Documenting obscure 90s laptop brands - WinBook

[3lectr1c]

Transmeta crusoe? Would definitely like to hear more info on that one!

 

[3lectr1c]

Vintage Rare CyberStar Green753 Laptop 3.2GB HDD Pentium 233MHZ - Powers On | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vintage Rare CyberStar Green753 Laptop 3.2GB HDD Pentium 233MHZ - Powers On at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

There’s a Green 753 based system on eBay right now too. Overpriced but still neat to see.

 

[3lectr1c]

Been a while, but there's a big new site update out with info on more models: https://macdat.net/pc/winbook_home.html

- WinBook Si2
- WinBook J1
- WinBook X4
- WinBook C100

And finally, an eBay listing archive, in order to track rarity, reliability, average condition, prices, etc. on WinBook models over time.

 

[3lectr1c]

I just found a very intriguing eBay listing - finally evidence for the DX half of the SX/DX series. I assumed that it would be the same externally and internally largely as the SLC and SX Jetta WinBooks, but no! It’s far, far more interesting.

Rare Retro Vintage Jetta Winbook 486E1 DX2-66C Parts Motherboard Keyboard Power+ | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Rare Retro Vintage Jetta Winbook 486E1 DX2-66C Parts Motherboard Keyboard Power+ at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Here’s the listing. Very unfortunately it’s only a bunch of parts, they said they trashed the case because it was in rough shape. Unfortunate, these models seem to be extremely rare. However, what remains is quite interesting.
- Trackball is different
- Internally very different, different port layout at the least. That means the plastics molding of these models must be different.
- takes 18V power instead of 16v, meaning a different PSU
- Model number is 486E1DX2-66C
- it specifies STN on the bottom sticker, meaning potentially there was a TFT model
- Best of all - it’s got an ESS AudioDrive sound card built in! Very rare to see on 486 laptops.
- keyboard appears slightly different too.

All this makes it a real shame they junked the case and screen. Now I’m real curious to see what it could have looked like. Google has got NOTHING for this model number. Very odd as you can find numerous listings on worthpoint and such for the SLC and SX models. WinBook documentation also doesn’t state anything about these really, other than they existed and had this processor option. No mention of the ESS card either which is strange.

Edit: never mind! WinBook says they maxed out at DX2-50. Maybe this one was only Jetta branded? But otherwise where would they have gotten the WinBook from? There were none of these Jetta laptops listed or listed as sold still currently with WinBook branding. Still no mention of a sound card in their spec sheet - in fact they say it was not available.

Very interesting stuff! I’m really hoping a complete unit comes up some day.

 

[3lectr1c]

Well, I picked up an XL off eBay.

It's working great so far. Took it apart and no sign of a VARTA battery either. These have mad hinge issues though so I'm going to have to take apart the screen and reinforce with epoxy to keep it in one piece. It looks ok, for now. Not going to operate the hinge until I do so.
Mine's a mid end config. 12 inch TFT LCD, 233MHz Desktop Pentium MMX, 64MB upgraded EDO memory.
These have an actual OPL3 in them so it should make a nice DOS system once I get the DOS sound driver working. Adlib audio isn't coming through at the moment, but sound works in windows.
Battery is dead but of course it is.
Now that I have one, I'll be able to get a lot more info on it up on the site too. It's a nice system, I like it! Great keyboard too. Screen on mine is bright and not at all yellow. Very lightly used from the looks. Got it for $60 shipped.

Also, I've got more info on that mysterious parts listing. I contacted the seller, and they provided photos of the laptop from before it was taken apart. It isn't a WinBook though, just a Jetta model that's a bit similar to the 486 Jetta-made WinBooks.
Specifically, it's a Jetta Jetbook E1 series. Info on it, including the seller's photos (they gave permission for me to use them) are now also up on my site here: https://macdat.net/pc/jetta/e1_home.html

 

[danlieberman]

I recently bought a couple of WinBook 486 laptops off of eBay. In the process of getting them working, I ended up looking into finding more information about them, but could find only a couple mentions of them on Google, and no real info about what they were. In fact, there was hardly any info about WinBook the brand at all! However, the info was still out there, just hidden in the depths of the Wayback machine. Through hours of research and browsing, I uncovered WinBook's two websites (www.winbook.com and www.winbookcorp.com) which housed extensive technical documentation about WinBook laptops, drivers for every one of their laptops, and their manuals. Through other sources, I found multiple full-page print advertisements for the 486SLC model that I bought, the ODM manufacturers of many of their early laptops and more. I'd say that I probably know the most about these laptops out of anyone in the world right now, besides for the original designers if they're still around. But that's a problem! This is important history that is currently still out there, but is quickly being lost to the depths of time. We need to preserve it! There were quite literally a hundred different laptop manufacturers back in the 90s, and besides for Dell, Apple, Compaq, Toshiba, and the other common brands, there is just about no online information about the more obscure ones, which make up half of what's on eBay nowadays. I aim to change this. Starting with WinBook, I'll be creating extensive documentation for every 90s model on my website, www.macdat.net, and I plan to move on to other obscure brands after that. My goal is to have a resource that we can all use when we find one of these random laptops we know nothing about. For an example on what each page will involve, you can check out the pages I created for the WinBook SLC/SX DX series laptops here: https://macdat.net/pc/winbook/486series_home.html

Here's where you come in:
If you own ANY WinBook laptop from the 1990s-2000s, I could really use any information, and most importantly, PHOTOS of it. I'm not taking random photos off the internet (the few there even are of these models) without the owner's permission. If you've got anything to offer, I'd really appreciate it. Let's put WinBook back on the map!

Several things come to mind....

1. Why? Why would anyone waste hours on this ? Lol
2. Thank god the registration process on this website is adequate in keeping people away because it was a doozie lol
3. I have a winbook. Just fired it up but the cmos is messed up. I have a whole bunch of old laptops at home and work. You can have the ones you want just cover shipping.
4. Ill email ya pics of this one but your own website doesnt even have an email address listed. Lol

Email me if you want: danliebermail@gmail.com

 

[3lectr1c]

Just sent you an email.