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Packard bell PB450 repair / mods / upgrade

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Reply 160 of 189, by ahtoh

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No, I just happen to have it in my config.sys and it hangs on the boot.
EMM386 works just fine. TLBMM is a bit better because it works in real mode, not a big deal.
Most importantly I can now have both PAS16 and WB chip working.

Reply 161 of 189, by bjwil1991

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I get the EMM386 not running error on mine. Do I need to add the I=E000-F2FF in the config.sys?

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Reply 162 of 189, by ahtoh

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you can add that
it will make more upper memory available

Reply 163 of 189, by bjwil1991

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I figured out what happened. Apparently, the config.sys file changed the path for the EMM386 from DOS to Windows, which is why it gave me that error message in the first place. All is well.

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Reply 164 of 189, by 9646gt

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bjwil1991 wrote:

I figured out what happened. Apparently, the config.sys file changed the path for the EMM386 from DOS to Windows, which is why it gave me that error message in the first place. All is well.

I can't send PMs yet, but I am curious if you ever situated your cache upgrade? I ordered basically the same chips you are using except for the main cache chips I got 20ns versions per the guide I was reading instead of 15ns. But like you, I could basically only find that AT&T chip like you bought as it was the easiest to find 64kx1 chip that was labeled as SRAM and didn't know if that SRAM designation was a requirement as I have never dealt with cache upgrades.

My parts haven't arrived yet and my 320mb hard drive died in my Packard Bell Legend 10CD so I bought a brand new Western Digital 420mb had and waiting on all the parts to arrive. Also bought 32mb (16x2) Simms and a 486dx2 66Mhz CPU. Just curious if you ever got it sorted because I really want to do the cache upgrade 😀

Reply 165 of 189, by bjwil1991

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Not yet. It could be because the RAM that's installed in my machine is EDO and not FPM, but, the same latency it supports. I'm planning on buying 16MB SIMM-72 FPM 70ns RAM and install the L2 cache. It could be possible that I have the parity portion disabled on the motherboard since the RAM that's installed in it is parity RAM.

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Reply 166 of 189, by 9646gt

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Thanks for getting back to me. I went with non EDO RAM as the documentation I found for the PB450 says it doesn't support EDO RAM and the machine did refuse to boot when I tried some I had laying around. I'll let you know how my effort goes when I get all the parts!

Reply 167 of 189, by bjwil1991

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Good news for my Packard Bell:

1) Finally got my Pack-Mate 28 Plus (PB450) system to accept the L2 cache (128KB, 4x 32Kx8 12ns, 1x 32Kx8 15ns 28 pin, and 1x 64Kx1 15ns 22 pin) and it boots without issues.
2) Got an NOS Evergreen 586 from Amazon in the mail, set the L1 cache from WT to WB, and the system works with the CPU.

I also wrote the Evergreen Diagnostics diskette image to a diskette, and got these results:
39682 - Intel i486 DX4-100 OverDrive 16KB WT cache
56818 - Evergreen 586 (AM5x86-P75) 16KB WB cache enabled
My main concern was the CPU fan. Good thing I kept a fan handy and it's held in with electrical tape temporarily until I find screws to put through the fan to the heatsink.

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Reply 168 of 189, by Thermalwrong

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That's brilliant 😀
What did you use for the 64kx1 cache chip? Did it require doing anything differently? Mine still won't boot with the cache fitted or won't recognise it.

Reply 169 of 189, by bjwil1991

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This is the module I used: AT&T ATT7C187P-15 64Kx1 15ns 22-pin. I bought new IDT SRAM chips from Digikey (both 12ns and 15ns 28 pin 32Kx8). It's something, however, I'm planning on purchasing 1Mb (128Kx8) SRAM chips from eBay so I can have 512KB L2 cache installed. Also, my other plan is to upgrade the video memory from 1MB to 2MB as well. Currently, the system is faster than before and I need to do a benchmark test with Doom to see how it performs.

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Reply 170 of 189, by bjwil1991

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Did a Doom benchmark before changing the CPU and it was still a bit sluggish, however, I got the 512KB L2 cache chips and the video RAM in the mail since yesterday and today and will install them to see how well it works.

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Reply 171 of 189, by Aegisknight

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Hi. I picked up a PB system last week and found that it had the PB450, then found this post. I've read from page 1 and this has been very helpful. Wanted to say thank you for the information. Was also curious as to how that 512KB turned out with testing.

Reply 172 of 189, by bjwil1991

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When I ran the NSSI software with my Evergreen 586 running the full 133MHz and 16KB L1 WB cache, it's close to the speed of the 5x86-P75 processor by a mere millimeter:

sJb5h5i.jpg

All in all, not bad of a system. I recommend updating the BIOS to the Micro Firmware 4.05.10

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Reply 173 of 189, by Aegisknight

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I've ordered the parts for the 3.3v upgrade for the dx4-100, thanks for posting the shopping list on that! Could I trouble someone on here as to the part numbers or a shopping list for the 512k cache set? Mine has 0 cache chips and while I can do the work to put them in, I'm an idiot when trying to find things like cache chips.

Reply 174 of 189, by bjwil1991

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Check here for the cache chips: Packard bell PB450 repair / mods / upgrade

The 64Kx1 is a 22-pin 15ns PDIP. However, those are hard to find these days.

The first 4 require 20ns or lower, and the last 2 (28 pin and 22 pin) are 15ns or less (must match).

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Reply 175 of 189, by Aegisknight

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Again I'm an idiot on these things. Didn't realize that was your post with the 128 x 8 for the 512k set.

Am looking at the following for the chips, could you verify that these are the right numbers please
https://www.ebay.com/itm/QTY-5-IS61C10 ... 8027!US!-1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ATT7C187P15-S ... SwYahbmoYG

and using the provided link of: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/idt … 3674-ND/2011023

Reply 176 of 189, by bjwil1991

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The first link, those aren't correct, even though the size is right, except for the pins. You would want something like this:

ISSI IS61C1024-15N DIP-32 <-- bought 4 of these brand new and they work extremely well.
Also, the 15ns TAG0 chip should be 15ns. https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/idt … 3675-ND/2011041

However, for the link you provided, you can add those to the first 4 banks under the ISA riser card without issues. Double the quantity just in case you break a pin off when adjusting them to fit into the slots and the little notches on top of the chips must match the orientation on the socket itself. Good luck and have fun.

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Reply 177 of 189, by Aegisknight

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Loaded win95 on a spare 3.2GB hard drive, surprised all the drivers were installed. Tried diablo 1 and shivers 2, both run poorly with the 2x cd drive and 66mhz cpu.

The parts for the dx4-100 came in, installed them and switched jumpers, and yeah! it works! Curious if you tried diablo 1 with the cache, I'm still waiting on mine to come in, and am interested if it would make that game smoother. The dx4-100 doesn't seem to be the bottleneck and plays about the same as the dx2-66, but maybe some of the code really was optimized for pentium.

I know it's an old game, and GOG has released a win10 friendly edition, but back then, I wanted soo badly for my 1st pc to play it, and now it does...kinda.

Anywho, thanks again!

Reply 178 of 189, by bjwil1991

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I hate to reopen the thread that's been here for 1 year, but I have a CL-GD5429-86QC-B chip and is that pin compatible with the PB450 board? I need further info prior to soldering it on.

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Reply 179 of 189, by ahtoh

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Yes it does