promac@iisat.UUCP (Promac Systems) (06/06/89)
I have been looking at buying a 386 machine in which to run Un*x in one form or another. During my travels I came across a company called Zeos International, my question is this: Has anyone done business with them and if so could you tell about it , good or bad. Also how well is their stuff put together? Their pricing seems to be quite good and the man on the phone seemed to know what he was talking about. later Barry Comer promac@iisat.UUCP
malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) (06/07/89)
In article <38@iisat.UUCP> promac@iisat.UUCP (Promac Systems) writes: >I have been looking at buying a 386 machine in which to run Un*x in one >form or another. During my travels I came across a company called >Zeos International, my question is this: >Has anyone done business with them and if so could you tell about it >, good or bad. Also how well is their stuff put together? I recently ordered a 386/V 25 MHz tower system from Zeos, in the basic configuration except for adding a 80387 and 3Mb of memory (I was planning on dropping in cards and drives I already had -- a PS180-16F ARLL controller, a SOTA VGA/16, a Leading Edge 2400B modem, a LogiTech bus mouse, an ST251, a 1.44Mb floppy, and a MultiSync 3D). It took not quite two weeks for delivery -- it would have taken six days, but the shipping company got given my home, rather than work, number and didn't get in touch with me until my off Friday. I unpacked the system unit, pulled the boards that came with the system, and dropped in the cards I was going to use. Booting from a floppy, I ran the MIPS program that came on the utility disk with the system to get a comparison against my 10MHz XT (overall rating ~4.95 MIPS), then went back to reconfigure the system for the PerStor controller. After running SETUP, the system said "please wait while system is rebooting", then rebooted and displayed the message "CMOS configuration mismatch. Run SETUP". I ran SETUP again, and it did the same thing. After running SETUP again, the machine hung up on reboot. When cold booting, the machine would hang just after the memory check, and would not run either SETUP or DIAGS (both in ROM). Putting the original boards back in the system didn't help. Monday morning, I called Zeos about the problem. After listening to my description of the problem, having me go through the boot sequence with them, and asked me whether I'd done anything to the motherboard, the tech in Customer Support gave me an RMA number and told me to ship just the system unit back to them (not the keyboard or monitor), and that they would reimburse my shipping costs up to UPS Blue, which I used. I shipped the unit back that afternoon, remembering to put in a note asking them to put my work phone on the shipping request. That Friday, I got a call back from Customer Support at Zeos, asking whether I'd done anything to the motherboard. Apparently, the 80387 chip had been inserted incorrectly (the coprocessor socket will take either an 80387 or a Weitek m1187 chip -- the socket is larger than the 80387, and there are socket holes visible around the 80387 when inserted), which was causing the system to hang when it tried to intitialize the 80387. He said they were keeping the unit for the rest of the day to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong, and that it would be shipped out Monday morning. I got the unit back the next Wednesday. The remainder of the problems I had centered around the wonderful design limitation IBM had that you can't have two 16-bit BIOS extensions in a system -- the VGA BIOS was stomping all over the PerStor BIOS, which made the system think that it couldn't find the HD controller (I finally wound up calling SOTA about this -- I had tracked the problem down to the VGA card [that and the controller card were the only two in the system] -- and that's what the tech in Customer Support said). Moving the VGA card to an 8-bit slot cured that problem, and I formatted the ST277 that came with the system to 78Mb, moved the ST251 out of the XT (where it was running on an 8-bit PerStor controller), copied the data onto the ST277, and reformatted it (156Mb in two half-height drives). Since then, I haven't had a single problem with any part of the system. The physical construction of the unit is very strong, with a large amount of open space internally for air flow. The case screws down onto the stand with four screws (and has a definite front, although it's not marked); the back panel has a plastic cover with openings for the slot area, the fan, power plugs, keyboard cable, and knockouts for the five DB25 and four (?) DB9 openings above the slot area. The metal case fits tightly, and I've noticed that the EMI from the system into my stereo across the room is much less than with my XT system (even with the XT's case on -- I had to open up the XT and point a fan at it because the airflow in the XT was so pitiful). The motherboard is made by AMI, with an AMI BIOS (dated 2/25/89 in my system). The controller card that came with the system is an Adaptec 1:1 interleave RLL HD/FD controller; the monographics card is a Hercules. All of the manuals for the components are included with the system, and ZEOS shipped me a manual binder for putting all of the three-ring manuals (the AMI manual, the ZEOS system manual, and the EMS software [ZEMM] manual) in (it's a little detail, but the little details too often get lost in the shuffle). Overall, I'm very happy with my Zeos machine; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking for a computer. Their Customer Support people were competent, courteous, and helpful, and their warranty service is good. Sean Malloy | "The proton absorbs a photon Navy Personnel Research & Development Center | and emits two morons, a San Diego, CA 92152-6800 | lepton, a boson, and a malloy@nprdc.navy.mil | boson's mate. Why did I ever | take high-energy physics?"
ldh@hardy.harris.com (Leo Hinds) (06/08/89)
You may want to look at a recent issue of PC MAGAZINE which rated ~100 different '386 machines, including "entries" from Zeos. I personally have tried one of their keyboards and was not to happy with the knowledge of the person on the phone ... he did not know the difference (and ideosincracies) between various IBM models. Possibly they are better informaed about their own stuff. Leo Hinds
phil@diablo.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (06/08/89)
In article <2350@skinner.nprdc.arpa> malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) writes: |The remainder of the problems I had centered around the wonderful |design limitation IBM had that you can't have two 16-bit BIOS |extensions in a system -- the VGA BIOS was stomping all over the Say what? How does this work? Can someone explain, confirm, or deny? -- Phil Ngai, phil@diablo.amd.com {uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil "The government is not your mother."
carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu (06/08/89)
I got a 16Mhz '386 Tower system from Zeos last September. I've had a couple
problems with it, but the service has been good. In December, the power supply
failed - I called Zeos and they shipped me a new one in 2 days. This spring
I've had a lot of problems with system-lockups. I called Zeos about it -
they wanted me to ship the unit back, but I decided to live with it for
other reasons. Finally, last week I tracked it down to a cache problem (I
had suspected that all along, but I finally got real evidence). Zeos
responded by shipping me a new motherboard, which works very nicely now.
I like the system, and Zeos has been very helpful in service. But with
anything, there are annoying little problems -
The original system hard disk cable was a single drive cable. I had to snarf
the double cable out of my AT to add a new disk (Micropolis 1335, 109M RLL,
not RLL-rated, but it works). The ST-277R in the system is more delicate
than I anticipated - we took it out to put in the Micropolis, and when we
put it back, we (apparently) put the side-screws in the wrong holes. The drive
was seated just fine, but it totally failed. Taking it back out and putting it
back fixed the problem, although the data on the disk was toast, and we had
to re-format it. A very minor nit is that the Turbo switch on the front isn't
connected to anything, and the connector inside is to thick to put into a
jumper set (there's a couple places on boards I put in where it would be nice
to put it). If they'd just put the same connector on it that they put on
the Reset switch...
Overall, I'd have to say I'm happy I went with Zeos. I looked at a number of
other places, and looked into building my own. Zeos was about $300 more than
a build-it-yourself (at that time), but I definitely think not having to deal
with N different vendors all saying "It's not _our_ component" makes it more
than worth it. When I have a problem, I call Zeos, and they get it fixed.
Alan M. Carroll "And there you are
carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu Saying 'We have the Moon, so now the Stars...'"
CS Grad / U of Ill @ Urbana ...{ucbvax,pur-ee,convex}!s.cs.uiuc.edu!carrollmalloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) (06/09/89)
In article <803@hcx1.UUCP> ldh@hardy.hdw.harris.com (Leo Hinds) writes: >I personally have tried one of their keyboards and was not to happy with the >knowledge of the person on the phone ... he did not know the difference (and >ideosincracies) between various IBM models. Possibly they are better informaed >about their own stuff. I still haven't unpacked the keyboard that came with my Zeos machine; since I was unsatisfied big-time with the 'AT-style' keyboards (too accustomed to having the function keys on the left, I guess), I ordered a Northgate OmniKey/102 keyboard when I ordered the Zeos 386 system. I'm really happy with the Northgate keyobard, even though it's taking some time to get used to the new positions for the INS, DEL, HOME, END, PgUp, and PgDn keys. And I've got to build a new keyboard template for _F-19_; the AT/XT layout mix isn't covered on any of the templates provided. Sean Malloy | "The proton absorbs a photon Navy Personnel Research & Development Center | and emits two morons, a San Diego, CA 92152-6800 | lepton, a boson, and a malloy@nprdc.navy.mil | boson's mate. Why did I ever | take high-energy physics?"