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Packard Bell Full-Duplex Driver

Where to Download Packard Bell Drivers

Packard Bell currently sells computers in two dozen countries in Europe, South America, and Africa.  You can download device drivers for Packard Bell products by going to the Packard Bell web site for your country, and then going to the Support section and selecting Downloads.

The remainder of this web page deals with the Packard Bell of 1996, before the company left the North American market.  That Packard Bell is very far removed from the Packard Bell that sold you a computer.

Of historical interest only

In the 1990s, Packard Bell pursued a high-volume strategy in the United States, flooding the market with low-cost computers.  For a time, Packard Bell computers flew off the shelves, as computers buying their first PC were drawn to the irresistibly low price.  Unfortunately, the low cost of Packard Bell computers was achieved by skimping on quality control.  For a while, the company even tried to squeeze out costs by putting used parts in “new” computers.  Facing stiff competition and consumer resistance, Packard Bell pulled out of the US market in 2000.

The brand remains damaged goods in the United States.  In a retrospective article from 2007, PC World magazine fingered the entire Packard Bell lineup from 1986-1996 as the worst personal computers ever sold.  Americans have a much different reaction to the brand than do consumers in Europe, where Packard Bell remains one of the leading computer-makers.  Indeed, Packard Bell was pursued as a takeover target by several computer-makers looking to expand in Europe.  The company eventually ended up as a subsidiary of Acer in 2008.  Acer still ships computers under the Packard Bell brand – but not in North America.

Beyond just low-quality hardware, Packard Bell computers in the 1990s were preloaded with an assortment of cut-down applications and outdated drivers.  One of these outdated drivers was for the sound card.  In the 1990s, Internet telephony was in its infancy.  But telephone calling only works well if the sound card can both record and playback at the same time, a technology known as full-duplex communication.  Several Packard Bell computers shipped with sound cards that were full-duplex capable, but only had half-duplex drivers installed for those cards.  Half-duplex limited you to radio-style communication, where speaking prevented you from hearing the other party.

  • “How do you read?  Over.”
  • “Say again?  Over.”

In 1997, I was running a Packard Bell Platinum X, which had a blazing 150 MHz Pentium processor and a whopping 16 MB of RAM.  This computer had a full-duplex sound card, but the Packard Bell website only offered the half-duplex driver.  I located the full-duplex drivers on the website of the sound card manufacturer – Aztech Labs.  Search engines were in their infancy then, Google was still running on three computers in the Stanford computer science department, and there was just no way that “Packard Bell full-duplex” would turn up a driver on Aztech’s web site.  So I created this page to help out other owners of Packard Bell computers.

As of February 2011, this page is still the fifth result for a Google search on “Packard Bell” – below (1) Packard Bell global (2) Packard Bell Italy (3) Wikipedia, and (4) that PC World article on the worst computers of all time.  Age does contribute to Google search rankings, but also number of in-links.  On many user-to-user help forums, people found it easier to link to this page, with installation instructions included, than to the Packard Bell web page or the Aztech FTP site.

For the next five years or so, this website saw brisk business. Tens of thousands of visits, and dozens of emails from grateful (and long-suffering) Packard Bell owners. Most of it didn’t have anything to do with the need for full-duplex communications. Several people wrote in to say that they’d somehow lost all sound functionality on their computer as a result of some misconfiguration or other – and got it back after downloading the drivers from my webpage.

This page is no longer relevant to current computer owners, but I have decided to leave it up as a artifact from another era – complete with a replica of the dingy-gray Netscape background that computer users had to suffer through in the first years of the web.  The download links no longer work, but I still have copies of the drivers.  If you’re running a computer museum and need a full-duplex driver for a 1990s-era Packard Bell with an Aztech 2316 or 2320 sound card, send me email.

 

Packard Bell Sound Card
Full-Duplex Driver

If you just want to grab the driver(s),

For information:

About these Drivers

The drivers listed above are for the Aztech AZT2316/R chipset. This is the chipset used in the sound cards of most Packard Bell computers. However, Aztech Labs does produce these chips for other purposes.

Originally, this page was created to give information about the full-duplex uses of the driver. All modern Packard Bell computers include full-duplex sound cards that allow you to record and playback audio at the same time. This is crucial for Internet telephone and voice-chat software. However, Packard Bell preinstalls half-duplex sound card drivers on most of its computers.

When I ran into this problem, I got no help from Packard Bell technical support. So, I opened up my computer case and copied down the markings on all the chips on the sound card. One of them said, "Aztech Labs AZT2316/R." I was able to find the company's home page, and voilà! The problem was solved.

I've upgraded to a better computer, and old Packard Bells with this chipset are slowly falling out of use, but I've seen no good reason to take this page down. Occasionally, someone working with old PB's still finds use for this information.

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Other Drivers and Hardware Questions

Many people come here for other Aztech Labs drivers. These two are the most common requests:

Please note -- the installation procedure for these drivers may be somewhat different from those for the standard 2316 Win95 driver. Refer to the README file included inside the ZIP files for more information.

If you're having trouble searching for a Windows 2000 or Windows XP driver for your sound card, you may be able to use Windows NT drivers.

You can also go to Aztech Labs' own drivers page. If that doesn't help, don't hesitate to e-mail me. I normally get back to you within a week. If you're having problems with something other than your sound card, I may also be able to help. No guarantees, but usually I can be of assistance.

Other web sites where you can search for drivers are Driverguide.com and Driverfiles.net. Windrivers.com now requires paid membership, I've never needed to pay for someone to find drivers for me so I don't know if it's worth the money.

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Windows 3.1 Driver Installation Instructions

Unzip the ZIP file in a temporary directory (e.g. "c:\temp") and follow the directions below to install. If you need an unzipper, you can download Info-Zip for free.

  1. From Program Manager, start the Control Panel (usually in the "Main" program group).
  2. Double-click on "Drivers."
  3. Click on "Add."
  4. Select "Unlisted or Updated Driver" and click "OK."
  5. Type in the directory where you unzipped the file (e.g. "c:\temp") and click "OK."
  6. Select one of the drivers and click "OK."
  7. You are prompted to restart Windows. If you have no other drivers to install, do so.
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Windows 95/98 Driver Installation Instructions

Unzip the ZIP file in a temporary directory (e.g. "c:\temp") and follow the directions below to install. If you need an unzipper, you can download Info-Zip for free.

If you already have a sound driver installed (and most people do), you'll first need to REMOVE (not just disable) the existing sound driver. Here's how to do it:

  1. Click the Start button.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Click on Control Panel.
  4. Double-click on System.
  5. Select the Device Manager tab.
  6. Double-click on the section called Sound, Video, and Game Controllers.
  7. Find your sound driver and select it.
  8. Click Remove
  9. Windows will ask you if you want to restart. Don't do this until every sound driver has been removed. If you continue to get your old drivers back every time you reboot, don't reboot at all.
And here's how to install the full-duplex driver.
  1. Click the Start button.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Click on Control Panel.
  4. Double-click on Add New Hardware.
  5. When the wizard pops up, click Next.
  6. You are asked if you want to search for new hardware. Select No, and click Next.
  7. Select the type of hardware: Sound, Video, and Game Controllers and click Next.
  8. You are asked to select the hardware. It is not provided with Windows 95, so click Have Disk.
  9. Type in the directory where you unzipped the file (e.g. "c:\temp") and click OK.
  10. Select the driver you want to install (e.g. "AZT 2316/R Audio Device") and click OK.
  11. Click Next.
  12. You may be greeted with a dialog box that says Windows cannot find azt16.vxd. Don't worry. Just type in the directory of the files (e.g. "c:\temp") and click OK.
  13. You may also get a warning saying that the drivers are older than the ones already on your system. To install the full-duplex drivers, you must ignore the warning and continue with the installation.
  14. Click Finish.
  15. If you want to install more hardware, click No. If you just want to get ahead with your day and reboot, click Yes.

If you would like to install a Gameport Joystick Driver or a driver for MIDI music, repeat these steps. When selecting a driver to install, select the appropriate driver.

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My Position on Packard Bell/NEC "quality".

It has come to my attention that this site is listed on the link pages of several Packard Bell/NEC hate sites. Some people come here expecting to find vitriolic anti-PB sentiment, and e-mail me, puzzled.

So here's my position: I don't hate the company, nor do I love it. They don't make the best computers. The parts are not of the highest quality and the technical support is abysmal. Their tech support can solve simple problems, but anything serious and you're pretty much out of luck.

My personal experience shows this: Packard Bell didn't even include a full-duplex sound driver with my Platinum X, so I had to spend valuable time looking for one. In addition, the hard disk failed after only one year of use! Warranty period over -- they refused to cover it. Contrast this with my experience with IBM. I bought a floor model which lacked some components. When the keyboard turned out to be bad, they sent me a new one. They've also sent me some missing software and a missing noise-cancelling microphone. No haggling -- fast service. The difference is staggering.

I created this page to help other PB/NEC owners in their plight. This is not a Packard Bell/NEC hate page. However, if you run a PB/NEC hate page, feel free to link to my page. I have no problems with that. Owners of PB computers may finally find the solution to their problems on this page. Personally, I'm here to be helpful, not to stir up anti-PB sentiment.

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Disclaimer: All the information on this page is provided AS-IS, with no warranties, whether implied or expressed.

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