I forgot to mention that the onboard video card isn't working properly so I had to make do with a weak ISA card (the only one I can seem to find).

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The rest of the stats are:
DX33 Intel CPU
4MB of RAM
The pictured ET4000AX
Generic 1.44MB floppy drive
425MB IDE HDD (didn't work with this system though).
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Looks like the onboard video isn't working properly because some of the traces are corroded all to hell and it also doesn't have any video memory. You might wanna fix the corrosion before it gets any worse...

I'm thinking that the configuration utility for those machines might be on a floppy disk, similar to the old Compaqs. If that's the case, good luck finding said disk.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm in the process of cleaning up the board, and hunting for that ZDS configuration disk. I did have the video memory in it, but pulled it due to it not working anyway.

No major loss if I can't get it to work, this is strictly a nostalgia build.

I second the corrosion issue is the most important thing to solve at first. If you leave the stuff on it (can't tell from the pics, it's 8am here 🤣 ), it might continue to corrode and put your board out of business for good, which would be a real shame.

I did finally find the config utility for this machine in a driver download site. Now the only trick left is to get it to auto-recognize the 425.3 MB HDD (which it won't for some reason) or find a HDD that actually works.
Thanks for the help.

The video card you added, is NOT weak by any stretch of the imagination, it is in fact probably THE FASTEST DOS 2d video card. (if its a 4000) That card will beat a lot of pci based cards!

Have you tried adding another hard drive card?

luckybob wrote:

The video card you added, is NOT weak by any stretch of the imagination, it is in fact probably THE FASTEST DOS 2d video card. (if its a 4000) That card will beat a lot of pci based cards!

Have you tried adding another hard drive card?

I was kinda exaggerating how weak the card was because of my frusteration with my lack of ISA cards (dispite how many my family used to have before we got rid of a TON (not a literal ton, but pretty close) of old computer parts to make room for a new machine. But I didn't know how powerful this card is, so thank you for enlightening me, I'll be sure to continue to take good care of it.

By the way, it does in fact say "ET4000" on the big chip in the middle of the card, so I'm pretty sure it's the one you are referencing.

As far as adding a HDD card, I only have one card so far and I didn't have any luck with it before but I'm going to give it another try now that I have the configuration utility. It'll give me something to do while i wait for my gravis ultrasound and MT-32 to show up. 😁

I dug this computer back out and tried again to get it to work... started to install DOS but freezes up every time after a few mins.
I believe that the issue at hand is what Old Thrashbarg pointed out. What do you guys use to remove corrosion?

nemesis wrote on 2011-08-12, 01:44:

I did finally find the config utility for this machine in a driver download site. Now the only trick left is to get it to auto-recognize the 425.3 MB HDD (which it won't for some reason) or find a HDD that actually works.
Thanks for the help.

I realize this thread is old, but I'm hoping I can get ahold of this "Confg Utility"? 😀

I managed to get my Z-425SX+ to boot without a battery after cleaning it up. The floppy drive threw a spark though, so I removed it.

I've been searching for a while to try and find anything on this computer, and there's hardly any results on the various search engines. I found a French Boot disk -- which says it's for configurating the BIOS, but I'm not sure if it's for this system.

I can get into this screen right now:

MCGA wrote on 2021-03-04, 01:45:

I realize this thread is old, but I'm hoping I can get ahold of this "Confg Utility"? :) […]
Show full quote

nemesis wrote on 2011-08-12, 01:44:

I did finally find the config utility for this machine in a driver download site. Now the only trick left is to get it to auto-recognize the 425.3 MB HDD (which it won't for some reason) or find a HDD that actually works.
Thanks for the help.

I realize this thread is old, but I'm hoping I can get ahold of this "Confg Utility"? 😀

I managed to get my Z-425SX+ to boot without a battery after cleaning it up. The floppy drive threw a spark though, so I removed it.

I've been searching for a while to try and find anything on this computer, and there's hardly any results on the various search engines. I found a French Boot disk -- which says it's for configurating the BIOS, but I'm not sure if it's for this system.

I can get into this screen right now:

Probably this one

NOTE: I see one comment which says the floppy label must be SYSTEMCFG to work properly.

"Zenith Z-400+ Series utility to set up Hard Drive parameters, floppy drive type and many settings that would be in a normal on-board BIOS. This utility is the only way you can set up a Z-400, especially if it has a dead CMOS battery. Replace the battery. Use WinRAR to unpack the .EXE file. Copy the file into a folder or directory and type 3344-1u.exe. The file will unpack itself in the directory. Copy the files to a floppy disk. Make the disk bootable or use a regular DOS boot disk first. Then, insert the Zenith Utility disk. From the files list, run CF.EXE. The Hard drive parameters should be automatically set by the program. Select your settings for your machine. The program will save the new config to the floppy and to nvram on the computer. Restart. It should boot with the drive now. Enjoy! Note: Confirmed to work on a ZU-425S 486 Desktop"

Thank you very much! This is very helpful. 😀

Now I just need to see if any of my floppy drives are working, until the other GOTEK gets here.

It's perhaps late but I own a Z-425/SX that I bought new so I have the French User guide and the original floppy.
For the moment, the PSU seems dead (It was working 3 years ago)...

If you need some information (PSU Pinout, IRQ table, error message codes...) I can scan some part of the documentation (but it's in french)

I've upgraded mine with a DX4ODPR100, 40Mo RAM, 1Mo Video RAM