First post, by yawetaG
As mentioned in the recent purchases thread, I bought a small Japanese PC on Yahoo Auctions Japan through a middleman service about two months back, which I received just yesterday. This is the result of a search for a system that would let me assess whether using a Japanese PC with a Japanese version of Windows or MS-DOS is feasible with next-to-no knowledge of the Japanese language, so maybe I can buy myself a PC-98 system later on. However, I also wanted a system that I could use with a US version of Windows if necessary, that was small enough because I haven't got much room in my house (and I also wanted to avoid a HUGE shipping bill), had a 100V/220V switch on the power supply, and that was a certain age.
Auction picture:
This is an Epson Endeavor AT-550L, more precisely a computer sold by Seiko Epson through their early online mail order division Epson Direct back in 1998 (first announced in January 1998).
Actually identifying the system took me a lot of time, as the type information is not mentioned anywhere on the case and the seller also had no clue. Only a model number was provided on a sticker on the back, a model number that was not mentioned in its entirety anywhere on the web. What did help though was the knowledge that it was sold via Epson's online mail order division, Epson Direct. After a lot of Googling, compiling a list of Epson system abbreviations (there's about a dozen), and then simply trying many different combinations, I came across a page for the later AMD K6 equipped version (AT-550LK), and from there managed to find the correct type number. However, even with that information I was not able to source a manual, but I did discover that Epson Japan still had all of the drivers available on their website. More on that later.
First, some better pictures of the outside.
Front, showing floppy disk drive and slimline CD drive:
Several connectors are hidden behind a little panel (unfortunately one of the hinges is a bit busted):
Audio output and microphone connectors and two USB ports. The black square above it is for infrared. Also an Intel Inside Pentium sticker and a Windows 95/NT sticker. The system should have a Japanese Windows 98 on the HDD, though.
Rear end:
From left to right and top to bottom, switchable NLX power supply, Dell slot cover that probably means the system originally came with a optional VGA card that was removed and stuffed into a Dell, 56k PCI fax-modem (probably not a Winmodem) in the lower slot, game/MIDI port, VGA port, 10/100 Mbit 10Base-T network port + LEDs, PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, parallel and COM ports.
Specs according to auction and what I managed to track down of what should be hiding inside:
- Pentium 200 MMX
- 96 Mb RAM
- 3 Gb hard disk with Japanese Windows 98
- SiS chipset with onboard VGA, onboard Yamaha YMF-714 FM sound card and onboard NIC
- Riser card with 2x PCI and 1x ISA (shared)
Furthermore, according to http://radioc.web.fc2.com/weblib/y2k/epson/y2ktaio.htm the machine is Y2K compliant. At this point the rest of it was still a little mysterious.