'cornering the Internet, OEM OS style

Hi Gang !

Well, I was fiddling around with some computer stuff today, and spotted my
second Packard Bell Corner Computer sitting abandoned on a shelf. I haven't
done anything with it since receiving it a couple of months ago, and had
forgotten that it didn't have a HDD in it. So when I plugged it in and
turned it on and realized this, I decided this was a good time to try out an
Official Packard Bell Windows 98 Operating System Recovery CD. Besides, I
wanted to see that Packard Bell logo in system information. And I figured
there would be a cool looking desktop background also. ( yes, there is ! )

While the machine was ( and still is as I'm typing this ) apart, I decided
to replace the original 16 meg of 60ns ram with 64 meg of 60ns ram, install
a WD 4.3 gig HDD, and overclock the 120MHz Pentium to 133MHz. ( it's been on
for many hours, and it still cool to the touch. With the case cover still
off, and NO cooling fan on the CPU, it's still extremely cool !!! ) I
thought about installing a POD 200MHz chip, but figured this would require a
BIOS upgrade, and didn't want to do that. ( usually eliminates the Packard
Bell logo. Don't want that )

OK, got it up and running, no problems, and decided to install the Packard
Bell recovery CD version of Windows 98 that I found awhile back. I didn't
bother to create a restore floppy, I just partitioned and formated the
drive, installed a CD-ROM device driver, and then went to the restore.exe
file that starts the process on the CD.

If _ I _ had _ known _ that this was going to take a couple of hours, I
would have moved the computer to a back up bench, instead of my main work
bench. When you get used to Pentium 4 computers, it's difficult to "'wait"
on an old 133MHz machine to load a simple OS. Wow.

At the end of the install, I got a bit of a scare when it asked for the
product ID. Someone had slipped one of those OE coded Certificate of
Authenticity forms on the CD sleeve, and it didn't match. I was getting
ready to throw a fit, but remembered that I had a lot more paperwork with
this Recovery Cd. Fortunately, I found the right number.

After Win98 was up and running, and installed everything perfectly
including the obligatory goofy PB sound card/modem thingy ), and didn't
really have any problem with ANYTHING, I installed a 3 COM NIC, and set that
up. I connected it to my LAN, and set up the Internet.

Not too bad, not bad at all. I'm using the OE IE 4, which everyone hated,
and I will be upgrading to IE5 very soon, but you can see the results. I'm
using the computer to post this.

I got my Packard Bell Logo in system information, and an ultra cool desktop
background I have never seen before. It's a "purple universe", with an
Earth in the middle, and a logo stating:

" The computer the World comes home to".

Pretty neat.

Will investigate further, I haven't checked into all the PB stuff yet. There
is a companion CD that I haven't installed which probably contains other
cool stuff.

Enjoy your holiday gang !

bobwatts
From the 'corner

Hi Bob

Great read Bob!! I forgot that you had a second corner unit.
Pretty slick with that Win 98 cd from Packard Bell. I have two of
those myself. One has the background as you describe. The other has a
space type background with just the words, Packard Bell. The edition I
think you have, like my former, does not have the Systen Wizard
feature. I myself am going to try and get a wireless Linksys pci
card with antenna going in a 4 x 4. Neat holiday weekend
project...after the home jobs are done.

Bill

HI Bill !

<ss454_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1e2deb93-da10-4e3f-b4ca-...
> Hi Bob
>
> Great read Bob!! I forgot that you had a second corner unit.
> Pretty slick with that Win 98 cd from Packard Bell. I have two of
> those myself. One has the background as you describe. The other has a
> space type background with just the words, Packard Bell. The edition I
> think you have, like my former, does not have the Systen Wizard
> feature.


Yeah....... upon checking the thing out, it's practically devoid of any
"Packard Bell" stuff ! Quite a shock. I was expecting "Bob", Navigator, and
all kinds of other stuff. Disappointing. Even the Companion CD doesn't seem
to have anything of interest on it.

But at least I got the all important Packard Bell logo in System
Information. Might seem like a small thing to others, but I WANTED that.
:-)

I'll begin searching for other PB CD's.



I myself am going to try and get a wireless Linksys pci
> card with antenna going in a 4 x 4. Neat holiday weekend
> project...after the home jobs are done.
>

I understand.... this "project" today was sort of an "afterthought". I had
all kinds of things to do, so I just put the thing together, and let it
*load*. I just didn't expect it to take so loooooooonnnnnngg.

I did go ahead and install IE 5.5. MUCH better than IE 4. Whew.

Someday I'll probably put a different motherboard in the thing, or one of
them anyway. I want one with the 256K of L2, and MMX CPU, or at least a
voltage regulator motherboard with USB. That is another nice thing about
this 'corner, it has USB. I know one of yours does also. I didn't expect
that. My other one does not.
I have a PB cranked up to 400MHz, just like you do. Be interesting to see a
'corner running Windows XP Pro, wouldn't it ? :-)

bob

Bob

i'm surprised that more stuff, like the Arcade and a thing like
Kidspace or zone and the other PB proprietary stuff did not load.
That is all part of the PB 98 install. It may be dependant on using
the restore CD AND the diskette. I have it if you want me to copy and
send it to you.
Also Bob I'm running that 400 mhz powerleap (Win 05) , yes,
but anytime I want to do a change or add something via the restore
master cd I have to remove the hard drive from that puter and do the
restore or addon, on a puter with a PB bios on it. Any work around
for this? Actually, I'd like to do a PB restore to the set that
currently has the Mr. BIOS bios on it ...using that motherboard (with
the Mr. BIOS bios). Is this possible?

Bill

Hi Bill !

( inserting as I go....... )

<ss454_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2b7e1d65-190b-4698-b517-...
> Bob
>
> i'm surprised that more stuff, like the Arcade and a thing like
> Kidspace or zone and the other PB proprietary stuff did not load.
> That is all part of the PB 98 install. It may be dependant on using
> the restore CD AND the diskette. I have it if you want me to copy and
> send it to you.


Although I haven't seen one, the only thing the diskette is going to do is
format and "sys" the hard drive,
install a CD-ROM driver, and run a batch file that starts the Restore
program on the CD. Nothing magical about that. It will not dictate what
programs are loaded.

If you look at the files on the disk, you will probably see that. Open some
of the .bat or .com files with a text editor, and you will see this.

No, in my case, I just didn't get "Packard Bell" extras. Looking at the CD,
there doesn't appear to be many Packard Bell items. I would guess that this
is one of the last Packard Bell Restore CD's, and perhaps they just weren't
loading as many items as they used to. Maybe they got tired of people making
fun of Navigator and "Bob". :-)

There are some extra CD's with programs, but I'm not really interested in
those, as they don't pertain to operating system "programs".


> Also Bob I'm running that 400 mhz powerleap (Win 05) , yes,
> but anytime I want to do a change or add something via the restore
> master cd I have to remove the hard drive from that puter and do the
> restore or addon, on a puter with a PB bios on it. Any work around
> for this?


Glad you mentioned that. I had a suspicion that would be the case.



Actually, I'd like to do a PB restore to the set that
> currently has the Mr. BIOS bios on it ...using that motherboard (with
> the Mr. BIOS bios). Is this possible?
>

Sounds like you already answered your question. :-)
But...... what error message does it throw up when you try ? If it's
something like " This CD is intended for Packard Bell only", that might be
hard to get around.

If I can, I'll try to install the restore CD I have on a non PB unit, and
see what happens.

bob

Robert E. Watts wrote:
> Hi Bill !
>
> ( inserting as I go....... )
>
> <ss454_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:2b7e1d65-190b-4698-b517-...
>> Bob
>>
>> i'm surprised that more stuff, like the Arcade and a thing like
>> Kidspace or zone and the other PB proprietary stuff did not load.
>> That is all part of the PB 98 install. It may be dependant on using
>> the restore CD AND the diskette. I have it if you want me to copy and
>> send it to you.
>
>
> Although I haven't seen one, the only thing the diskette is going to do is
> format and "sys" the hard drive,
> install a CD-ROM driver, and run a batch file that starts the Restore
> program on the CD. Nothing magical about that. It will not dictate what
> programs are loaded.
>
> If you look at the files on the disk, you will probably see that. Open some
> of the .bat or .com files with a text editor, and you will see this.
>
> No, in my case, I just didn't get "Packard Bell" extras. Looking at the CD,
> there doesn't appear to be many Packard Bell items. I would guess that this
> is one of the last Packard Bell Restore CD's, and perhaps they just weren't
> loading as many items as they used to. Maybe they got tired of people making
> fun of Navigator and "Bob". :-)
>
> There are some extra CD's with programs, but I'm not really interested in
> those, as they don't pertain to operating system "programs".
>
>
>> Also Bob I'm running that 400 mhz powerleap (Win 05) , yes,
>> but anytime I want to do a change or add something via the restore
>> master cd I have to remove the hard drive from that puter and do the
>> restore or addon, on a puter with a PB bios on it. Any work around
>> for this?
>
>
> Glad you mentioned that. I had a suspicion that would be the case.
>
>
>
> Actually, I'd like to do a PB restore to the set that
>> currently has the Mr. BIOS bios on it ...using that motherboard (with
>> the Mr. BIOS bios). Is this possible?
>>
>
> Sounds like you already answered your question. :-)
> But...... what error message does it throw up when you try ? If it's
> something like " This CD is intended for Packard Bell only", that might be
> hard to get around.
>
> If I can, I'll try to install the restore CD I have on a non PB unit, and
> see what happens.
>
> bob

The desktop wallpaper,"The Computer the World Comes Home to" is
contained within the file C:\CLICK which comptresses to less than 1mb. I
still keep a copy of it to install on all my pc,s since my original PB
in 1998.I even install it on my Linux systems!

W
Nostalgia is not what it used to be!

Bob,

I suspect that the 120MHz Pentium was probably produced by Intel from the same
batch of CPUs after it had produced the daily (or weekly or monthly) quota of
Pentium 133s. This was a very common practice for Intel back in the day when it
had not yet "invented" clock locking to keep people from the evils of
overclocking.

If you really and truly want a genuine P133, I have a tray or two of them here.
How are you on memory for the beastie? I keep sets of 4x32MB 72-pin SIMMs
around for special occasions.

The older Pentium chips, despite running at 3.3v, do not generally dissipate
enough heat to require a cooling fan, although many white-box systems of the era
have the cooling fan... Ben Myers

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 16:23:26 -0000, "bobwatts" <> wrote:

>Hi Gang !
>
>Well, I was fiddling around with some computer stuff today, and spotted my
>second Packard Bell Corner Computer sitting abandoned on a shelf. I haven't
>done anything with it since receiving it a couple of months ago, and had
>forgotten that it didn't have a HDD in it. So when I plugged it in and
>turned it on and realized this, I decided this was a good time to try out an
>Official Packard Bell Windows 98 Operating System Recovery CD. Besides, I
>wanted to see that Packard Bell logo in system information. And I figured
>there would be a cool looking desktop background also. ( yes, there is ! )
>
>While the machine was ( and still is as I'm typing this ) apart, I decided
>to replace the original 16 meg of 60ns ram with 64 meg of 60ns ram, install
>a WD 4.3 gig HDD, and overclock the 120MHz Pentium to 133MHz. ( it's been on
>for many hours, and it still cool to the touch. With the case cover still
>off, and NO cooling fan on the CPU, it's still extremely cool !!! ) I
>thought about installing a POD 200MHz chip, but figured this would require a
>BIOS upgrade, and didn't want to do that. ( usually eliminates the Packard
>Bell logo. Don't want that )
>
>OK, got it up and running, no problems, and decided to install the Packard
>Bell recovery CD version of Windows 98 that I found awhile back. I didn't
>bother to create a restore floppy, I just partitioned and formated the
>drive, installed a CD-ROM device driver, and then went to the restore.exe
>file that starts the process on the CD.
>
>If _ I _ had _ known _ that this was going to take a couple of hours, I
>would have moved the computer to a back up bench, instead of my main work
>bench. When you get used to Pentium 4 computers, it's difficult to "'wait"
>on an old 133MHz machine to load a simple OS. Wow.
>
>At the end of the install, I got a bit of a scare when it asked for the
>product ID. Someone had slipped one of those OE coded Certificate of
>Authenticity forms on the CD sleeve, and it didn't match. I was getting
>ready to throw a fit, but remembered that I had a lot more paperwork with
>this Recovery Cd. Fortunately, I found the right number.
>
>After Win98 was up and running, and installed everything perfectly
> including the obligatory goofy PB sound card/modem thingy ), and didn't
>really have any problem with ANYTHING, I installed a 3 COM NIC, and set that
>up. I connected it to my LAN, and set up the Internet.
>
>Not too bad, not bad at all. I'm using the OE IE 4, which everyone hated,
>and I will be upgrading to IE5 very soon, but you can see the results. I'm
>using the computer to post this.
>
>I got my Packard Bell Logo in system information, and an ultra cool desktop
>background I have never seen before. It's a "purple universe", with an
>Earth in the middle, and a logo stating:
>
>" The computer the World comes home to".
>
>Pretty neat.
>
>Will investigate further, I haven't checked into all the PB stuff yet. There
>is a companion CD that I haven't installed which probably contains other
>cool stuff.
>
>Enjoy your holiday gang !
>
>bobwatts
>From the 'corner
>

HI Ben !

"Ben Myers" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Bob,
>
> I suspect that the 120MHz Pentium was probably produced by Intel from the
> same
> batch of CPUs after it had produced the daily (or weekly or monthly) quota
> of
> Pentium 133s. This was a very common practice for Intel back in the day
> when it
> had not yet "invented" clock locking to keep people from the evils of
> overclocking.
>


I have never seen a 120MHz CPU that would not run at 133MHz. Or, I should
type, a 60Mhz FSB CPU run at 66MHz. I *know* you know that I didn't
"overclock" it, I just changed the FSB.

I have never sucessfully changed a clock multiplier with any CPU, but have
never really tried very hard.



> If you really and truly want a genuine P133, I have a tray or two of them
> here.


Naw, I'm good. :-)
Have lots of CPU's. I have collected 'em for years. Still have a few that
elude me though.....
Took me 11 years to get a 486SX-16MHz chip. I only tried real hard the last
year though.
Still have a llooooonng list of CPU's I would like to find.

386DX-50
286-24
Pentium 133MHz MMX
Pentium 266MHz MMX ( socket 7 )

80186 on a WORKING motherboard !

etc..................



> How are you on memory for the beastie? I keep sets of 4x32MB 72-pin SIMMs
> around for special occasions.
>

Not THAT is tempting..... I have many lbs. of 72 pin simms, but had to
search hard for a couple of matching 32 meg simms to put in that corner.



> The older Pentium chips, despite running at 3.3v, do not generally
> dissipate
> enough heat to require a cooling fan, although many white-box systems of
> the era
> have the cooling fan... Ben Myers
>


Yeah. To this day, the hottest CPU I have ever seen is an AMD 233MHz K6.
Incredible. I'm sure that some of today's CPU's are hotter, ( I have seen
videos of AMD chips that reach 768°F in seconds when the fan is removed ),
but that was my *first* experience with a CPU that REQUIRED some type of
intervention from me with super cooling fans.

Still, that 120/133MHz Pentium just never even gets warm. And that was after
hours of installing an OS, something that would normally create just a
little heat. :-)

bob

Bob,

What you have done foreshadows overclocking as it is practiced today,
essentially speeding up the front side bus beyond the design limits of either
CPU or motherboard (maybe even both). That's all that can be done with
clock-locked AMD and Intel CPUs. In the old days, you could change the clock
multiplier, too.

133MHz is the fastet a 120MHz will ever go, because the early Pentium CPUs lack
the extra pin needed to provide additional clock multipliers. The early Pentium
CPUs multiplied the clock by either 1.5 or 2.0, depending on motherboard jumper
setting. The later ones allowed for 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0, with CLKMUL pins.
AMD went further with the Socket 7 design, adding a 3rd CLMUL pin and
multipliers up to 6.0, IIRC... Ben Myers

On Sun, 6 Jul 2008 11:20:19 -0400, "Robert E. Watts" <> wrote:

>HI Ben !
>
>"Ben Myers" <> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>> Bob,
>>
>> I suspect that the 120MHz Pentium was probably produced by Intel from the
>> same
>> batch of CPUs after it had produced the daily (or weekly or monthly) quota
>> of
>> Pentium 133s. This was a very common practice for Intel back in the day
>> when it
>> had not yet "invented" clock locking to keep people from the evils of
>> overclocking.
>>
>
>
>I have never seen a 120MHz CPU that would not run at 133MHz. Or, I should
>type, a 60Mhz FSB CPU run at 66MHz. I *know* you know that I didn't
>"overclock" it, I just changed the FSB.
>
>I have never sucessfully changed a clock multiplier with any CPU, but have
>never really tried very hard.
>
>
>
>> If you really and truly want a genuine P133, I have a tray or two of them
>> here.
>
>
>Naw, I'm good. :-)
>Have lots of CPU's. I have collected 'em for years. Still have a few that
>elude me though.....
>Took me 11 years to get a 486SX-16MHz chip. I only tried real hard the last
>year though.
>Still have a llooooonng list of CPU's I would like to find.
>
>386DX-50
>286-24
>Pentium 133MHz MMX
>Pentium 266MHz MMX ( socket 7 )
>
>80186 on a WORKING motherboard !
>
>etc..................
>
>
>
>> How are you on memory for the beastie? I keep sets of 4x32MB 72-pin SIMMs
>> around for special occasions.
>>
>
>Not THAT is tempting..... I have many lbs. of 72 pin simms, but had to
>search hard for a couple of matching 32 meg simms to put in that corner.
>
>
>
>> The older Pentium chips, despite running at 3.3v, do not generally
>> dissipate
>> enough heat to require a cooling fan, although many white-box systems of
>> the era
>> have the cooling fan... Ben Myers
>>
>
>
>Yeah. To this day, the hottest CPU I have ever seen is an AMD 233MHz K6.
>Incredible. I'm sure that some of today's CPU's are hotter, ( I have seen
>videos of AMD chips that reach 768°F in seconds when the fan is removed ),
>but that was my *first* experience with a CPU that REQUIRED some type of
>intervention from me with super cooling fans.
>
>Still, that 120/133MHz Pentium just never even gets warm. And that was after
>hours of installing an OS, something that would normally create just a
>little heat. :-)
>
>bob
>