packard bell legend 994cdt

[manuba]

I was lucky enough (in my eyes) to find my old computer, a packard bell legend 994cdt in the back of a thrift store yesterday. Yes before you ask I know it's mine, my name is on the bottom of the tower and it still has my homework on it from 8th grade. My mom gave it away 10 years ago without realizing that my brother and I used MIDI on it for recording, plus you could make your guitar or any other electric instrument sound like anything!

The lady at the store told me to take it because it didn't work, got it home and fiddled with the cables and ports on the back for a few minutes and it booted right up.

Pentium 1.33mhz
1mb video mem upgradable to 2mb
2.1gb hdd
16mb ram upgradable to 72mb
pci local bus video
pci local bus hdd interface
exceeds MPC Level 2 multimedia specs for '95
Windows '95

6 expantion port on back
unknown mobo

My question is what can I do to upgrade it or is it just a monster sized DOSBOX

[dragonhead]

junk.
beyond obsolete.
not upgradeable.
practically unusable.
you get the idea
wouldnt even bother.

[bicostp]

You can make the Ultimate DOS Box out of it (like i did with an old P1), but beyond that (and trying to run modern OSes on it for laughs), it's useless.

You could always get an Nvidia ION based mini motherboard to stick in it (sleeper PC), or put together a newer PC in its case if it's ATX.

[manuba]

thank you, that's what i thought. It will just remain, I'm building a monster pc in an Antec 900 gaming case just haven't decided what mobo to use MSI K9A2 with an AMDx4 phenom? radeon or nvidia???

[Jaruff]

Personally, I'd slap an old version of Linux on it and considering using it as a file server. I'm assuming it has SCSI, which could mean loads of fun with tape drives, ZIP drives, hard drives, and other goodies.

[markyb86]

junk.
beyond obsolete.
not upgradeable.
practically unusable.
you get the idea
wouldnt even bother.

Don't listen to this. Any computer can serve a purpose if it runs. You could run this computer as a router, use it as a server by throwing a bigger hard drive in it, run linux and use it as a rss feed reader. The possibilities are endless. Just because it's old doesn't mean its dead.
Here are some operating systems that will run quite well on that computer:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php?fi ... tarted.htm

And most importantly just have fun. It's a cherished memory to you!
Same goes for every commodore 64 enthusiast out there, for crying out loud people are still writing software for that thing!

-Mark

[bicostp]

Router? You can pick a real router up for $50 (less if you get a Linksys WRT off CraigsBay and run DD-WRT on it), and in less than a year you'll have saved enough electricity over running a power-guzzling old POS furnace of a computer 24/7 for it to pay for itself. Besides, you'd have to track down a PCI NIC for it; two if it doesn't have onboard Ethernet.

Server? What's the point? You might as well put that bigger hard drive in your good computer and set it up for file sharing. (Also see above regarding built-in networking)

Linux? Any modern "desktop" distro will run like horse feces on anything under a P3. Any distro he could get to boot on that dinosaur will run 100x better in VirtualBox. I've run Damn Small Linux on my P1 computer (I think it's a 166 or something like that), and even with Fluxbox and the 2.4 kernel it ran like crap. I used it for a while on a P1 200 MMX laptop (back when that was the only laptop I could get my hands on), and it wasn't fun at all. Windows 2000 ran better, and at least that could handle an old 802.11b card. I can't imagine Puppy would run any better.

Dedicated RSS reader? What exactly is the point of that? You can already do that on your good PC with any of the hundreds of programs out there, or Google Reader.

That computer is beyond obsolete. It probably still uses SIMMs and (primarily) ISA slots. The only thing it's good for is its DOS box novelty value (and possibly its ability to hold doors open). And even for that there's the program DOSbox which will get you CD-ROM, every graphic mode, and practically every sound card, all without having to deal with IRQ numbers and tracking down ancient drivers.

[markyb86]

I'm sorry you took offense in that?

[bicostp]

No, not at all. I just don't think there's any practical use for an x86 computer that old anymore.

I tried running DSL, Puppy, and Fluxbuntu on a 200 mhz Pentium MMX with (at the time) 64 MB of RAM. It was excruciating. His Packard Bell has 16 MB of RAM, that's barely enough to boot a 2.6.x Linux kernel and have it usable. It needs 72 pin FPM memory, really old stuff. (The cheapest I can find that would likely work is $11 + shipping for 16 meg sticks.) It would cost more than the PC's worth in parts and shipping to get all the bits he'd need to make it a serviceable router or server. (Figure in at least 1 network card; I don't remember those having Ethernet built in. Who knows, maybe his has a PCI NIC already...) The money for those things could instead get a bigger hard drive for his good PC, or a router that doesn't use as much power as a 100w light bulb.

Sorry if I got a little carried away with my rebuttal.

[markyb86]

Hey it's all good!
I still have a 50mhz 2mb ram monochrome ibm thinkpad that I use sometimes for irc (running windows 3.11) . It's silent and easy on the eyes.

[quaalude]

ok my name is Quaalude Charlie - folks call me QC -

I Run XP Pro on these same packard bell legend Computers , Granted you can't get past Direct X 8a without frying the Board - they'll top out at 128 megs simms Ram but it Reads 130 for some odd reason ,
I have some Running Win 95 along with the packard bell legend BoB interface GUI some came with , I Collect old Computers , i could have fun with a packard bell legend , it will still get online keeping updates turned off and using Firefox as the Browser QC