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PB 486 on the 'net !!
Hi Gang!
After much fiddling around, the 'ol 486 PB tower is on the 'net. Sure is a lot slower than a 3+GHz Whizzbang......... It is painful to be reminded of how primitive the very early PNP BIOS' were. This 486 PB has a 450 PNP Ver 1.1a BIOS that is aggravating in the least. The computer came with a 2gig HDD, and it had a DDO. I don't like those, so I wiped out the first 10 cylinders, and rebooted. The BIOS "saw" the whole 2gig drive, but after saving to BIOS, it refused to "see" it again. Nothing helped, clearing the BIOS, pulling the 'bat, nothing. Re-installed the DDO, installed Win95. Had some problems setting up the networking, 'cause I didn't know the NIC card that the computer came with was bad. Installed 98 SE, then figured out the NE2000 card was bad, installed an ISA 3COM PNP card, and you see the results. ( How do I look? :-) The installed CD-ROM drive was bad also, but everything was an easy fix. Now that it's up and running, it's time to put it on the shelf. I'm not used to this "speed". Still offering a reward for a P60 tower version ! bobwatts |
#2
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PB 486 on the 'net !!
bobwatts wrote:
Hi Gang! After much fiddling around, the 'ol 486 PB tower is on the 'net. Sure is a lot slower than a 3+GHz Whizzbang......... It is painful to be reminded of how primitive the very early PNP BIOS' were. This 486 PB has a 450 PNP Ver 1.1a BIOS that is aggravating in the least. The computer came with a 2gig HDD, and it had a DDO. I don't like those, so I wiped out the first 10 cylinders, and rebooted. The BIOS "saw" the whole 2gig drive, but after saving to BIOS, it refused to "see" it again. Nothing helped, clearing the BIOS, pulling the 'bat, nothing. Re-installed the DDO, installed Win95. Had some problems setting up the networking, 'cause I didn't know the NIC card that the computer came with was bad. Installed 98 SE, then figured out the NE2000 card was bad, installed an ISA 3COM PNP card, and you see the results. ( How do I look? :-) The installed CD-ROM drive was bad also, but everything was an easy fix. Now that it's up and running, it's time to put it on the shelf. I'm not used to this "speed". Still offering a reward for a P60 tower version ! bobwatts When I put a larger HD in my PB P-1 I ended up also using an overlay... had not problems with it. I did try a PCI IDE card...but the system never detected it. BTW I have a 386 in my collection with win95 on it and it works just fine on-line |
#3
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PB 486 on the 'net !!
Hi "philo" !
( Inserting comments as I go, be sure to read all the way down..... ) "philo" wrote in message news:H- When I put a larger HD in my PB P-1 I ended up also using an overlay... had not problems with it. I'm not having problems with the DDO, just don't like 'em. :-) If a BIOS will detect a drive without it, I prefer to go that way. I have seen older BIOS' "see" a HDD, but then not *use* it. Same with this system, it sees the HDD fine in the BIOS every, but after booting, the HDD no longer exists. I know it's not a 2.1+ GIG barrier problem, 'cause it sees it in BIOS ( and the drive is right at 2 gig. Or maybe it's 2.1, I'll check ) Curiously, this BIOS will translate over 528 meg just fine. Be interesting to see if the BIOS screen will "see" up to the 8.4 gig barrier. Waste of time since it won't use it though. As another matter of curiosity, the exact same day I got this PB 486 tower, I received a PB 486 Desktop with the exact same motherboard, and 486DX2-66 CPU. ( I now have three of the "modern" PB's with 486 ). That machine came with a 540 meg drive that is dead. I slapped in a 1.2 gig drive ( to see what would happen), and it not only recognized the drive in BIOS, but went ahead and booted to it !!!! I *thought* the tower computer had the newest 450 Ver 1.1a BIOS, but it's possible that it does not, and that could be the reason that the other machine uses the drive over 528 meg. Dunno. Even if a BIOS update would correct the problem, I probably wouldn't do it for fear of something failing and rendering the BIOS/motherboard unusable. Never have had a failed BIOS flash upgrade before, but I'm due. :-) Be nice to find one of these with the PCI slots. They *do* exist. Hey Ben, do you know if I can slap a riser in one of these with PCI slots, upgrade the BIOS, and it work ? Probably not, 'cause the only risers I have are for Pentium's, and I doubt they are the same electrically. I did try a PCI IDE card...but the system never detected it. Early PCI systems are a mess. I have a large collection of Socket 4 Pentium 60/66MHz boards, and they are tricky to tinker with at best ! BTW I have a 386 in my collection with win95 on it and it works just fine on-line Neato ! What OS and browser are you using ? -- bobwatts Watts Carburetion Service WhizzBang Computers " collector of Asian transfat plastic trinkets ! " EartH // KlaXXoN |
#4
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PB 486 on the 'net !!
Robert E. Watts wrote:
Hi "philo" ! ( Inserting comments as I go, be sure to read all the way down..... ) "philo" wrote in message news:H- When I put a larger HD in my PB P-1 I ended up also using an overlay... had not problems with it. I'm not having problems with the DDO, just don't like 'em. :-) If a BIOS will detect a drive without it, I prefer to go that way. I have seen older BIOS' "see" a HDD, but then not *use* it. Same with this system, it sees the HDD fine in the BIOS every, but after booting, the HDD no longer exists. I know it's not a 2.1+ GIG barrier problem, 'cause it sees it in BIOS ( and the drive is right at 2 gig. Or maybe it's 2.1, I'll check ) Curiously, this BIOS will translate over 528 meg just fine. Be interesting to see if the BIOS screen will "see" up to the 8.4 gig barrier. Waste of time since it won't use it though. As another matter of curiosity, the exact same day I got this PB 486 tower, I received a PB 486 Desktop with the exact same motherboard, and 486DX2-66 CPU. ( I now have three of the "modern" PB's with 486 ). That machine came with a 540 meg drive that is dead. I slapped in a 1.2 gig drive ( to see what would happen), and it not only recognized the drive in BIOS, but went ahead and booted to it !!!! I *thought* the tower computer had the newest 450 Ver 1.1a BIOS, but it's possible that it does not, and that could be the reason that the other machine uses the drive over 528 meg. Dunno. Even if a BIOS update would correct the problem, I probably wouldn't do it for fear of something failing and rendering the BIOS/motherboard unusable. Never have had a failed BIOS flash upgrade before, but I'm due. :-) Be nice to find one of these with the PCI slots. They *do* exist. Hey Ben, do you know if I can slap a riser in one of these with PCI slots, upgrade the BIOS, and it work ? Probably not, 'cause the only risers I have are for Pentium's, and I doubt they are the same electrically. I did try a PCI IDE card...but the system never detected it. Early PCI systems are a mess. I have a large collection of Socket 4 Pentium 60/66MHz boards, and they are tricky to tinker with at best ! BTW I have a 386 in my collection with win95 on it and it works just fine on-line Neato ! What OS and browser are you using ? Well for quite a while I was fooling around a lot with those old machines.. The 386 is running Win95a and the Off By One browser. It's an amd 40 mhz cpu and 16 megs of ram It runs pretty well. I basically just did it to see what could be done...it's not really a practical machine... but I was using it in my workshop for a while |
#5
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PB 486 on the 'net !!
On Jul 15, 7:00*pm, philo wrote:
Robert E. Watts wrote: Hi "philo" ! ( Inserting comments as I go, be sure to read all the way down..... ) "philo" wrote in message news:H- When I put a larger HD in my PB P-1 I ended up also using an overlay.... had not problems with it. I'm not having problems with the DDO, just don't like 'em. *:-) If a BIOS will detect a drive without it, I prefer to go that way. I have seen older BIOS' "see" a HDD, but then not *use* it. *Same with this system, it sees the HDD fine in the BIOS every, but after booting, the HDD no longer exists. I know it's not a 2.1+ GIG barrier problem, 'cause it sees it in BIOS ( and the drive is right at 2 gig. Or maybe it's 2.1, I'll check ) Curiously, this BIOS will translate over 528 meg just fine. *Be interesting to see if the BIOS screen will "see" up to the 8.4 gig barrier. Waste of time since it won't use it though. As another matter of curiosity, the exact same day I got this PB 486 tower, I received a PB 486 Desktop with the exact same motherboard, and 486DX2-66 CPU. ( I now have three of the "modern" PB's with 486 ). *That machine came with a 540 meg drive that is dead. I slapped in a 1.2 gig drive ( to see what would happen), and it not only recognized the drive in BIOS, but went ahead and booted to it !!!! I *thought* the tower computer had the newest 450 Ver 1.1a BIOS, but it's possible that it does not, and that could be the reason that the other machine uses the drive over 528 meg. Dunno. Even if a BIOS update would correct the problem, I probably wouldn't do it for fear of something failing and rendering the BIOS/motherboard unusable. Never have had a failed BIOS flash upgrade before, but I'm due. *:-) Be nice to find one of these with the PCI slots. They *do* exist. *Hey Ben, do you know if I can slap a riser in one of these with PCI slots, upgrade the BIOS, and it work ? Probably not, 'cause the only risers I have are for Pentium's, and I doubt they are the same electrically. I did try a PCI * IDE card...but the system never detected it. Early PCI systems are a mess. I have a large collection of Socket 4 Pentium 60/66MHz boards, and they are tricky to tinker with at best ! BTW I have a 386 in my collection with win95 on it and it works just fine on-line Neato ! *What OS *and browser are you using ? Well for quite a while I was fooling around a lot with those old machines... The 386 is running Win95a and the Off By One browser. It's an amd 40 mhz cpu and 16 megs of ram It runs pretty well. * I basically just did it to see what could be done...it's not really a practical machine... but I was using it in my workshop for a while- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - If you are willing to install an exeperimental bios by me and used by me than the 2gb limit is not a problem. Just do not remember the size of the HD added. I think it was 4.3GB I could be wrong as I am still recovering . I have also went back with the original 450 bios and it has no problem taking that if you are not happy. I have done the above bios update and than back to the original multiple times never with a problem. In fact there is also boot block with the 450MB that should allow you always to recover. I think it is called boot block or something like that. My memory is transitional in its approach at this time. If you need an explanation it is akin to allowing the basic functions to occur from a part of the bios that it not actually written over on the chip. Allows ISA video and floppy drive and few other functions to occur in case of bios compromise. In any case it worked for me until the grim computer reaper came. |
#6
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PB 486 on the 'net !!
Hi "metronid" !
"metronid" wrote in message news:a8ccaa9b-022f-48a6-bc4a- If you are willing to install an exeperimental bios by me *** If I had multiples of this machine, I certainly would, but see below....... In any case it worked for me until the grim computer reaper came. ******* .....and that is the reason I would not be interested in flashing the BIOS. I fight the grim reaper everyday, and only come out a winner about 17% of the time. This particular 486 Packard Bell tower is probably the only one left on EartH. (possibly) I'm going to leave it alone, and fully functional. I *have* tinkered with my Pentium Packard Bells' extensively. Matter of fact, I installed a Mr. Bios BIOS on one of 'em, and it's impossible to go back to the PB BIOS. Even with a program designed solely to force flash the BIOS, I can't get it done. But no worries, I was just tinkering with that particular motherboard and the Evergreen 400MHz CPU ( and stuff ). -- bobwatts Watts Carburetion Service WhizzBang Computers " collector of Asian transfat plastic trinkets ! " EartH // KlaXXoN |
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