? The machine powers on, but I get no video, no beeps, nothing but the PSU fan and the HDD spinning.

If it is a lost cause is there anyone with a spare PB 410 rev. C motherboard? Or something comparable that would fit this case and is compatible with a 486SX/DX. I would gladly pay a fair price for it, I just want to get my childhood machine working again. Thanks guys!

PB 410 rev. C motherboard with nastiness
Are you still looking for this particular board? i have a spare one here in working condition. If you pay the the shipping its yours.
 
I’ve got a similar no video or post situation with my old Legend 125. I clipped off the leaking batter and gently cleaned the area with a toothbrush. It’s hard to tell if there is any trace/ic damage it’s all so small.
 

Attachments

  • 780A240D-7EF6-484E-9168-6C8004AF11EB.jpeg
    780A240D-7EF6-484E-9168-6C8004AF11EB.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 16
Last edited:
I’ve got a similar no video or post situation with my old Legend 125. I clipped off the leaking batter and gently cleaned the area with a toothbrush. It’s hard to tell if there is any trace/ic damage it’s all so small.

That looks pretty clean. Have you checked that all the jumpers for CPU speed, cache installed, etc. are set properly?

Are you still looking for this particular board? i have a spare one here in working condition. If you pay the the shipping its yours.

I would be interested in the board if you still have it.
 
Are the ISA risers generally compatible (interchangeable) between these Packard Bell motherboards of the same era? I'm wondering if a 3-card riser would work in a board that was shipped with a 4-card riser.
 
Back
Top