Discussion:
Help with an old Packard Bell
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A***@lkdsb.com
12 years ago
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i also have 1 and need to fix the cmos battery but i cant find it can anyone help?
mike
12 years ago
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Post by A***@lkdsb.com
Hi,I've just been given an old Packard Bell 386 laptop; PB386NBX A few questions if anyone can help me;
1. How do I know when the battery is charged?

there's almost always a led that turns on or flashes while charging.
Windows has a power page that attempts to tell you the state of charge.
There may be a custom app that displays the state of charge. You probably
don't have it.

2. How long will the machine run with battery (approx)
You answered that question below, about 2.5 hours doing whatever you
were doing.

3. Can I upgrade the Hard Drive with any make or am I limited to certain
types?
Go into the hard drive setup section of the BIOS. If it asks you to
enter CHS
numbers or select from a list, you're probably limited to what's there.
If it autodetects the drive, you have more freedom.
Which OS are you gonna put on it? Any version of windows that will run
on it
will likely be limited to 2GB or so hard drive.

4. How do I determine how much charge is left in the battery.
See question 1.

5. Where can I get hold of a manual?
Assume you've googled. PB probably never made any laptops.
Dig around in the Chicony archives to see if you find anything that
looks similar. You may get lucky.

6. How do I turn of the annoying beep when the battery is low. This
starts after about half an hour and continues

for the next two or so hours.
You probably don't. I had a laptop of similar vintage with that problem.
My solution was to stick a bare phone plug into the headphone socket to
shut it up.
Obviously, that won't work if you need sound.
Thanks in anticipation.
And the question you didn't ask...
7. how much ram can I put in it?

Not nearly enough to run any recent OS or applications.

Here's the advice you really need.
If you're restoring it for your antique computer museum, good luck and
have fun.
If you want a computer, run, don't walk, to the nearest recycling center
and pitch it onto the pile.

Every day, a gazillion people buy ipads and obsolete their laptop.
It sits in the basement until they have a garage sale. They put it
out with a $50 price tag. I routinely buy 'em for a dollar. This summer,
the sweet spot was 2GHZ processor laptop for a buck. Sometimes, they need
some work, but often, they work fine after you reinstall the OS and clean
the dust out of the cooling system.
Buy dead ones with bad motherboards and steal the ram and disk
for your working laptop.

It makes zero sense to put any time or money into that packard bell.



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Post by A***@lkdsb.com
i also have 1 and need to fix the cmos battery but i cant find it can anyone help?
Don't have any specific knowledge, but are you sure it's bad?
They're often rechargeable in that vintage computer. Leave it plugged
in for a week
and see if it comes back to life.
If not, it's probably soldered to the motherboard on the back somewhere.
Not unusual to have to completely disassemble the thing to get at it.

There are other options where a lithium coin cell is on the end of a wire
that plugs into the motherboard and gets tucked away somewhere.
There were also some with cylindrical nicads about the size of two AAA
cells end to end
and plugged into the motherboard.
There's always the possibility that the previous owner removed it and you
don't have it any more.

Even if you find the proper battery and make the thing work, the cost to
ship the battery is more than the computer is worth.
Bob_Villa
12 years ago
Permalink
Do you think this guy has it still...after 13+ years?

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