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The Mysterious Sharp MZ-100

lenegade

Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
42
Location
Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada
Ok after telling myself I wouldn't buy any more computer I found this Sharp mz100 at the Sally Anne. But I don't know much about it.

I gathered this much upon inspection:
It has 2 760k 3 1/2 floppies
Has 640k memory
firmware date is 1989
It can run up to Dos 6.22
IT looks really SHARP ;)
Has a blue/white LCD that's really dim, even with backlight cranked

I can't find too much on the net about it, other than replacement batteries.

Oh and it's in the luggable portable section because it has a handle on the bottom.
If anyone can help me find some info on it that would be awesome, especially manuals and prephrial info.

Thanks
Len
 
I'm sure you've seen these links already but driverguide does seem to have a driver set for it: http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=72383 .. not sure if it would by chance have a manual in that extractable exe or not.

The only other link of interest (besides fleabay) is http://argentina64kb.c-64.org/base web compus/SHARP/SHARP MZ100.htm but that just has the information on CPU/RAM which you already know but it does have a nice picture for the rest of the group to see.

Ya I grabbed that file right off the bat, but it was just a boot disk with Dos 3.2 on it. The second link I thank you for because that is more info than I could find. The cpu I had no Idea what it was and a look inside (which is unbelievably clean) was not very helpful, even after googling the IC's.

My Camera is out on loan, so when I get it back I'll snap some pics of it. One cool feature is a SETUP button that goes straight to the BIOS, no matter what you are doing at the time. It has 2 speeds BTW; normal and slower. Made me chuckle.
 
Hi!
This is my Sharp mz-100 !! I'm upload some photos.
Does anyone have the owner's manual and the service manual?
Does anyone have the boot floppy image? I have the disk but it won't boot. I assume the problem is the floppy drive, but I don't have time to check.
Thanks you
 

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More images!!!

The capacitor red marked (4.7uF 63V) need to replace to floppy drive work!
I measured this capacitor a mark 0uF.
Now, the two floppy drive work perfectly.
 

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Hi!
This is my Sharp mz-100 !! I'm upload some photos.
Does anyone have the owner's manual and the service manual?
Does anyone have the boot floppy image? I have the disk but it won't boot. I assume the problem is the floppy drive, but I don't have time to check.
Thanks you

I am quite sure it is a rebranded SHARP PC-4601, I have one and they are identical, inside and outside. Maybe it's a US model or a Japanese one. Even your BIOS has the PC- 4600 name written on it. You can buy the service manual for the 4600 series online, while the user manual is free.
I am struggling to get my machine to work and I would love to ask you some questions about it, since mine worked 6 years ago and then had an ugly internal power supply accident.


My question for you is then the following: does yours have a squealing power board when turned on?
 
Thanks a lot!!!
i repaired my MZ-100!!!
Changed too 3 caps 22uf non polarized in the other side of motor!!!
 

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More images!!!

The capacitor red marked (4.7uF 63V) need to replace to floppy drive work!
I measured this capacitor a mark 0uF.
Now, the two floppy drive work perfectly.
Anyone know if CN11 or CN14 on the mainboard are for say IDE or SCSI drives? (Is wondering if a non-HDD enabled model could be 'upgraded' to one with a harddrive?
 
Anyone know if CN11 or CN14 on the mainboard are for say IDE or SCSI drives? (Is wondering if a non-HDD enabled model could be 'upgraded' to one with a harddrive?
(/me is appending a reply to my own post, because it seems there's a time-limit on editing? (never knew that/why is there still an edit option present if I can't edit after said 120 minutes?)

So.. to sum up what i've been digging into further... it turns out that there's supposed to be a 26 pin header for a manufacturer-specific type of drive... and that CN11 is the expansion header for various add-in cards,... But still then, what could CN14 be for? Some other machines have stripped down ISA slots.. maybe this slot is just for add-ons of another sort? Like the harddrive option board/boards?

Also, I wonder what CN13 is for as well.. Maybe the modem and second serial port? So many odd ports, some populated, some not, though...
 
I know this is an old thread and I hate to bring back a zombie thread, but this is one of the few results that come up in Google searches for this model and I have some information that may be useful to future Googlers and maybe some of the thread participants if they still have this model. Besides, this thread has been brought back from the dead a couple times already :D

First, a link to the very-hard-to-find service manual. This is actually for a PC-4602, but they appear to be identical machines. I have not found a single discrepancy other than the model name.

By and large, the MZ-100 is a rebadged PC-4600 as far as I can tell. The BIOS chip on mine even has "PC 4600" printed on a sticker. The board layout and options seem to be similar, if not identical. The laptop came in two configurations, one with dual 720k 3.5" floppy drives, and the other with a single 720k 3.5" floppy and a 40MB hard drive. I had one of these as my first ever laptop. I bought it used when I was in high school for something like $25. I actually lugged this thing to school back in 2000-2003 lol. I was definitely one of the "cool kids"... Now, 20 years later, I paid $299 to ship one over from Egypt with a badly marred screen. Oh nostalgia...

Anywho. Some info about the machine:
  • The CPU is a NEC v40 running at 10MHz. The v40 emulates an 8086 CPU but also has the expanded instruction set of the 8088 (not pin compatible).
  • The board has provisions for an optional 8087 Math Coprocessor. I don't know if any other components need to be added or if any jumpers need to be set. See the service manual if you want to add one.
  • The display is a Supertwist LCD panel with Electroluminescent (EL) backlight. It supports 80 characters x 25 lines (640x400 pixels)
  • It supports CGA, MDA, and AT&T graphic emulation (this is from the PC-4600 brochure. I don't know how to test this. My BIOS shows "Graphics" or "Monochrome". It's very possible that some display modes are only supported with the optional external graphics card and an external monitor. That was very common for portable computers of this time period. I can tell you that the laptop is capable of playing MS Flight Sim 4, albeit somewhat slowly lol.
  • 128KB of VRAM
  • It has 640k of RAM standard and supports an additional 1MB (1.6MB total) through an optional expansion board
  • Expansion boards included:
    • For CN13 (one at a time):
      • CE-451M Modem card with serial(RS-232C) interface (US/Canada only)
      • CE-451B serial card (RS-232C)
    • For CN11 (one at a time):
      • CE-451A Color/Monochrome CRT adaptor
      • CE-452B ROM disk card
      • CE-453B 1MB EMS memory card (EMS 3.2)
  • Dual 720k 3.5" Floppy or one 720k and a 40MB HDD
  • Has the option of an external video card, but these are all but impossible to find and I haven't seen anyone replicate one.
  • Power is DC9V 2.5A with center NEGATIVE. Be careful, this is not a common polarity.
  • The battery was a "NP4.2-6H" 6V, 4.2Ah Lead-Acid battery and was manufactured by Yuasa Battery Co., LTD of Japan. I can supply measurements/pictures if anyone needs them. You can find Lead Acid batteries in this voltage, but good luck finding one small enough to fit in the enclosure.
  • Per the service manual (linked below) the DIP switches on the bottom have the following functions (everything following the dash on each line are my notes):
    • 1: System all reset ON/OFF - setting this to "ON" and turning on the power results in the CMOS being cleared. Nothing displays on the screen until you return this switch to "OFF" and power the unit on again
    • 2: Not used - This was found to be false. It actually enables the external floppy option in the BIOS. With this OFF, you cannot change the drive selection to 3.5". With it ON, you can.
    • 3: Speaker volume LOW/HIGH - OFF is high, ON is low.
    • 4: Speaker control (without alarm) ON/OFF - Turns the internal speaker on and off. NOTE: The power alarm (beeps if you close the lid while the computer is on) and the low battery alarm do not work if this setting is "OFF", even if enabled in the BIOS. However, the "Low Battery" LED on the keyboard will still illuminate. Just no sound.
    • 5: Alarm control (Low Battery/Shut off Alarm) ON/OFF - turns on/off the low battery alarm. Also, if this is off, the power alarm will not work either. The power alarm just trips the battery alarm. You can see this by pressing the small momentary switch at the top of the keyboard that tells the computer when the screen is closed. The "Low Battery" LED will illuminate when this button is pressed if the the "Power Alarm" feature has been enabled in the BIOS.
  • The BIOS settings can be accessed at any time by pressing the "Set Up" key. You do not have to be at the boot screen. You can enter the BIOS even when DOS applications are running. The BIOS will display and return you to the DOS application when you exit the BIOS by pressing the "Set Up" key again. Execution of the DOS application is paused while you are in the BIOS setup screen.
  • To answer the questions about the various pin connectors on the board, the service manual has them labeled as the following (the manual also includes full pinouts of the connectors!):
    • CN1: LCD
    • CN2: SW - power switch
    • CN3: SPKR - internal speaker
    • CN4: LED - the 4 indicator LEDs above the keyboard (Power, Low Battery, Drive A, Drive B)
    • CN5: PS - power supply (grey ribbon cable that runs from the power board to the motherboard)
    • CN6: KEY - Keyboard (white ribbon)
    • CN7: ??? - there doesn't seem to be one. The manual skips it and I don't see one on my board. Perhaps a feature they decided to remove late in the process?
    • CN8: FDD - floppy drive controller
    • CN9: XFD (I think? It's a pretty bad copy) - external floppy drive connector
    • CN10: PRINTER
    • CN11: CRT - this is the header for the optional, and impossible to find, external video add-in card
    • CN12: SIO - serial in/out - the 9 pin RS-232 serial port
    • CN13: MODEM - I assume there was an optional modem card also. I haven't seen anything on this yet. Probably because I haven't cared
    • CN14: HDD - Mine is an unpopulated header. I have no idea if there are other components required or if there is some sort of interface card/board that is needed. I do wonder if this would take either an MFM drive or (less likely) IDE without need for a controller. I did notice that there is a jumper (J1) near the keyboard connector that has FD (populated on my computer) and HD (unpopulated). So I believe this would need to be jumped in order for the computer to become aware of the the hard drive.
    • CN15: HDPS - power supply for the optional on board hard drive
    • CN16: EXPBUS - expansion bus. This is an unpopulated header on my board. There's a project linked below that got this functional and added 2 ISA slots to a PC-4600. So I think it's possible with these, as well.
    • CN17: EMS MEMORY - This is an unpopulated header under the keyboard. I believe it's for the optional memory expansion board.
I'm also attaching some reference photos of the motherboard and power board for those that may need them in the future.

A note on the power board: There is a tantalum capacitor on the bottom left of the board near the gray ribbon that runs to the motherboard. It's marked "C39" on my board. Test this to make sure it's not shorted. Mine was when I got the machine. These older tantalum capacitors are known to fail catastrophically. Mine had definitely gotten hot as it and the components around it were blackened and smelled of burnt electronics. I suggest that even if yours is currently working, to swap it for a new one. I bought 20 of them for $14 on Amazon, you can probably get them cheaper if you have an electronics supplier near you. It's values are 47uf 16v. Tantalum capacitors often short when they fail and can take other components or board traces with them sometimes, so it's worth the investment.

Also of some interest, someone has designed an external ISA expansion card for the PC-4600 that will very likely work on these as well. The same person also reverse-engineered the external floppy connector to get a 5.25" floppy drive working with the same machine. Let's hope that they decide to play with the external video at some point. There's hope, as these two projects were both done in March of '23! I love that computers from the 80's are getting new components in 2023!
 
The CPU is a NEC v40 running at 10MHz. The v40 emulates an 8086 CPU but also has the expanded instruction set of the 8088 (not pin compatible).

I think you have that upside-down. The V40 is nominally an 8086 instruction set system; basically a V20 core, including the extensions of the 80186/286 real-mode as well as some NEC-specific instructions (e.g. BCD math). It can also emulate an 8080 CPU. Integrated peripherals more closely correspond to the IBM PC's, such as CTC, PIC, and UART.
 
Personnaly I don't have any issuewith old threads being bought back to life if it the same/similar type being discussed originally like some members here. It keep the information nice and tight. No need to find half a dozen or more thread about the same/similar system type to get the information you are looking for or can add to help fellow vcfed.org members out :)
 
I think you have that upside-down. The V40 is nominally an 8086 instruction set system; basically a V20 core, including the extensions of the 80186/286 real-mode as well as some NEC-specific instructions (e.g. BCD math). It can also emulate an 8080 CPU. Integrated peripherals more closely correspond to the IBM PC's, such as CTC, PIC, and UART.
Ah. Sorry about that! I have to admit I only recently learned of the 80186 and have been out of the vintage PC game since about 2005. Thanks for setting the record straight!
Kind of a funny aside; In pretty much all of Sharp's literature, they go out of their way NOT to name the CPU, but instead to use salesman talk to make it sound like it's an Intel CPU. I thought that was funny, especially since the NEC chip seems to be a pretty good little package.
 
It was very versatile. I've got a fax modem that uses it; the big strength was in embedded applications because you get most of the PC package in one chip, absent the keyboard and video--but then you do get a UART, so there's that. You could find them in modems and whatnot. Of course, it was a natural for a laptop, since it's a low-power CMOS chip.
 
Well, at least I am not resurrecting a too old discussion. I actually bought a PC-4502 system about a month ago and have been exploring it since. I managed to get a XT-CF card working internally on the CN14 header. For now, it is just bodged wires to an 8-bit ISA connector. Routed PCB coming soon.

At the moment, it recognizes the drive (tested from 32MB to 512MB) and I can read and write to it. Having trouble booting from it, but that is most likely just some config changes I need to make to the XT-CF Bios.

Prior to this, I got a GOtek drive running as the A drive. Kept the original 720K B drive.

All of the expansion connectors inside are sub-sets of the ISA bus.

I am planning several other upgrades to it as well. One will be a dual serial card with a battery backed RTC. Another is a mega card with a joystick port, sound card, EMS, and an 8255 GPIO.

So far, it looks like all of these different Sharp computers from this era use the same connectors.
 

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