Packard Bell Legend 230

A few days ago, I went to America's Thrift Store.  At first, I didn't see anything, but I happened to look behind a radio and found...a Packard Bell computer!  I was really excited - not only was this the first Packard Bell I'd seen in that store in over six months, but it was also a model from around 1994.  It appeared to be one of the first ones to use a case style that resembled mid-'90s Packard Bell case styles - around the time they first changed to their "Face of Technology" logo.  I thought that such models might be harder to find these days, and I didn't currently have one in my collection, so it was a must-buy!

The specs of the Legend 230 are as follows:

Processor: 33 MHz i486SX
RAM: 4 MB
HDD: 340 MB Conner CFA340A
Operating System: MS-DOS 6.20 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11

I'm a little uncertain why this computer only has 4 MB of RAM - and the hard drive has a 340 MB storage capacity.  There isn't very much documentation on this computer on the internet, but from what I've found, it apparently is supposed to have 8 MB of RAM and a 212 MB hard drive.  Also, this computer lacks a sound card and CD-ROM drive.  So I'm not sure why mine is a little different.  Who knows?  Maybe someone modified it.  As far as the hard drive is concerned, though, it seems to have the standard Packard Bell software installed, so maybe it is the stock drive (unless someone reinstalled the software on a different dive).

Anyway, when I first brought the computer home, I tried it out, and it apparently didn't boot from the hard drive.  I got the following error messages:

"Diskette drive B failure

Time-of-day not set – run SETUP program

Invalid configuration information – please run SETUP program

Press the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility"

I tried using a Windows 98 boot disk, and it worked just fine.  Later on, I went into setup and found that although I was getting an error message about the Diskette B drive, it wasn't selected.  Also, the hard drive was apparently auto-detected.  I did change the date in setup to the present time, saved the changes, and restarted the computer.  And interestingly enough, after that, I haven't had any problems booting from the hard drive.

I was pleased to learn that this computer still had Packard Bell Navigator installed (not sure what version, but either 1.2 or 2.x) - as well as a Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and DOS setup.  A true piece of classic machinery, this is.  A rather historical model in my opinion since it was one of the first to use the "Face of Technology" logo.  I should also note that this is the only 486 I've obtained so far that appears to be in full working order.  Two of the other 486es I have will boot from the floppy drive but won't recognize the hard drive - and one of them won't even boot from a floppy.  So I am definitely glad to have this computer.