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Zenith Data Systems Model ZCV-251-EC

I've added Hal9000s Zenith 286-ZU-425S system pic, Chuckster_in_Jaxs 286 Zenith and pic of the 286LP advert. for search purposes. It appears the ZU series was sold with both the old Zenith logo as well as the later Group Bull logo.
 

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Thanks Caluser :). When I get a moment to clean up the chassis and drives, I'll post more updated pics.
 
That's ok Hal9000. I've grown quite fond of my wee system. I'ts nice it has a relation that is still alive so to speak ;). There doesn't seem to be a lot of info in general out on the interwebs for Zenith/Heath 286 desktop systems at all. Or 386s for that matter.

Found this artical InfoWorld artical from 1987 https://books.google.co.nz/books?id...nepage&q=zenith 286 desktop computers&f=false

Look forward to seeing how you progress with your system and what military secrets you might discover on it :bomb: :eek:nfire:

Two more pics shamelessly poached below. Second one is apparently a z248 SX, a 386.
 

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I had a Zenith 286 low profile at my test bench for a year or two when I worked at ZDS from 1990-96. I was repairing z-248 motherboards at the time. It stayed with at the workbench, while I moved to another group that serviced the Rigel II boards (internal name for board series, not sure what product name codes were.) It was a 486 board with onboard vesa local bus video. After that series. I recall doing alot re-work on Packard Bell boards that were re-branded as ZDS desktops for a government contract (Desktop IV?) They definitely lacked the quality and engineering of the ZDS designed products.
 
I have been reading Jan '89 PC Mag online. It has a good review on various 286/12s. Can't get over the price Zenith was asking for their z248/12 Model 80 VGA system but it did appear have some i/o magic not seen on a lot of clone systems at that time. Never heard the term "Superset Bus" or "Slushware" before which are unique to Zenith systems. This seems to confirm what I'm experiencing with my later wee system.
 
Just a bit of an update. It has a bigger 240meg HDD now and is still running real sweet. Windows 3.1 runs really nice on it. I've contemplated putting a variant of GeoWorks on the new HDD but Windows 3.1 with trumpet winsock was the deciding factor.
I've also loaded PFS:Window Works 2.0 on it. I used this on my old 286/16 back in the day.

Current setup:
286/12 cpu
256k vga, IDE, FDD, two com ports and one parallel port
8 megs of ram
240 meg hdd on internal controller
3.5" 1.44 meg fdd on internal controller
Serial mouse on com2
Generic AT enhance keyboard
Parallel port LS120 drive
Parallel port Back Pack CDROM drive
MS Dos 5a
XTree Gold
Some Dos hdd tools
Some Dos games
Windows 3.1 with Trumpet Winsock & PFS:Window Works 2.0
CT 1740 sound card
GE2000 (KYE)Genius Lan nic with rj45 and bnc connectors. Set to auto detect media type
 
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The old girl has developed a bit of a quirk. It freezes intermittently for some reason and doesn't respond to key presses. I suspect the PSU as sometimes it wont switch on.
 

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I had a Z-248 that was given to me by a teacher in high school; it belonged to her late brother who went to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York when they were doling out ZDS machines as part of the engineering & programming degrees. It has a Z-100 mode card in it and I miss it. Life got in the way and it got junked. :'(
 
Just encountered this thread. How did you get 8Mb of ram on that system? Expansion card? If so I expect it's proprietary to Zenith.
 
I see. Thanks. I have a 286 and a 386, but both use the same passive backplane, with the cpu & memory on a card. The 386 only has 512K on it, was hoping to expand that. Looks like a separate card after all.
 
Ahh nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Just waxed MS Dos 5 and installed my old friend DR Dos 6.0. The universe is now now at peace ;)

Much much better. :)IMG_20230511_023036.jpg
 
XTree Gold has this wonderful feature called PRUNE. It deletes whole directories including all the files and sub-directories below it ;)
Don't EVER retro compute without it ;)IMG_20230511_155754.jpg
 
Having broken Windows I decided to delete it. I've installed GeoWorks Pro 1.2 as well as a bit of other software. This was the configuration of my very first x86 system. A 286/16 PC General clone I got new in the early '90s.. DRDos 6 and GeoWorks Ensemble go very well together.IMG_20230516_052344_hdr.jpgIMG_20230516_045707_hdr.jpgIMG_20230516_045632_hdr.jpgIMG_20230516_045535_hdr.jpg;)
 
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