ZEOS Notebook 386
My ZEOS Notebook 386 (added to my collection in 2014)
- i386sx 16Mhz
- 2MB RAM
- 20GB Hard Drive (with Ontrack DiskManager to overcome BIOS limit)
- 9.5″ VGA Mono STN LCD
- 2x working batteries (one lasts 1hr 30min and the other 40min)
I have two of these laptops, one has a bad LCD backlight, I am keeping it for parts as the rest of it works.
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- Zeos Notebook 386
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- Running Windows 3.1
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- Open
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- Closed (also showing external battery charger)
Hello,
Congratulations for your collection! It’s impressive! I have a Zeos Contenda laptop and I would like to take it apart to see what it contains. Do you happen to have a manual for it or a disassemble guide? Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words, my collection has been a long time in the making.
Unfortunately I do not have any disassembly guides, I would just carefully work your way through it, if you spend some time examining the screw locations it usually will make some sense which ones need to come out, older laptops are usually no too terrible to work on, just make notes or take photos which screws came from where, many are different sizes.
Thank you for the advice given. I have another question: I would like to install a compact flash adapter so i can change the hdd to a large compact flash.
If a use a 4gb cf card would it be recognized by the BIOS?
Is there any way I can bypass the BIOS limitation?
You should be able to install a CF adapter, but I can tell you the BIOS in this computer will only recognize 520MB without help, so if you use a 512MB CF card you should not need any extra software.
However if you are set on using a 4GB card, you will need to use some kind of BIOS overlay, something like OnTrack Disk Manager (I have some OEM versions for download in my utilities page, however they are linked to certain brands of hard drives and would not work for CF cards, you need to find the non-branded version of Disk Manager). There were other options for overlays, Disk Manager is just the most popular by far.
Hi yall!
Just got a zeos 286 notebook. Was wondering what brand of hdd you installed and where you purchased it from. Thanks!
BTW I’ll leave a link when I tear open my laptop again. I’ll post a youtube video.
I used an IBM drive, but brand really doesn’t matter, any PATA 2.5″ drive could be made to work (at least in my 386).
2.5″ pata with ontrack disk manager. Got it. Thanks Ryan!
Hi, I have a ZEOS 386+ that I’d like to go to a good home. Send me a note if you’re interested.
While I do have a thing for ZEOS equipment, I actually have 2 of these already, but if you would like I could pass your info on to someone else who may have interest in it.
Hello Walter,
I own a Zeos Contenda 486SL.I’m interested in your laptop. Is it functional? I’m from Romania, so the shipping might be a problem.
If Walter responds to your post I can pass your email on to him.
Hello collectors,
Does anybody know, what type of external floppy connector, uses the Zeos Contenda 486SL? I need a floppy drive in order to boot a dos disk or to perform ontrack software install. Thank you!
I don’t know what the Contenda uses for a floppy drive connector, if it’s the same as the connector used by my Zeos Meridian 400C, I MAY just have a spare drive around somewhere. If you could post a link to a photo of the port on your laptop I could see if I can help hunt one down for you.
Thank you Ryan.
Here is the link from my gallery:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMZZn3R_ODMNZs-MchT0iQ0RnYcIKnCfcH30eK_s6uFoelpECD5h7gcu7pMb4MNkA/photo/AF1QipPePNJGt5bRZcwuzGHLDQOzqDRw2-1ORFgW526K?key=S0ZSaTVVbzBxa2VHWE50ekVtajNvd2tPdGpQV2R3
I think that the drive you use is the same.
If you find the spare one, would you consider selling it? I love my Contenda and the lack of a floppy is a really problem to me.The other poctures from the gallery that i posted above were stored in order to see what other accesories I might find for it. I only have the laptop.
From your photo links, it looks like the same floppy connector, however I searched and searched and I cannot find the spare I thought I had, it’s been probably 15 years since I had it out and I fear it was lost to time 🙁
Thank you for trying to help me.
I’ll try to work with what I have.
I wish I had been able to find the floppy cable for you, good luck on getting it going!
Hi, would you be interested in a compatible working display for the second one? Please email instead of replying here.
Thanks for the offer, but not at this time.
If I do decide to get my 2nd unit running, I will likely attempt an LED backlight mod on it, in my experience replacing it with another old stock LCD is just delaying the inevitable, all CCFL backlights will eventually burn out, so going with an LED conversion would be the best long term fix.
Hi, Came across this while researching the one of these I have recently picked up.
It also has a dead screen, well the backlights dead anyway.
I have seen mention online of a utility on a driver disk that can be used to switch over to the external display, I think it’s called EAGLE. With this I could actually use it for something rather than gathering dust.
I don’t suppose you have a copy of it, or even an image of the disk itself.
Kind Regards
Mike
Unfortunately I don’t have any of the utilities for this laptop, all of them were either wiped clean or had dead hard drives when I got them.
OK and thanks for replying. It was worth a shot.