Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsd!nprdc!malloy
From: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Zeos International
Message-ID: <2350@skinner.nprdc.arpa>
Date: 7 Jun 89 14:41:23 GMT
References: <38@iisat.UUCP>
Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy)
Distribution: na
Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego
Lines: 93

In article <38@iisat.UUCP> promac@iisat.UUCP (Promac Systems) writes:
>I have been looking at buying a 386 machine in which to run Un*x in one
>form or another. During my travels I came across a company called
>Zeos International, my question is this:
>Has anyone done business with them and if so could you tell about it
>, good or bad. Also how well is their stuff put together?

I recently ordered a 386/V 25 MHz tower system from Zeos, in the basic
configuration except for adding a 80387 and 3Mb of memory (I was
planning on dropping in cards and drives I already had -- a PS180-16F
ARLL controller, a SOTA VGA/16, a Leading Edge 2400B modem, a LogiTech
bus mouse, an ST251, a 1.44Mb floppy, and a MultiSync 3D). It took not
quite two weeks for delivery -- it would have taken six days, but the
shipping company got given my home, rather than work, number and didn't
get in touch with me until my off Friday.

I unpacked the system unit, pulled the boards that came with the
system, and dropped in the cards I was going to use. Booting from a
floppy, I ran the MIPS program that came on the utility disk with the
system to get a comparison against my 10MHz XT (overall rating ~4.95
MIPS), then went back to reconfigure the system for the PerStor
controller. After running SETUP, the system said "please wait while
system is rebooting", then rebooted and displayed the message "CMOS
configuration mismatch. Run SETUP". I ran SETUP again, and it did
the same thing. After running SETUP again, the machine hung up on
reboot. When cold booting, the machine would hang just after the
memory check, and would not run either SETUP or DIAGS (both in ROM).
Putting the original boards back in the system didn't help.

Monday morning, I called Zeos about the problem. After listening to my
description of the problem, having me go through the boot sequence
with them, and asked me whether I'd done anything to the motherboard,
the tech in Customer Support gave me an RMA number and told me to ship
just the system unit back to them (not the keyboard or monitor), and that
they would reimburse my shipping costs up to UPS Blue, which I used. I
shipped the unit back that afternoon, remembering to put in a note
asking them to put my work phone on the shipping request.

That Friday, I got a call back from Customer Support at Zeos, asking
whether I'd done anything to the motherboard. Apparently, the 80387
chip had been inserted incorrectly (the coprocessor socket will take
either an 80387 or a Weitek m1187 chip -- the socket is larger than
the 80387, and there are socket holes visible around the 80387 when
inserted), which was causing the system to hang when it tried to
intitialize the 80387. He said they were keeping the unit for the rest
of the day to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong, and that it
would be shipped out Monday morning. I got the unit back the next
Wednesday.

The remainder of the problems I had centered around the wonderful
design limitation IBM had that you can't have two 16-bit BIOS
extensions in a system -- the VGA BIOS was stomping all over the
PerStor BIOS, which made the system think that it couldn't find the
HD controller (I finally wound up calling SOTA about this -- I had
tracked the problem down to the VGA card [that and the controller card
were the only two in the system] -- and that's what the tech in
Customer Support said). Moving the VGA card to an 8-bit slot cured that
problem, and I formatted the ST277 that came with the system to 78Mb,
moved the ST251 out of the XT (where it was running on an 8-bit
PerStor controller), copied the data onto the ST277, and reformatted
it (156Mb in two half-height drives). Since then, I haven't had a
single problem with any part of the system.

The physical construction of the unit is very strong, with a large
amount of open space internally for air flow. The case screws down
onto the stand with four screws (and has a definite front, although
it's not marked); the back panel has a plastic cover with openings for
the slot area, the fan, power plugs, keyboard cable, and knockouts for
the five DB25 and four (?) DB9 openings above the slot area. The metal
case fits tightly, and I've noticed that the EMI from the system into
my stereo across the room is much less than with my XT system (even
with the XT's case on -- I had to open up the XT and point a fan at it
because the airflow in the XT was so pitiful). The motherboard is made
by AMI, with an AMI BIOS (dated 2/25/89 in my system). The controller
card that came with the system is an Adaptec 1:1 interleave RLL HD/FD
controller; the monographics card is a Hercules. All of the manuals
for the components are included with the system, and ZEOS shipped me a
manual binder for putting all of the three-ring manuals (the AMI manual,
the ZEOS system manual, and the EMS software [ZEMM] manual) in (it's a
little detail, but the little details too often get lost in the
shuffle).

Overall, I'm very happy with my Zeos machine; I wouldn't hesitate to
recommend them to anyone looking for a computer. Their Customer
Support people were competent, courteous, and helpful, and their
warranty service is good.


 Sean Malloy					| "The proton absorbs a photon
 Navy Personnel Research & Development Center	| and emits two morons, a
 San Diego, CA 92152-6800			| lepton, a boson, and a
 malloy@nprdc.navy.mil				| boson's mate. Why did I ever
						| take high-energy physics?"