Zenith Z386-20

From: Captain Napalm <spc_at_armigeron.com>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:41:17 1997

It was thus said that the Great Christopher Heer once stated:
>
> Captain Napalm sez:
>
> > At an auction this past Saturday, I picked up a Zenith Z386-20 (okay, it
> >might, just might, be 10 years old). It looks to be a decent system, and
> >today is the first day I've been able to play around with it, as I had to
> >scrape up some 72-pin SIMMS for memory.
>
> Wow. 72 pin? Are you certain? In any case, ISTR older Zeniths taking proprietary
> memory.

  Yup. Without any SIMMS, the system just sits there producing vast amounts
of nothing quite fast. With memory installed, I get the bad CMOS error,
then vast amounts of nothing quite fast.

  There are eight banks for memory. I have enough to fill two (2 4M 72 pin
SIMMS from IBM). I don't think the memory is bad. I installed the simms
starting from the wrong end the first time (hard to tell which end to start
filling from). When I started from the other end, I got the error message.
    
> > Upon turning the unit on, I get (if I recall - it doesn't stay very long
> >on the screen):
>
> > Bad CMOS configuration blah blah yada yada
>
> > Then the screen goes blank and the system just sits there, fans spinning.
>
> How long? I mean, how long have you let it wait? If it's mis-configured on the
> hard disk, it could take simply ages to time out.

  Oh, two minutes maybe. Nothing very long.
 
> > I have some questions about the unit I figure I'd through out here before
> >going to alt.folklore.computers.
>
> > 1. It doesn't seem to even look at the keyboard. Do Zeniths use
> > a proprietary keyboard, or is the POST routine not getting past
> > the bad CMOS?
>
> Zeniths were, ISTR, slightly touchy about keyboards, but they didn't have to be
> proprietary. Odds are something else is hanging it.

  Well, keyboards aren't a problem - I have several IBM ones. They set the
standard, after all 8-)
 
> > 2. The computer itself has a daughter board that contains the
> > ROMs, a SmartBattery (DALLAS - DS1260-100 / 9816 / 3V
> > Lithium battery), an Intel 8742 (Universal Peripheral Interface
> > 8-bit Slave uController) and other neat features (the 8 LEDs
> > are a nice touch). The Smart battery can be removed, but I'm
> > wondering if it's a common item and is easily replaced.
>
> Depends on how you define "common" and "easily," but yeah, you should be able to
> find it and replace it. They last a long time, though; I'd resolve the config
> issue before replacing it.

  That is, if I can get it to say something other than bad CMOS.

  -spc (Sigh. Back to work)
Received on Thu Mar 20 1997 - 13:41:17 GMT