Zenith Z180 Series Laptops \ VOGONS

Zenith Z180 Series Laptops

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First post, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-04, 00:34

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Just been out in the shed and under one bench top was this wee beauty. A Zenith Z-180 XT laptop. Model ZWL-183-93. Manufactured in 1987 it came in two versions as far as I can tell. A double 3.5" 720k fdds or one 3.5" 720k fdd and hdd version. I got the later. The fdd bays are designed to pop up when in use which is a nifty feature. It has a number of external ports side and rear. The rear ports are ext. 5.25" fdd, RGB monitor output serial and ltp ports. The side are Line, Tele and a few others with power inlet and on/off switches on the opposing side. Has a built in modem. The hdd has long met its maker and looks like a previous owner has tried to pry the hdd up when the hdd is remove by removing two torx security screws and sliing the hdd from out the rear of the system. It came with two very comprehensive manuals as they did back then and the original MS Dos 3.21 system/boot disc. Getting any info online about Zenith systems is like pulling teeth. Also have the original registration cards as a bonus. Underneath is a bank of dip switches. With these you can select speed(4.77 or 8Mhz), A: drive location(Ext or internal), display width 80 or 40 characters), display type(LCD or CRT), and drive count(1 to 4-can be 3.5"or 5.25"). The back port cover catch is broken so flops about. A bit of fridge magnet and a small piece of steel or velcro will sort that out.

On boot press ESC and eventually you get a prompt to press ? and then press enter. The diagnostic monitor rom will provide you with a whole host of options, one being B 0 then press enter to boot off the fdd. You can enter the Monitor mode ant time by pressing the CTRL-ALT-INS keys at the same time. Once done you are given a few optiosn from the original boot disk. Selecting N puts you at the Dos prompt.

The carry case is currently in the clothes washer for cleaning and yes I did check it was empty before hand retrieving a number of 720k floppies in the process.

This system will compliment my Z286LP Plus quite nicely. That's been solid and I'm sure this will be too looking at the way it is built. I'll hook it up to one of my P166MMX test rigs linux installations for some serial dumb terminal fun

Last edited by Caluser2000 on 2021-05-31, 00:51. Edited 3 times in total.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 1 of 10, by Horun

Posted on 2019-10-04, 00:51

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Really Nice ! Looks nearly brand new.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-04, 04:22

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Yeah it's in pretty good condition. The fairly sturdy well lined carry bag probably helped. Hadn't been fired up for about four years. I've now got a set of torx security screw driver bits now so will find out what's up with the hdd. Wasn't a terribly big investment either irc.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 3 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-04, 21:24

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A bit more tinkering with it. The hdd cover does indeed pop up. I accidentally push in the right area and the cover popped out.

Also at the back were I though was the place to remove the hdd was what looks like an 8-bit ISA expansion slot but it is not document in the books I have. I grabbed out an old 8-bit joy stick card to compare the size and is the same size and pin arrangement. Possibly for diagnostic purposes maybe?

Untill I find out a bit more about it I'll leave it alone to not cause any damage.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 4 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-05, 02:48

Caluser2000 Offline

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Opening up the beast was quite straight forward 2 screws in the rear port bay and 2 in the battery bay. The front portion had some sort of glue across it but that was easy to separate with the finger nail. I suspect there was a 5th screw bottom center front but that was missing. Plenty of cable just the flip the top position over and only one connect heeded to be disconnect which hooked up to the center section containing the leds. Also the battery pack seems to be charging fine. Time to remove the hard drive.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 5 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-05, 04:15

Caluser2000 Offline

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Ok hard drive is out. It's a 3.5" JVC Model JD38224R00-1. Zenith P/N EA4779-003 with a hdd connector I've never seen before. It's well damped with bumpers in all corners and housed in a protective cage. No web search matches.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 6 of 10, by Horun

Posted on 2019-10-07, 05:03

Horun Offline

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found this about the HD: JVC Model JD3824R00-1 20 MB HDD RLL, Model: JD-3824R0S0. Part-No EA4779-003 & EA3251-125, 26-pin Connection for Portable Systems (Toshiba T1200, Epson PX-16, Sharp PC-7200) Tokyo Japan 1987 at https://computer-retro.de/Festplatten.html.
Second one in the picture looks exactly the same but no real data about it.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 7 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-07, 05:20

Caluser2000 Offline

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Horun wrote:
found this about the HD: JVC Model JD3824R00-1 20 MB HDD RLL, Model: JD-3824R0S0. Part-No EA4779-003 & EA3251-125, 26-pin Connection for Portable Systems (Toshiba T1200, Epson PX-16, Sharp PC-7200) Tokyo Japan 1987 at https://computer-retro.de/Festplatten.html.
Second one in the picture looks exactly the same but no real data about it.

Cheers Horun.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 8 of 10, by xjas

Posted on 2019-10-07, 08:22

xjas Offline

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That thing looks impressively clean. I used to have the dual-floppy version but it was trashed (I got it to boot ... once.) Sadly, I gave it away along with a working Tandy 1400LT when I moved quite a few years ago. I love the look of those super early clamshell laptops, straight out of an '80s future catalog.

Props for this one being in such nice shape & working. Does it display CGA graphics modes?

twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!

Reply 9 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2019-10-07, 10:20

Caluser2000 Offline

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xjas wrote:
Props for this one being in such nice shape & working. Does it display CGA graphics modes?

Reading the Video Circuits section of the Owners Manual it states it has a V6355 video controller and supports CGA on the LCD and external CRT.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 10 of 10, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2021-05-31, 00:06

Caluser2000 Offline

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Rank: l33t
Posts: 3672
Joined: 2014-10-21, 05:34
Location: NOO ZEELUND

Just got another one of these beauties. This time a Model ZWL-1183-92 with two fdds. No hard drive.

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There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

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