The 10 Worst PCs of All Time: NO # PACKARD BELL

Everything about Packard bell

Research by PCWORLD

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129857/article.html

 

i didnt even know that manufacturer

 

very popular throughout the late 1990s here in australia. i agree 100% with everything PC world says in that article; their machines were pretty terrible.

 

Good thing you don't. They were pretty bad, and that makes you pretty young.

 

Well they're back

 

I'm puzzled by their idea of what a PC is! Coleco Adam? Vic20? I know it's semantics and I know I'm a bit of a pedant at times. but.. surely these are/were classed as Home Computers? PCs were way too expensive for the home market. That's why we ended up with Vic20s, Sinclair Spectrums, ZX81s, Amstrads, Acorn Electrons, Dragon 32/64s etc etc etc.. (ahem sorry .. )

anyway .. can't argue with Packard Bell being number 1 though.. a friend of mine bought one and it was a nightmare to work with, very underpowered for the price and virtually impossible to upgrade too.

 

Ironically my family's first computer was a Packard Bell Legend 486DX2. I played my first PC games during my High School years on that thing. (X-Wing, Dark Forces, Doom) That sucker worked beautifully for 5 years. Before we chucked it for a newer model, we plugged it back in just to see if it even worked... Windows 95 booted back up w/o a hitch. I guess we were the exception to the rule. We were so impressed with our 1st Packard Bell's quality and performance, my parents purchased a 2nd one for their own business.

So it is kind of a shock to me to just now read PC World's summary about Packard Bell's shady business tactics and poor customer service. All the while I was happy as a clam blowing up TIE Fighters and typing high school reports.

 

Yes that Packard Bell is also the most stupid looking PC of all time They are a company that really do lack creativity.

 

Never know that many people are so ballistic about PB and yet some major Taiwanese computer companies still want to acquire the PB company and brand with the hope of consolidating a stronger hold in the European markets.

Seems like a up-hill struggle for whichever Taiwanese company that ultimately owns PB to try to re-gain consumer confidence about the PB brand-name.

Alot needs to be done for PB.

What was the past is the past. Hope that all of you guys out there will give the new PB, under new management, a fresh opportunity.

It's only fair that way.

I am an avid supporter of ThinkPad and will not hesitate to recommend ThinkPad to serious users; yet I will still tolerate a lesser brand like MSI.
My posting on the MSI:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=177517

Let's look forward and not live in the past.


rgds,
Benjamin Chin
11 Oct 07

 

Packard Bell only exited the US. They didnt go out of business.
They're still sold in Europe.

 

My first PC was a Packard Bell. A 486 25Mhz SX with 2MB of RAM and a 40MB HD.

. . .

My god did it suck. It came with no installation CDs/floppies, manuals or anything. My copies of Windows 3.1 (holy s***, I'm old!) was corrupted by default, so I reformatted it to re-install everything, and... oops! No install media. And yes, I did check the HD before formatting, there was nothing on it OS re-installation.

And this was a BRAND NEW MACHINE.

 

PB's exit from US is true.

They're not bust yet but may jolly well be under new owner / management as PB's owner said "... Lenovo and I have indeed signed a MOU granting them exclusivity to purchase Packard Bell once all regulatories and contract obligations are fulfilled," said John Hui.

"The (intended) acquisition signifies Lenovo's determination, commitment, and long-term planning in entering the PC consumer market after it has successful completed its merger with IBM PC," Hui said. "Packard Bell will provide Lenovo a spearhead into Europe and a jump start into the PC consumer market."

For the full story. please click :
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/07/Lenovo-and-Acer-vie-for-Packard-Bell_1.html


rgds,
Benjamin Chin
12 Oct 07

 

my goodness. i've owned 4 of the top 10. wtf.

 

They should have included AST on that list. *shudder*

 

ahahhahaa. AST. i remember them.

 

HAHAHA I've owned (and still have) a Packard Bell... Twas my first computer ever.. I was young (I think I was in grade 5) when we got it.... $2500 CDN for 100mhz, 1 gb hd, 8mb EDO ram, 14.4k modem.... the list goes on LOL... over priced, slow, but amazing the thing still runs to this day LOL

 

Bad timing is right about. ... #9. New Internet Computer (2000)

They probably could have pulled that off today or in the last 6 years, being that everyone is using high speed and is always online now.


As for the rest of the PCs, They should also win the Ugliest PC title.

 

Is Packard Bell is NEC rebadged?

 

At least for notebooks. Even though I don't think either one is the actual ODM.

Furthermore, as far as I am concerned, the notion of a company having bad hardware or service is relevant for about a year or so. Things change so fast in this industry that anything else is just bogus.

 

I've head the worst experience with a Packard Bell laptop a couple of years ago. Brand new bought from the shop, things were ok for a few weeks when ... the heating problem came. That laptop got so hot you could barely keep your hand on it. I took it to repairs (within the warranty period) twice - changed processor, changed heat-sink, and changed the dvd-rom drive in the second run... nothing got better. The laptop was just flawed in its design. Writing to them did nothing... no response. To preserve looks they underestimated the heat coming from the Amd Athlon processor and everything became a fiasco. Since then I've lost my faith in everything signed Packard Bell.

 

Not sure about the whole rebranding thing PB is alleged to have done (it's probably true), but it's interesting to hear that a lot of our first PCs were PBs. Same here. Our family purchased our very first computer (pre installed with Windows 95) back in the mid 90s and it was also a PB. It's disheartening to hear them say that PB packaged "used" parts in their computers. I personally thought our PB performed well given the time and circumstances. Sure, it was slow as hell to boot up, but the specs sucked anyway. I do remember it coming with a TON of software CDs including Windows 95 software discs and the whole kit n kaboodle.

I'm glad PB is still around, albeit not in the US anymore. I'd consider buying another PB just to see how it is now compared to 12 years ago. Honestly, their "limited edition" laptops don't look half bad and I'd take em over a lot of the other choices here.

 

Well, i have an easynote mv86-003 laptop which is now 10 months old and i think it's pretty good. It doesn't overheat since it survived a full day of downloading in the summer and 3 hours of crysis. there are a few problems, but very minor considering that it almost always sits on the desk: - the HDD lid is a little creacky and moving
- The case creaks, but very little, but it's still pretty rigid so it doesn't buckle.

And besides, i think PB is the 3rd computer company in Europe. They're very popular. I doubt they would be so popular if they were that bad, atleast the new models.

 

HELLO TO THIS FORUM. IM RELATIVELY NEW TO COMPUTERS, ALMOST BRAND NEW TO LAPTOPS. I BOUGHT A SECOND HAND PACKARD BELL VX. THE SCREEN IS BRIGHT, THE BATTERY HOLDS A CHARGE ETC. HOWEVER I DO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT. THE DVD DRIVE D IS JAMMED CLOSED
IVE TRIED OPENING IT WITH A PAPER CLIP POKED IN THE RELEVANT HOLE, WITHOUT SUCCESS. I CAN HEAR THE DRIVE "ATTEMPTING" TO OPEN. ANY SUGGESTIONS? WHY AND HOW DO DRIVES JAM AT ALL? IS THIS A PROBLEM I COULD MAY FIX MYSELF (IF I KNEW HOW) ANY HELP WOULD BE WELCOME.

welder

 

OK, I have a Packard Bell Vx laptop and I also have a desktop computer. Im new on this entire subject (you probably guessed) but Im enthusiastic.
HOW do I link the PB to the HP so as to have a network. Would both benefit from the other?
Hope someone will advise
Sincerely

welder

 

Welder,

Please make a new thread for your question. Also, in the new thread, make sure you provide plenty of info(OS, models, Router, Modem etc).

-kdawgca
NBR Mod

 

wHAT THE CRAP?

The worst pc of all time belongs to the recently made AOL pc!

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1865659,00.asp

 

BWAHAHAHAHA! Packard Hell, I mean Bell.

Yeah, my family and I suffered through two of those unholy monsters.

The first one was a pathetic, underpowered, unreliable piece of trash that cost us $1199.99 If I remember correctly...it had a 100 mhz Pentium, 32 mb of RAM, 1 gig hard drive, 14.4 modem, 13 inch CRT, Windows 95, etc. (not all specs are correct, I'm going by memory on an 11 year old computer...but those are insanely close. I know the processor and hard drive are correct.)

It wouldn't connect to the internet, no matter how hard we tried. We called the ISP, they said it needed to be configured to run, so we took it, come to find out that they had to work on the actual hardware to get it to work, not software based, like we had originally thought.

The hard drive ended up dying, and we took it in for repairs, then it needed to go back to the ISP again, this time it worked, come to find out..PB sent the PC out with a used drive that was dying from the getgo, it was only a matter of time before it would've crapped out altogether on us.

So, once the PC was fixed up, working as it was supposed to, we then returned it to the store (were within the 90 day return policy then.) and the salesman said "I knew you'd be back. We've had every single one returned."

The second one was given to me by my uncle. It too was underpowered, a joke and a half...but it actually ran. Other than overheating a couple of times, it was reliable enough to surf the web, send emails, etc. I gave it away.

I owned an AST...heh. Wal-Mart got that sucker back in less than 5 days. If had to be formatted twice...just to watch a VCD (anyone remember being able to buy Dumb & Dumber, Mortal Kombat and others from Electronics Boutique in a VCD 2-pack for like $10.00? Yeah..we thought we were cutting edge then, eh?)

I finally suffered through with a home brew, bought an eMachine (which is still running solid) and now my Toshiba Satellite. Took me a decade and change, but I finally got a PC with some oomph in it.

lol

Packard Bell...I laugh at thee.

 

I don't know about the worst, but the do have all kinds of problems.

 

Though my first computers were Atari 400's, xe's, ST's, and Amigas, my first PC was a Legend 60 Packard Bell. Pentium 60, 8 MB, 540 MB drive, 14.4. This would have probably been around the 1994-95 timeframe. The computer, 15" monitor, and an HP DeskJet 550C came to about $3000. I upgraded this unit's motherboard to a P-200 system maxed out at 64 MB (the motherboard was made by Intel and the newer generation was available to purchase), and later I also purchased the P-200 tower model of the same PC. I had many of my friends and quite a few businesses purchase the same or very similar model Packard Bells. I am somewhat surprised at the low ranking because I never had a lick of problems out of any of them (I was the "pc nut" servicing, maintaining, and performing upgrades for everyone). Though I don't actually have them in service anymore, I still have both of mine in the basement on a shelf. Both still run Win98SE. I actually plugged in the tower a few months ago for ya-yas and it booted up just fine. Was funny seeing the old Win98SE bootup screen. In the day, I actually appreciated their white with gray trim design...especially the tower which was pretty cool looking, IMHO. Certainly more appealing than some other computers, even some of the current models!

Ah...nostalgia...thanks for the memories Packard Bell...you served me well! (I had 582 kills in a single online session of Descent II with one of these puppies! )

Interesting Tidbit: Packard Bell was perhaps the first with the idea of customized pc cases. For the desktop case at least, you could purchase a kit that came with the gray trim pieces in four different colors. I prefered the gray, but a few of my friends bought the kits and shared the different colors amoung themselves.

 

Old PB with saudered RAM!

Oh times do change!

 

our PB just died 2 months ago with win 95 i unno the specs it was my grandparents and they owned it 12 years so it was a good pc and it cost 2000 lol they just played solitare and stuff after they stoped useing dial up 3 years ago

 

Wow, computers have gone a long way.

 

Wow,

My old packard bell is bigger then a tank xD

Still running perfectly after 10 years