Zenith's Giant XT-class laptop from 1987 - The Zenith Z-183 - Quick Demo

This is one cool machine, the Zenith Z-183, a very large 80C88-based laptop that was released in 1987. I got this one recently and have returned it to almost 100% functionality, with the only issues being the hard drive occasionally getting stuck (requiring physically jostling the machine a little bit to get it going) and the floppy drive has trouble reading some disks that read fine in other systems.
This machine uses the 26-pin JVC hard drive (a 20MB in this particular one), which are well-known for stiction problems. They sound awesome when they work though!
I may do a comparison video of this with its older brother, the Zenith Z-181. It looks similar, but is a totally different machine than the Z-183. It's a good bit smaller as well.
I also may upgrade this laptop to an NEC V20 CPU at some point.

[@El_Transportacoches_33]

Wait a moment. The option to boot Windows 1.0 or 2.0 was launched since factory?

[@JohnKelm]

What a flashback. I sold a bunch of these to college students back in the late 80’s. I can’t remember what happened to mine, I was still using it some in the early 90’s. I must have junked it at some point. around 2003.

[@thegeforce6625]

Are there any replacements for the 26 pin hdd incase this one fails?

[@80sCompaqPC]

Not that I know of, however there were a good number of laptops that used these back then, so finding another working one shouldn’t be impossible if I need to.

[@thegeforce6625]

@@80sCompaqPCare there any larger capacities than 20mb?

[@Meganalgenius]

wow!

[@80sCompaqPC]

It’s an impressive machine for sure!

[@Ryfari]

I used to have one of these as a kid. I learned to work with DOS and computers in general.

[@computeraidedworld1148]

Do you know how many amps the PSU is?

[@cdos9186]

Nice machine! Do you recall what JVC model of hard drive that is? I've never heard a drive before that sounds like that.

[@80sCompaqPC]

Thanks! It’s a JVC model JD-3824R0Z0. And yes, it’s the same JVC that makes camcorders.

[@cdos9186]

@@80sCompaqPC It seems like the JVC hard drives are fairly rare. Reliable apart from the stiction issue?

[@80sCompaqPC]

@@cdos9186 You don’t see them much by themselves but they are fairly common in laptops of this era. I’d say they are relatively reliable aside from stiction issues. The drive uses a slightly modified version of the ST-412/MFM interface, with a single 26-pin connector that carries power and everything else.
I also have a Zenith SuperSport that has a similar 26-pin drive, though it is made by ALPS Electric and sounds completely different.

[@cdos9186]

@@80sCompaqPC That Zenith SuperSport is an interesting name. Also ALPS Electric made it? They used to make hard drives and floppy drives. I never knew they made a laptop.

[@80sCompaqPC]

@@cdos9186 No, Zenith manufactured the laptop itself, but the *hard drive* inside of it is made by ALPS. It’s a really neat laptop with a unique hinge design.