Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ttak
From: ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.zenith
Subject: Re: Zenith 386 Boat Anchors!!
Message-ID: <8550@ur-cc.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jul 90 02:03:20 GMT
References: <169.26a5a941@miavx0.ham.muohio.edu> <8532@ur-cc.UUCP> <5388@milton.u.washington.edu> <price.648774803@vlsiws>
Reply-To: ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi)
Organization: University of Rochester
Lines: 50

In article <price.648774803@vlsiws> price@vlsiws.unl.edu (Chad Price) writes:
>In <5388@milton.u.washington.edu> djo7613@hardy.u.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) writes:
>
>[much deleted]
>>>Is your VGA card (or if its a 31-khz Video Adaptor, its really an EGA card)
>
>>Buzz!  Urban legend.  The very first, original "VGA" cards installed in 
>>Zenith machines were model number Z-449, and they were BIOS-compatible VGA
>>cards that weren't register (hardware) compatible.  Zenith stopped calling
>>them VGA and went to "extended EGA" after awhile, even in the docs.  There
>>was even 
>> a trade-in program 
>
>Thats news to me. I never received any notice & certainly registered and
>would have upgraded given the chance. 
>
>Do you have the address & or phone number for the upgrade ?? I'd like to
>try. (PS I got my Zenith through Univ Colo @ Denver)
>
>>for the replacement, TRUE VGA card, the Z-549
>>(and its close cousin, the Heath HB-550), but that program may have been
>>limited to University campuses.  I've been running Z549 cards for two years

Interesting.... the particular Zenith Z-386 was purchased through Columbia
University in the summer of 1988. It arrived with only 1 Mb of ram (the
system was ordered with a base 2Mb), the second Mb arrived six months later.
At this point in time, we could finally run Windows/386 v. 2.0 (which was
shipped with the machine and was now obsolete! v 2.1 released in October of
1988). Or, should I say, we could install Windows/386 v. 2.0. It would not
run until we upgraded (at a cost of $50 or $100) to Zenith MSDOS 3.3 plus
- which caused all sorts of newfound incompatibilities.

Finally, (Jan. 89) we installed IBM PC-DOS 3.3 ($100) and purchased
the current version of Windows/386 v. 2.1 ($195). At this point in time
we discovered that the 31-khz video adaptor was NOT vga compatible.
The local dealer was useless, the factory direct people weren't much better.
Giving up on Windows/386 v.2.1, we tried installing Windows/286 v. 2.11
this could at least run at 640x480 resolution BUT never properly switched
tasks (to standard applications - the [alt][tab], [alt][esc] sequence 
NEVER worked).

Come, December 1989 the video board was scrapped - a Video 7 1024i replaced
it (true VGA), Windows/286 still didn't task switch... March of 1990,
the machine was replaced with a Swan 386sx clone from Tussey Computer
Products, the 1024i video board was retained. All compatibility problems
miraculously disappeared !

The Zenith *WAS* a boat anchor.

tim