Yes we had Laser computers here in USA, mostly XT, 286 and 386. There were also Leading Technology (PC Partner series) computers that also had some connection to Vtech way back in early 1990's that were 286 thru 486. I have a manual from a Laser Xt/3 and a working PC Partner QE 486 computer in my garage. Most of the old Vtech stuff was made or assembled by Mitsubishi or Daewoo IRCC.

IIRC There were more really cheap Laser computers of various designs - the kind that weren't really compatible with anything and had integrated proprietary software and were sold at department stores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJAdo2cE4pQ

But we also did have the PCs, though I've never seen one in person I did see one on eBay a while back. Maybe the PCs just got thrown out more and the dinky ones survived in attic boxes.

I'd kind of like a Laser XT, the small profile XT they made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0B0hiVqxA

The IBM PC and Apple II compatibles seem to be very nice ... the other ones I hardly knew about.
Never occurred to me that these computers would be linked to VTech, known to me only by my daughters toys 😀
The PCs were very popular in holland. Lucky to have picked one up ... pretty difficult to find.

VTech is still active, if not in the white box market. I was at the World Broadband Forum last week and they had a stand there. They're not really involved in the B2C domain apart from with the toys and DECT stuff, but they are a mid-sized ODM, doing contract manufacturing for other companies, such as telcos/operators. That said, I was there for one of those and didn't see anything compelling at their stand, they seem to have been somewhat eclipsed by far larger mainland China companies.

The only Laser's I remember in Australia were the Apple II clones (laser 128)

I remember seeing Lasers in the mid-to-late 90s as a kid at salvage sales in the midwestern US. I'm not sure if they would have been the XTs or the Apple II clones though, it's been a long time and at the time I was just amazed to see a computer with the keyboard built in, and it was powered by lasers?! Would love to find one nowadays.

Nice 386 system! I like your blog page with its good quality photos.

My first EGA card in the '80s was Laser branded as well, from Vtech. Funny that they went from making computers to making children's toys...

MMaximus wrote:

Nice 386 system! I like your blog page with its good quality photos.

My first EGA card in the '80s was Laser branded as well, from Vtech. Funny that they went from making computers to making children's toys...

That's actually kind of what they started on. They used to make little Pong TV games in the 70s for RadioShack, and their first own-brand products were edutoys.

Working in telecoms I mostly know them nowadays for being one of the few remaining manufacturers of landline handsets.

Does anyone know a little bit about the history of their IBM PC compatible line-up.

The Wikipedia article mentions "VTech then branched out into personal computers, including a series of IBM compatible PCs beginning in 1983, followed by Apple II compatible computers, beginning in 1985, including a model called Laser 128."

However, the only references that I find is

• Laser Compact XT (1988) advertised in 1988 magazines, a semi portable design (https://books.google.be/books?id=ZeQDAAAAMBAJ … ct%20xt&f=false)
• Laser XT (a standard IBM PC clone)
• Laser Turbo XT (a standard IBM PC clone)

Anybody here who has some more info on their early PC line-up ?

I purchased my first PC compatible in 1989. It was a Laser brand 486SX, 25Mhz, 4MB Ram, 100MB hard drive, 1MB video card, MS-DOS 3.1 and Windows 5.0, $1199 with a VGA color monitor. I purchased it from MicroCenter in St. Davids Pennsylvania. Best computer I ever had. My only regret was not paying a little extra for the DX (with the math co-processor). You couldn't kill this thing with a sledge hammer. I upgraded after a few years and gave this to my Dad. He spent many years playing the Aces combat flight simulator games. Eventually it got recycled. I still have the original MicroCenter ad for this computer that I can scan and send if anyone wants it.

Merovign wrote on 2019-10-22, 06:00:

IIRC There were more really cheap Laser computers of various designs - the kind that weren't really compatible with anything and […]
Show full quote

IIRC There were more really cheap Laser computers of various designs - the kind that weren't really compatible with anything and had integrated proprietary software and were sold at department stores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJAdo2cE4pQ

But we also did have the PCs, though I've never seen one in person I did see one on eBay a while back. Maybe the PCs just got thrown out more and the dinky ones survived in attic boxes.

I'd kind of like a Laser XT, the small profile XT they made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0B0hiVqxA

Sorry to bring up an older topic but Laser (Vtech) made some very good machines in the late 80's and early 90's. I would not swap my Laser Xt/3 for any IBM Xt series made machine of same build, no matter what. The motherboards used in the Vtech builds were better than the IBM ones in many ways. Just my opinion but think old IBM is overrated and the clones are underatred.

Horun wrote on 2019-10-22, 02:31:

Yes we had Laser computers here in USA, mostly XT, 286 and 386. There were also Leading Technology (PC Partner series) computers that also had some connection to Vtech way back in early 1990's that were 286 thru 486. I have a manual from a Laser Xt/3 and a working PC Partner QE 486 computer in my garage. Most of the old Vtech stuff was made or assembled by Mitsubishi or Daewoo IRCC.

Hello Horun. Sorry for posting on a slightly older thread but I noticed you commented a few days ago and I'm too new to PM. I recently decided to get back into antique computers when I recently acquired a "PC Partner QE" that is in wonderful shape. As it turns out, your mention of said PC is the only reference I am able to find online outside of a few old PC magazines. I was wondering if you have the manual or any information at all that might be helpful. I have searched the bios string to find that it is an unknown motherboard and I have paged through th99 twice to no avail. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

PCPartner was one of the other brands VTech sold under. A lot of mid 1990s motherboards made by VTech were sold under the PCPartner aegis. Never heard of complete systems before, but not hugely surprised either. Given Google only gives two hits on "PCPartner QE", one of which is this thread, I'd suggest opening it up and IDing components inside. Given the other hit I'd assume it to be a ~1994 486DX33 system, probably with VLB but no VRM.

Willing to wager it's a VTech/PCPartner motherboard, but a few pics would do wonders. Frequently they have a code printed somewhere prominent in a format like:

Printed Wiring Board identification number normally in the form of white marking printed in the form : 35-xxxx-xx-xx

(that's taken from the oldest copy of the FAQ on the oldest version of their support site on archive.org, but it doesn't go back beyond 2000 :'( - even though this line is at least 5 years older)

What information are you looking for?

I do not have the manual to my QE but can take some pictures of the board, etc. I did upgrade it from a DX33 to a DX2-66 back a decade ago or more 🤣. If we could find the manual or a Stasons motherboard link then I could add cpu cache as my cache sockets are empty 🙁

I was looking for jumper settings, upgradeability, cache info etc. Dionb, you hit the nail on the head with the 35-xxxx-xx idea. I had to take out my 3.5 floppy drive but I found it. It's 35-2527-01.

And I found it! Cache info and everything.

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/vtech/strings/486.html

I hope it's ok to post this external link.

Horun, if you could let me know your settings for the 486dx2 anyway that would be rad. Eventually I wanna be able to run Doom at least. And the CPU info is kind of vague.

Thanks a million Dionb and Horun for all your help!

Unfortunately that is not the same board I have. Mine has long version backpanel AT with I/O (serial, parallel etc) . Mine also has 12 - 30 pin SIMM slots and onboard HD and floppy controllers/ports and no PCI. I have looked for years and never found an exact match. Will post some pics after I dig it out. Is under a stack of other stuff....
Edit: OK closer look and yes 35-2527-01 does appear to be the same board. Good Job

My Leading Tech PC Partner EQ. Has extended AT backpanel includes two serial and parallel. 12 -30 pin SIMM slots, a riser with 5 ISA, onboard HD and floppy.
edit: will try to get better pics tomorrow. All the Vtech serial tags are on everything but the sound card an modem so is mostly stock.

Wzrd wrote on 2020-04-16, 03:12:

I was looking for jumper settings, upgradeability, cache info etc. Dionb, you hit the nail on the head with the 35-xxxx-xx idea. […]
Show full quote

I was looking for jumper settings, upgradeability, cache info etc. Dionb, you hit the nail on the head with the 35-xxxx-xx idea. I had to take out my 3.5 floppy drive but I found it. It's 35-2527-01.

And I found it! Cache info and everything.

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/vtech/strings/486.html

I hope it's ok to post this external link.

Horun, if you could let me know your settings for the 486dx2 anyway that would be rad. Eventually I wanna be able to run Doom at least. And the CPU info is kind of vague.

Thanks a million Dionb and Horun for all your help!

😀

DX2 (WT) settings are identical to DX, so for an upgrade from DX33 to DX/2-66 you don't need to change anything. Only difference is the 2x multiplier and that's entirely internal to the CPU.

Edit: if that 486DX33 is onboard you need to set JP6 to 2-3 and JP1 to 1-2, 4-5 and 6-7 to configure the upgrade socket correctly.

Wzrd wrote on 2020-04-16, 03:12:

I was looking for jumper settings, upgradeability, cache info etc. Dionb, you hit the nail on the head with the 35-xxxx-xx idea. I had to take out my 3.5 floppy drive but I found it. It's 35-2527-01.

Thanks ! That does appear to be same board as mine but will have to strip the computer down a bit farther to make sure the jumpers near the IDE port are the same, iirc that is where I found a difference in the past. Cannot find a number on the board without removing the floppies as you said.

dionb wrote on 2020-04-15, 22:30:

Printed Wiring Board identification number normally in the form of white marking printed in the form : 35-xxxx-xx-xx

(that's taken from the oldest copy of the FAQ on the oldest version of their support site on archive.org, but it doesn't go back beyond 2000 :'( - even though this line is at least 5 years older)

Thanks for the tip !