Packard Bell Navigator

For 86Box I used the Packard Bell PB410A as the motherboard which comes with an onboard video card (Headland) and uses an Intel 486 class processor.

Running the recovery application, you may have to specific a NEC drive in order for the recovery to work. As this motherboard only has one IDE channel, the CD-ROM drive was placed as a slave drive. Its likely Packard Bell had used one of the propriety CD-ROM interface that were commonly used from around this era. Panasonic, Sony, Philips and Mitsumi all used their own CD-ROM interface as opposed to IDE.

First hurdle we get to the hard disk recovery key, this is a six digit number that identifies the SKU model of the computer, and dictates which software will be restored along with the needed drivers. 555251 was the one I had used, but you can find a list of them on the CD-ROM drive itself. Simply navigate to the BU\A\ directory where you will find a list of SCR files with the number titled in the file name. These can also be opened in notepad or any text editor and will list the files that will be restored.
One caution is to ensure the video card being used matches what you are emulating, a Cirrus Logic driver wont go very far on a VM running a Headland video card. The soundcard driver will also throw up an error as no emulator currently support the soundcard that Packard bell had used, but we can easily uninstall it and add our own, though some soundcard utilities will no longer function.

Looks like its expecting to use a Panasonic CD-ROM drive, likely a Matshuita CD interface drive.

Sound card error, not much we can do about that

The Packard Bell Navigator which was an alternative user interface to make it more appealing to use a computer for the novice user. It serves as an alternative launcher to install applications, though the Windows 3.1 interface is still included and can be accessed via a dedicated option on the main menu. Launching an application will run it in the standard Windows 3.1 interface.

There were many attempts to make computers more user friendly by incorporating a dumbed down user interface, one that comes to mind was RM Window Box which was a user interface targeted towards primary school users, and allows teachers to manage the programs installed on the computer whilst restricting access to the Windows system for the students.

The Program Manager with a customised preset design, showcasing the preinstalled applications.

The Headland utility for changing the screen resolution and the colour palette.

Included software

From Packard Bell

Tutorial: Gives an in-depth insight into how your computer operates, its expansion options, and how to use the software.

Support: A simple application that shows how to contact Packard Bell for support, how to connect to their BBS and warranty information.

Disk Image: Creates a recovery disc image

Navigator: Starts the Packard Bell Navigator environment

The Microsoft Entertainment pack

A selection of additional games which included Rodent, Go Figure, Tut’s Tomb and Tic Tac Drop.

There is also a Jurassic Park that comes with the install and is located under the Entertainment pack program group.

Microsoft Applications

MS Works: Versions 2.0 Multimedia Edition, software suite that included several applications, including a word processor, spreadsheet, database, calendar, and communications tools. It was intended to be a comprehensive solution for basic office tasks, suitable for home and small business use. The word processor included in Microsoft Works 2.0 had a range of basic formatting options, such as font selection, text alignment, and line spacing. The spreadsheet application supported basic formulas and functions and could create charts and graphs. The database application allowed users to create and manage simple databases, while the calendar application provided basic scheduling features.

MS Money: Version 2.0a, a personal finance software program developed by Microsoft Corporation and released in 1992 as a successor to the original Microsoft Money. It was designed to help users manage their personal finances by tracking income and expenses, creating budgets, and analysing financial data. The software included several features to help users manage their finances, including checkbook balancing, bill payment tracking, and investment tracking. It also included a range of tools for creating reports and charts to help users visualize their financial data.

Productivity Pack: A tutorial to using the mouse and keyboard and elements of using Windows 3.1

Multimedia Applications

Macromedia Action! 2.5: This was an early competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint and allowed for presentations that incorporated multimedia elements
PBTV: Allows for video capture form an external analog capture card or device.
Authorware Star: Authorware Star was a software program developed by Macromedia, which was a multimedia authoring tool used for creating interactive learning content. The software was widely used for creating educational and training materials, especially in the early days of e-learning. One of the key features of Authorware Star was its ability to create branching scenarios, where learners could choose different paths through the content depending on their responses to questions or interactions. This made it possible to create personalized learning experiences that were tailored to the needs and preferences of individual learners.

Other software that is included but requires a separate CD-ROM to run: Mavis Beacon,US Atlas, Music Box, Encyclopedia.

Upgrades

Lets see that the upgrade experience was like, as this motherboard came with a 486 processor we should be able to upgrade to Windows 98 and later 98.
Windows 2000 & ME will require a processor upgrade, perhaps to the Pentium Overdirve which would have fitted into the existing CPU socket, though the experance will be rough as were still using the same video card. Memory will also have to be upgraded.

Windows 95

Install appeared to go smoothly with most of the settings being carried over. This was done using the floppy disk version of Windows 95 as the VM lacked CD-ROM support.

A message indicating for us to power off our computer appears on startup, likely a remaint from

Some compatibility issues with the Packard Bell Navigator with the background elements missing, Most of the other applications appear to be fine

And the Program Manager which can still be accessed from Windows 95

Windows 98

Now that its running 95, lets try to install 98. For this we have to bump up the memory to around 16MB at a minimum, instead I maxed it out to 36MB which is the most the motherboard supports. Initially it appears we need a faster CPU to install Windows 98, With 86Box we have an option to use an AMD486 running at 75Mhz which should allow for 98 to install. How well it runs is another issue.

Also the 98 upgrade installer looks a lot better? It makes a change from the electric blue background of the OEM/Retail installer.

Packard Bell navigator appears to work better in this version.

Windows 2000 & ME

Was not able to install as our CPU isn’t fast enough as I was running a AMD 486 at 75MHz and Windows ME needs at least 150MHz. I tried a Cyrix 5×86 at 133Mhz on the off chance it might work, but no luck.

Windows 2000 was more promising and gave us a report of the potential incompatibilities, including the Headland video card. Unfortunate I was unable to progress due to the lack of hard disk space as this motherboard can only address around 518MB due to being reliant on the old C/H/S system. It seems Windows 98 is the max we can take this install to.

Maybe using a SCSI hard disk could get around that issue.

A mid-range OEM system released in 1996, when Windows 95 was beginning to hit its stride, and another system we can (mostly) recreate in 86Box

Full Specifications here

The S3 ViRGE is supported on 86Box, albeit a slightly different variant that the Packard bell had used, possibly an OEM exclusive model. The SoundCard differs, using the Aztech 2316R, whilst 86Box is able to emulate the Aztech SoundGalaxy Washington instead, being the closest match.

Install

A floppy disk was required to initiate the installation, since the CD was not bootable, despite the motherboard BIOS supporting CD-ROM booting. Once started, a recovery version of Windows 95 started up, and we were presented with the Packard Bell recovery screen where we were given a list of a few options:
Restore the original boot files
Re-Install the Packard bell software
Re-Install the Windows 95 operating system

The only option that worked was the Windows 95 recovery since our virtual machine had currently lacked a formatted drive.
When starting the OS recovery process, we were prompted to enter the system serial number to identify the system that we were running on. Since we did not have this to hand, we were able to bypass this by entering a series of random numbers. A warning message popped up regarding the number not being recognized but offered to install anyway.
The recovery process then started, with a Windows 3.11 looking dialog box appearing to transfer various files to the hard drive.

Setup

After the file had finished copying over, the computer rebooted and started the Windows 95 setup utility, which looked the same as a generic install. You will be prompted to enter an OEM serial key, so be sure to have one when installing.
Once again the system reboots and performs the device detection process.

USB Support?
The motherboard BIOS has references to USB support, but this seems to randomly appear and disappear when entering setup, possibly an issue with the emulation?
I’m not sure if the actual system even had onboard USB ports or if they were even functional, this was early 1996 when the motherboard was designed.

Additional drivers
S3 Drivers

This serves as a replacement shell for Windows and as a way for novice users to navigate their system. From here you can open various applications that were bundled with the system itself, and add future applications that have yet to be installed.
Some of these programs require their own CD-ROM to be inserted, as only the minimal install files have been installed, and many were intended to be run off the CD-ROM to conserve disk space.

Navigator (Packard Bell, Not Netscape) uses a house metaphor to present the interface to the user, which was intended for novice users and was exclusive to Packard Bell computers of the era. Some other OEMs also provided their own interface such as Sony with the VAIO Space, which offered a 3D-like user navigation interface for advanced users.

You can see there are a few custom icons for launching the applications, with the facility to install more. Packard Bell presumably sold additional software packages that were navigator friendly and included icon art that suited the navigator interface, and would automatically add themselves to the software room

Also to note was Navigator only runs in 640×480 resolution, when running the desktop at 800×600, Navigator retains its default resolution, personally I prefer it like that since it lets you quickly jump back to the desktop, although it does break the immersion of the Navigator interface.

Bundled Software

The example start menu items, organized by Packard Bell

Microsoft Works & Money

These two were very commonly bundled with OEM system bundles and serves as basic productivity suites for Office and accounting respectively.

Quicken

Some sort of finance application that helps you keep control of your accounts. Bills and monthly payments, it’s a bit redundant considering Microsoft Money is installed, based on what I’ve seen so far.

Macromedia Action!

It’s like Microsoft PowerPoint where you can create and showcase sideshows, although it has no compatibility with PPT files. There are a few premade templates available to choose from. Files are saved in either the Act format or (Player) ACP or (Stationery) STA.
There is an option to export the presentation to an external VCR, this would involve connecting the VGA output, or composite if the graphics card supported it to the VCR to record from. This is known as Print To Video.

Microsoft Word Viewer

For viewing Microsoft Word DOC document format, you would think Microsoft Works would be able to handle this format (It does, but I’m not sure if its fully compatible with certain features/formatting)

Microsoft Entertainment Pack

A few selections of games are included from the Best Of Entertainment pack, this is fairly common to be included in Packard Bell’s prebuilt systems. Skifree, Rodent Revenge and JigSawed are common games included here.

Call Center

Looks to be some sort of modem/phone line dialer to make phone calls through your PC. Could also be used to contact Packard Bell support.

Stick Ups Lite

It’s the MacOS sticky notes but for Windows, you can create various sticky notes to help remind you of upcoming tasks and reminders. You can customize the colour of the note itself and the font/style of writing. This is kind of a good addition as its rather useful, and Microsoft wouldn’t bundle something like this in Windows until Windows Vista as one of the widgets gadgets, although a few third-party applications included similar functionality

Conclusion

Packard Bell was one of the few hardware OEM systems builders to make their systems unique from both a hardware and software perspective, despite the restrictions Microsoft had enforced following the use of alternative shells post Windows 95, however, Packard Bells’ bundled applications help give off a certain personality with the system being aimed for family and novice users.

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A Packard Bell Windows 3.1 install