frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) (11/03/89)
Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information would be welcome.
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (11/03/89)
In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: >Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? They're a TV manufacturer from way back. They made a nice little mini, the PB 250, around 1960 that had 22-bit words, delay line memory, a hard-wired integer square root instruction and almost no lights and switches. (One read in the octal utility tape from the Flexowriter.) They sold that product line to Raytheon and went back to TVs for 25 years. The current Packard Bell computer is some Korean clone. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl Massachusetts has over 100,000 unlicensed drivers. -The Globe
khearn@uts.amdahl.com (Bug Hunter) (11/03/89)
In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: >Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? >I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information >would be welcome. They used to make some of the best TV's and radios, back in the 40's and fifties. Back in the tube days (Or so my dad tells me). I recently bought a Pac-Mate II, and I'm pretty happy with it. It's a 12MHz 286 with a 16-bit VGA built into the motherboard, a 40M hard drive, a 1.44M 3.5", and a 1.2M 5.25" floppy, and a 14" VGA monitor. It also came with a 2400 baud Hayes compatible modem, and a Genius mouse (both microsoft and Mouse Systems compatible). MS-DOS 3.3 was pre-installed on the hard drive. The package also included Microsoft Works, Splash (a VGA paint program), Sidekick, ComBase (a communication program), and another paint program that was packaged with the mouse. All of this was included in the system straight from Packard-Bell. They also have other setups available. Mine only cost me $1800, but that was from the Price Club (a membership discount warehouse chain on the west coast), I don't know what normal retail prices are. As for the computer, it seems to be 100% compatible. Everything I've tried to run works just fine, an I've tried a fair amount so far. I've had two quality control problems. The first system I got wouldn't run more than 20 minutes at a time before hanging. Seemed to be heat related. I took it back the next day and exchanged for a replacement system which worked fine. last week my keyboard cable apparently went bad. I got a "Keyboard Data Line Failure" message when I tried to boot. Again, I simply took the keyboard back and exchanged for a new one.They have an 800 number for customer service that's open 7am to 6pm Pacific time weekdays, and some hours on saturdays. Doesn't seem to heavily staffed, though. I got busy signals quite a few times when I tried calling about the keyboard. Over all, I pretty happy with it, though. -- Keith Hearn \ Lots of impossible things happen khearn@amdahl.com \ When you travel through time. Amdahl Corporation \ Dr. Who (The War Games) (408)737-5691(work) (408)984-6937(home)\
schrader@loligo (Dave Schrader) (11/04/89)
In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: >Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? >I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information >would be welcome. Packard Bell has a long history of work in the field of electronics. They were an early manufacturer of radios and televisions (many older persons may remember their name in that context. With the growth of the Japanese electronics market they lost a large part of their market share in the radio and tv market and effectively went out of business. Then, about 3-4 years ago rights to their name was purchased and they spun off a PC division. About two and a half years ago I purchased one of their machines (at a very competative price. It was a 80286 clone with EGA and 80(+-) hard disk. It had 6/8 Mhz, 0 wait, and came with MS-DOS 3.2. It had 8 slots (5/16-3/8). There were a few minor problems when I added a 3.5" drive but those were solved by changing to MS-DOS 3.3 plus some technical assistance. I have used the machine daily (not at work but at home in the evening) and have added mouse (MS0 and modem (Everex 2400). It have been a solid machine (considering I have two game playing boys and a little girl who is hard on the mouse (also "quits" by turning off the power despite being told the "proper" way to do it), a wife who isn't computer literate but is learning, and myself fighting to use it). I am very satisfied (I also use a wide variety of brands at work). If you don't have a maintenance facility locally I would discourage getting one cause shipping it in if you have problems can eat you alive. To the rest of the net, I would have sent this as mail, but the Packard Bell name seems to have cropped up 4-5 times lately.
mallari@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Mallari) (11/04/89)
In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: >Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? >I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information >would be welcome. I bought a Packard Bell compatible, not clone, a year and a half ago. I had some problems. First, my serial card had a large crack in it so that my printer printed garbage instead of graphics. Then the 640K memory that came on the motherboard was defective. I kept getting a Memory Parity Error message. I got a free serial card from someone as well as free 256K chips from someone else. That was fine. I didn't complain. Then I tried to install a 1.44 Mb 3.5" drive and the bios didn't allow me to configure that drive. I called the people at Packard Bell and they said it was my BIOS Setup program. They told me to send a disk and they would give me a copy of the latest version of the Setup program. Well, I sent a disk 4 weeks ago and it hasn't come back. I've called the tech people there several times and all they say is that they sent my disk to Customer Service to be mailed out. This was 3 weeks ago. In short...their service SUCKS. I think you can find a better buy in something other than this idiotic company's products. -Brian Actually if you're buying a true CLONE, I guess there would only be one way to design it and you wouldn't have any problem expanding your syst<BOOM> <BOOM> <BOOM> <BOOM> ENERGIZER BATTERIES.......THEY KEEP GOING AND GOING AND GOING AND G O I N G A N D G O I N G. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brian Mallari University of California, Berkeley mallari@cory.berkeley.edu
jrwsnsr@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Jonathan R. Watts) (11/04/89)
In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: >Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? >I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information >would be welcome. Well, I don't have a Packard Bell computer, but I did have a Packard Bell monitor, and based on my experience with that, I'd say stay away from them! The monitor was a CGA color monitor, model 1452CG, I believe. After having it about 3 months, it suddenly died. Apparently the power supply shorted out. I had it replaced. Six months later, the replacement died, WITH EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM. I then replaced it with a Samtron monitor instead! Also, a friend of mine has the exact same model monitor-- hers has also died WITH THE SAME PROBLEM once. So, I don't know about their computers, but their CGA monitor sucks! - Jonathan Watts jrwsnsr@jupiter.nmt.edu
dpm@cs.cmu.edu (David Maynard) (11/05/89)
> Well, I don't have a Packard Bell computer, but I did have a Packard > Bell monitor, and based on my experience with that, I'd say stay away from them! The monitor was a CGA color monitor, model 1452CG, I > believe. After having it about 3 months, it suddenly died. .... So, I > don't know their computers, but their CGA monitor sucks! On the other hand, I know someone know has the Packard Bell multisync monitor and has been very happy with it. My experience with their AT clones has been that they seem to be well-built and offer many of the newer features (e.g., shadow RAM, on-board Paradise VGA-16, EMS driver). The one I work on came with a fast 40Meg Western Digital hard drive instead of a slow drive that other many clones offer. This particular system also came with a 4 month on-site warranty (I don't think they all have this warranty though). Overall, I doubt that their quality is any better/worse than most other clones. They seem to offer reasonable features for the price and I think they are more likely to be around in 2 years than some other clone makers, but who knows. -David --- David P. Maynard (dpm@cs.cmu.edu) Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 --- Any opinions expressed are mine only. I haven't asked the ECE department or CMU what they think. ---
bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) (11/05/89)
In article <e312028X65c401@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com-> khearn@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Keith Hearn) writes: ->In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: ->>Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? ->>I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information ->>would be welcome. -> ->They used to make some of the best TV's and radios, back in the 40's and -> fifties. Back in the tube days (Or so my dad tells me). The Packard Bell that made the great radio and tv's of the past is NOT the company making Packard Bell computers. In the trades a year or so ago, when Packard Bell computers first came on the scene, the story went like this. A group putting together a clone company needed a name that had recognizability. Packard Bell was out of business, and the clone group bought the rights to the NAME Packard Bell to put on their computers. The only relationship to the TVs and radios of the past is the name. As your opening line of reply indicates, it was a very good choice for them. I have no idea of the quality and the longevity of the machines or company. The above is merely a point of information on the name only. -> I recently -> bought a Pac-Mate II, and I'm pretty happy with it. ... ..... ->As for the computer, it seems to be 100% compatible. Everything I've -> tried to run works just fine, an I've tried a fair amount so far. -> I've had two quality control problems. The first system I got wouldn't -> run more than 20 minutes at a time before hanging. Seemed to be heat -> related. I took it back the next day and exchanged for a replacement -> system which worked fine. last week my keyboard cable apparently -> went bad. I got a "Keyboard Data Line Failure" message when I tried -> to boot. Again, I simply took the keyboard back and exchanged for a -> new one.They have an 800 number for customer service that's open -> 7am to 6pm Pacific time weekdays, and some hours on saturdays. Doesn't -> seem to heavily staffed, though. I got busy signals quite a few times -> when I tried calling about the keyboard. -> ->Over all, I pretty happy with it, though. Quality doesn't sound quite as good as the old PB legends. Are there any other PB owners out there who would care to comment. -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
borders@cs.odu.edu (Peter Wayne Borders) (11/05/89)
Yeah I have one of their monitors too and it quit in the same way. The funny thing is that it is really a samsung monitor (or at least someone makes both Packard Bell's and Samsung's). We have about 50 of the same model Samsung monitor here at work and have had only 1 or 2 go out. What does Packard Bell do, buy the seconds? Pete
frank@mnetor.UUCP (Frank Kolnick) (11/06/89)
In article <344@bilver.UUCP> bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) writes: > ... >Quality doesn't sound quite as good as the old PB legends. Are there any >other PB owners out there who would care to comment. Since you asked... I've got a two-year old PB 286. It's still running fine, and the only maintenance I've had to do was replace the keyboard, which died a year ago. However, when I bought it, I had numerous problems, primarily aggravated by my addition of a NEC GB-1 graphics card and a Priam disk. The homebrew PB BIOS couldn't handle the graphics and the WD controller was (I was told) an old version and had to be replaced to support the new drive. Mine also has the quirk of allowing 640K *or* 512K + 512K expanded (or is that extended?), which I found to be a real pain. I eventually solved that by adding an Intel AboveBoard. All in all, it took me two weeks to get my system running. I don't know if PB has improved, but I now also have a Zeos 386 that worked out of the box. I also suspect that the dealer should take some of the blame (i.e., they sell these things, therefore they *should* at least know how to configure them). -- Frank Kolnick, consulting for, and therefore expressing opinions independent of, Computer X UUCP: {allegra, linus}!utzoo!mnetor!frank
todd@stiatl.UUCP (Todd Merriman) (11/06/89)
In article <1153@elmgate.UUCP> frh@elmgate.UUCP (Frank Hubbell SOFT) writes: >Who is Packard Bell? Does anyone know anything about them? >I am thinking about buying one of their PC Clones. Any information >would be welcome. I have bought two pieces of Packard Bell equipment and have been less than satisfied with both. I bought a 2400 baud auto-dial modem that has always had sensitivity problems. Recently the off-hook relay engaged permanently. I bought an EGA monitor for which the both the color purity and alignment is very poor. The documentation is inadequate if you wish to do your own alignment. Based on the quality I found in those two pieces of equipment, I would be suspect of their PCs. ...!gatech!stiatl!todd Todd Merriman * 404-889-8264 * Atlanta, GA
cs4g6aw@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Amos Yung) (11/07/89)
In article <wZIon4W00jctF8AEcr@cs.cmu.edu> dpm@cs.cmu.edu (David Maynard) writes: >> Well, I don't have a Packard Bell computer, but I did have a Packard >> Bell monitor, and based on my experience with that, I'd say stay away >from them! The monitor was a CGA color monitor, model 1452CG, I >> believe. After having it about 3 months, it suddenly died. .... So, I >> don't know their computers, but their CGA monitor sucks! > Personally, I don't own any Packard Bell products. However, a friend of mine told me that at the University of Toronto Computer Center, which sells Packard Bell computer and peripherals, the failure rate is about ONE out of SIX. Some of them can't even be revived after repair. Sounds pretty scarry to me. So my suggestion wouldbe stay away from this product. However, I also heard that Packard Bell is now one of the best-selling PC clone in Toronto. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | | ...The stars were taking shape. Forming the ridges | | Amos Yung | of a face. A human face that spanned light years | | McMaster University | distance. |
gary@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Gary Barrett) (11/08/89)
In article <3435@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, Jonathan R. Watts writes: > > The monitor was a CGA color monitor, model 1452CG, I believe. > After having it about 3 months, it suddenly died. Apparently the power > supply shorted out. I had it replaced. Six months later, the replacement > died, WITH EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM. Well, my Packard-Bell CGA monitor did the very same thing! I suddenly lost the power supply after a couple of months of use. You think there's a pattern here?! The company was super about replacing the equipment. Very friendly and responsive tech support. They gave me a new CGA monitor without question. But since I later purchased a VGA setup, the PB monitor stills sits in the box. I wonder what will happen now if I ever USE that monitor. Hmmmmmmmm Thanks for the warning. -- ======================================================================== Gary L. Barrett My employer may or may not agree with my opinions. And I may or may not agree with my employer's opinions. ========================================================================
jeremy.caplan@f401.n250.z1.fidonet.org (jeremy caplan) (11/08/89)
I have a Packard Bell Clone. Actually, I HAD a PB clone. It over-heated
in the summer, and I got a replacement from People's Computers which
works fine. I would suggest you don't buy a computer from Packard Bell
if you wish to use it in the summer.
-Jeremy Caplan
--- QuickBBS v2.04
* Origin: Colour Dragon V | QuickBBS/D'Bridge | (416)-823-6420 : (1:250/401)jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (11/09/89)
gary@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Gary Barrett) writes: >In article <3435@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, Jonathan R. Watts writes: >> >> The monitor was a CGA color monitor, model 1452CG, I believe. >> After having it about 3 months, it suddenly died. Apparently the power >> supply shorted out. I had it replaced. Six months later, the replacement >> died, WITH EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM. > >Well, my Packard-Bell CGA monitor did the very same thing! I >suddenly lost the power supply after a couple of months of use. >You think there's a pattern here?! > >The company was super about replacing the equipment. Very friendly >and responsive tech support. They gave me a new CGA monitor without >question. But since I later purchased a VGA setup, the PB monitor >stills sits in the box. I wonder what will happen now if I ever USE >that monitor. Hmmmmmmmm Thanks for the warning. If it's any consolation. PB makes good monochrome monitors. This one that's on my 16 MHz AT is running strong for over a year and a half. It will be two years old as of the end of March '90. /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Flames: /dev/null (on my Minix partition) *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * ARPA : crash!pnet01!jca@nosc.mil * INET : jca@pnet01.cts.com * UUCP : {nosc ucsd hplabs!hd-sdd}!crash!pnet01!jca *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Note : My opinions are that...mine. My boss doesn't pay me enough to * speak in the best interests of the company (yet). *--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
jcb@loral.UUCP (Jay Bowden) (11/14/89)
Many people are surprised to learn the *real* origins of Packard Bell.
Even as the R of TRW (aka Thompson Ramo Woolridge) participated in the
formation of many successful companies (like Bunker Ramo,
Ramo-Woolridge, etc.), Packard Bell was a result of an early
collaberation between Dave Packard (of Hewlett Packard) and Alexander
Graham Bell (of telephone fame). Bell asked Packard if he could
produce a portable sound source that could be used in the (then silent)
movie theatres to bring realism to one of the first feature-length
films based on the works of the American poet Edgar Allen Poe. Bell
was paritcularly interested in producing Poe's poem "The Bells", and
Packards' resulting device, the Tintinabulator, proved to be
a huge seller in the early part of this century.
The relationship turned sour, though, when Packard insisted on devoting
his energies to "cloning" another hot seller in the new century,
the automobile. Although he enjoyed limited success for a while,
Packard Motor Company was eventually absorbed by its own subsidiary
which made the seat covers for the cars, American Thread and
Thimble, a company that Bell later purchased.
Again Packard tried to start a company using his name, but was plauged
by a negative stigma that resulted from customer's insistence on
refering to his products by only the initial "P". On a recommendation
from his close friend Frank Lloyd Wright, Packard hired an unemployed
construction worker named Bill Hewlett, and re-named the company
Hewlett-Packard. Today we see that Hewlett's name was the key to the
phenominal success of the company, and pay him a tribute whenever we
speak of an "HP" product.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Bowden, EE/Consultant; see also Bowden Engineering
Currently contracted at Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
{ucbvax, ittvax!dcdwest, akgua, decvax, ihnp4}!ucsd!loral!jcblisbon@vpnet.UUCP (Gerry Swetsky) (11/21/89)
> Packard Bell was a result of an early > collaberation between Dave Packard (of Hewlett Packard) and Alexander > Graham Bell (of telephone fame). Bell asked Packard if he could Right! What is this, April Fool's Day? David Packard was born on September 7, 1912. A. G. Bell died in 1922. Packard is still Chairman of Hewlett Packard Corp. I wonder if he remembers the meeting with Bell? Get your facts straight , Mac! -- ============================================================================= | Help stamp out stupid .signature files! Gerry Swetsky | | | | Home (708)833-8122 Vpnet (708)833-8126 lisbon@vpnet.uucp | =============================================================================