The Rise and Fall of Packard Bell: The King of 90s Computing That Vanished

Comments · 76

• HA

  @HAVACILIK2 · 1 month ago

  PB targeted the segment of the public who considered the PC as just another appliance.

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• MR

  @mrjsv4935 · 1 month ago

  Interesting history of the Packard-Bell. My previous laptop is Packard-Bell EasyNote which I bought in 2013 (I'm in Europe, Finland). Still have it but now my main computer is Acer Aspire laptop, basically the same company as Acer bought Packard-Bell in late 2000's.

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• RE

  @rebeltexan1704 · 4 weeks ago

  I worked for a computer software and hardware repair  shop. We had a contract with them to do warranty repair.  Every Wednesday we received FedEx warranty parts  ( example ...video card,  sound card , modem card , memory...etc ) and I would load them up in this old van and spend the day around Gainesville,  FL doing warranty replacement PC parts for Packard Hell 🤠. I remember having a company BEEPER ....lots of quarters for a pay phone....those were the good old pc war days 🤠

• VA

  @vanprax · 1 month ago

  I was one of those kids who knew how to build computers and out of high school in 95 I worked at a computer shop. I never owned a Packard Bell but I can tell you that many people who brought them to us wanted something better. We used to call them Packard Smell 😅

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• KH

  @khanstitution · 1 month ago

  This was really interesting.  Can you please do one on AST Computers and Zenith (the main company, not just Zenith Data Systems)?

• FO

  @foodflights1408 · 1 month ago

  My second computer (replacing the Apple IIc I had while in college) was a Packard Bell 286 that I bought from Montgomery Ward in 1989. They had one sitting out in front of the entrance to the store (actually, it was a 386, but I couldn't afford that), and I went in and bought it with my Montgomery Ward credit card. It served me well for a short time, but processor power was moving so darn fast that it was basically obsolete as soon as I bought it. In those days, it always seemed like my salary increases could never quite keep up with the processor leaps :)

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• SH

  @ShawnCummings · 1 month ago (edited)

  I had a Packard Smell from Sears.  Loved it at first.

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• GR

  @greggeshelman · 1 month ago

  What I always wondered was how Packard Bell PCs could sell so cheap when they all had proprietary motherboards and other parts? They even had custom combination modem-sound cards. By the time eMachines came along, motherboards and other standard interchangeable parts were really cheap, and doing something like a massive order of someone&apos;s stock board and having them make it even lower cost by leaving off the AGP video card slot because the chipset had built in video, made them cost even less.<br><br>One thing that&apos;s still a legacy of Packard Bell is the different colors for all the connectors on the back. Of course the rest of the industry had to change most of them from the colors PB used, in the PC-99 standard.

• JE

  @JerryJ26 · 1 month ago

  The VAR/Reseller I worked for in the late 90s had one bad experience with a customer who wanted a NetWare 3.12 server and to network their PB computers to it. The project failed as none of them would load the drivers for the NE2000 network cards.<br>Told the customer they had to replace all 10 of their computers in order to complete the project which they rejeected.<br>We were a Compaq shop at the time and never had any issues with them

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• GE

  @GenXMemorieswithBigfriendly · 1 month ago (edited)

  I worked at Circuit City back in the 90s. We referred to them as Packard Smell or Packard Hell. They did often have issues.

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• JO

  @johnaranita · 1 month ago

  My 1st Windows PC was a Packard Bell. &nbsp;I bought it @ the Sears in Pearlridge Mall. &nbsp;The Windows 3.1 felt really limiting.

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• RI

  @rizwanarasheed · 1 month ago

  My first PC was gifted to me for high school graduation. It was a Packard Bell XT. It sucked. Which caused me to learn how to build PCs from parts that i would obtain through FidoNet.

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