Documenting obscure 90s laptop brands - CTX EzBook

[3lectr1c]

Did the same thing for WinBook a while back, now I've got a new target.

One of my sub-hobbies from within the hobby that is vintage technology has become an effort to preserve information online about obscure and forgotten-about laptop manufacturers from the 1990s. This all began when I bought some laptops made by WinBook, and then began researching the company. I was able to find the info I wanted, but it was pretty hard to do so. At the time, I already had a website with capacitor reference and other info on vintage apple stuff, so I figured this was the perfect time to expand into something new and preserve info online about WinBook laptops, and hopefully other obscure brands afterwards. Fast forward several months, and I've documented many WinBook models on my site, though I'm not yet done. You can see what I have here: https://www.macdat.net/pc/winbook_home.html

My latest preservation project has been on CTX International's laptops. Similarly to WinBook, this was kickstarted after I got one of their laptops myself, an EzBook 800 that's unfortunately been nuked by a VARTA battery. While CTX made way, way fewer laptops than WinBook did, each CTX laptop probably took twice as long to document as a WinBook model did, mainly because CTX was needlessly obtuse when it came to their naming schemes, they had 3 different websites, and also failed to document their earliest models at all. I've pieced together what I can, but if you look at the results, you'll see that a good bit of information is still missing.

So, here's the call to action: If you've got any CTX laptops, or know anything about them, I'd like any info you've got! Faults you've run into getting them to work, images of them that I can use, or specifications on the really early models.

Pages are live here: https://www.macdat.net/pc/ctx_home.html

 

[DeltaDon]

I think I've got a couple of CTX parts machine hidden away in my cave. I also have some ARM Computers (not to be confused with the modern ARM CPU's) which IIRC were early Samsung Pentium laptops.

Since you are interested in finding details on some hard to find manufacturers of these laptops here a hint for research. I used to buy or trade parts with the service manager of Brick Computers which was an OEM for many Taiwanese ODM's back in the '90's and 2000's. The Wayback Machine archive has some of their websites stored and they often have the ODM's model along with their own names for what they sold. Search for: http://brickcomputers.com/ on the archive.

They had a great ftp site with drivers and other files, that hasn't been saved.

 

[3lectr1c]

If you have any EzBook 800s hiding away let me know!

I believe CTX actually made their laptops all in-house, through their (I believe) subsidiary Veridata, which is rather unique for one of these smaller brands.

The great loss of FTP servers is a real darn shame. CTX also had all their drivers on one, so those are gone.

By some miracle, Jetta’s FTP was dumped and archived in 2015, about a year before they shut down. Those drivers are safe as a result.

Brick/Ergo is on the list of brands I’ve gotta look though. Maybe I’ll get to them after I’m done with Nan Tan’s hardware. There’s a lot to go through though… been on a research binge trying to figure out what’s up with the Hyperdata laptops. The one 486 with a number pad in the palmrest looks so similar to the Jetta E1 but I’m starting to think that Jetta wasn’t the ODM for it based off all info I’ve found… hard to tell.
Edit: If the old fringeweb page is to be believed, HyperData/Sunrex made their own laptops. Guess I got tricked by how darn similar the one looks to the early Jetta laptops...
Fringeweb isn't fully reliable when it comes to this info (saying that Quanta made the WinBook XP, that Chicony and Clevo were related companies, and getting confused about what the heck was up with NanTan/Clevo/Kapok, although I don't blame them), but there is still some great info there.

 

[DeltaDon]

Jetta before the name change was Jetbook. They OEM'ed many Taiwanese ODM laptops. I had a reseller license with Jetbook for a short time, but then they changed the pay out to next to nothing. Several other ODM's that I never got all the facts figured out were Chicony and Clevo. I was told that they were sister companies, but don't for a fact. I do know Chicony made some nice laptops that ended with the MP989 (in the USA) and the MP999 (sold in Europe) and switched to just making keyboards. Modified MP989 was sold as the Micron NX. IIRC, the Clevo service center supported Kapok machines and I think they either merged or were just a name change????? I have a bunch of Kapok PII/PIII laptops - all large beasts. Clevo continued with the large high power beast concept plus others more like the Chicony bread and butter products. Clevo is still around selling to Prostar, Sager and Alienware (old ones and new, I think??) plus Eurocom brands. (and others?)

 

[3lectr1c]

As far as I can tell, Clevo and Kapok were both marketing names used during the 1990s by Nan Tan Computer, and then in 1997, Nan Tan rebranded entirely to Clevo and still make laptops today.
I believe the info on Chicony and Clevo being related is incorrect. I haven’t been able to find any relation between the two.

Jetta is confusing because they both made their own ODM laptops and sold other peoples. I do think that their time as an ODM didn’t last very long though, they seemingly quit that part of their business in the late 90s, as far as I can tell. I think they were always called Jetta though, with Jetbook being the name of their laptop lineup. I know they sold AlphaTop stuff, there’s one of their later laptops on eBay that Compal apparently made, but they also made their own stuff earlier on. Examples of such being the original WinBooks, the E1 series, and some others. You can check their FCC listings under Jetta Computers Co Ltd to see which ones they actually made, although i only have info on a few of the models listed there.