LGR - Zenith Z-171 Vintage Computer System Overview

Zenith may not have been the biggest name in computers in the 80's, but the Z-171 is a pretty awesome machine. One of the first portable battery-powered PCs, as well as one of the first to utilize a backlit LCD display!
Music from Incomptech (Airport Lounge by Kevin Macleod)

[@nadieselgirl]

I serviced these professionally as a teenager. They had manuals written for the military, diagnose down to the component level. It was fantastic.

[@itsthesola10]

"Highly bought in quantities of high quantities." -- LGR 2012

[@williamhayden7711]

Classic right?

[@ericsills6484]

ah, the days before scripting videos. Let's just do this off the top of our head!

[@ericsills6484]

@Pain_Is_Good Kiss my second ass!

[@sbarron1983]

You should take that thing into a Starbucks and see what kind of looks you get!

[@TheHabitman]

Do it. This could be a strange offshoot of LGR. Just shoot it on the way back from one of your thrifts.

[@KoalaBerzerker]

In fact, I approve this xD And a video about it would be nice too :D

[@Munk451]

I am itching to see that!

[@TheCluelessYoutuber]

"ew your computer sucks it's not a mac" -Hipster

[@barestclareferrymemes3423]

Steven Barron Hipster 1 ' omg your Mac is so thick'-has 2016 model, Hipster 2 'well at least I have a cd drive'-2012 mac, LGR ' my computer is larger than your future and your macs, and has a floppy drive'-has this beast of a pc

[@timmooney7528]

I used to work for ZDS from 1990-96 in the service area. I recall the IRS had these, and one time one came through the depot with a 10mb hard drive installed. I bet the hard drive and controller cost as much as the portable! The supertwist lcd (like in the above model) was the sharper display, which replaced a yellow on greenish lcd. One of the most common problems with this model was the ribbon cable that connected to the keyboard. It would get pinch, then split the circuit traces. This was remedied with a new cable glued to a flexible plastic strip to keep it from flexing too much. I recall seeing them come through the department up to 1992. They were somewhat ancient by then. Even thigh the bios says 1985, this appears to be a later upgraded model from about 1987.

[@dwightpurdy7635]

I marketed a hard disk drive adapter for the Z-171. That really changed the game for what it could do. I acquired the rights and inventory from the guy who created it when he had little luck in marketing it. I took it to a national market and did well with it until obsolescence took over and the Z-171 market disappeared. I discarded my last Z-171 and the last hard drive adapter when I sold my house back in 2006. Kinda made a big lump in my throat.

[@manoflego123]

That's really cool to know actually, thanks for sharing this story.

[@FennixGamingYT]

If I ever get a Z-171 I’ll get in contact with you!

[@bagel0001]

i have a Z-171 where can i get a hard drive connector

[@cellularmitosis2]

LGR has really come a long way. Great testament to dedication and hard work over many years

[@Jooglesberry]

It's got an ultrawide display as well

[@VicodinElmo]

I actually have an oversized clothes peg lying around (no, I don't know where I got it) so your frame of reference was surprisingly of use to me.

[@jothain]

19:30 That's really cool feature. Multitasking on such old hardware. I didn't know that level of OS customization even existed back then.

[@TheSimoc]

Yep. Irony is that Apple and Android dithced the usable multitasking, as they arrogantly think they can know better than user what user wants to run and what not. LOTS of apps never or seldom used keep persistently running in background, all while spotify playing music gets killed when you swap briefly for browser, memo, or sms app, and even when you happen to get a phone call. But when youhave intentionally stopped spotify playback to quit listening music, and you do something really else, even resource-hungry activities, lo and beholdyou can, see that Spotify is still running in background after weeks of unuse! And same applies with background navigation with voice and notification guidance, gps tracking, voice recorders, data acquistion, security and safety apps, and lots of other mission critical apps, making Android practically useless platform due to unreliability for such critical, widely used functionality for which smartphones have been invented in first place, among with all kinds of user-configurable software behavior. And horrible bloat and inefficient programming have contributed both the unreliability on LMK-based aka. broken-by-design memory management scheme, and the general record of all-time-poor usability and performance on "modern" (in reality, heavily retarded) software of all categories. I love computer nostalgy because back then there prevailed true professionality and all popular products had better usability and actual performance.

[@evoblade2000]

Those add on functions that existed at low level (calculator, schedule, etc) were pretty bad ass. I really don't think there was anything else that could do that. If I were someone that needed to travel with a computer in the eighties, I would have gladly logged around this sewing machine.

[@Cataclysmal]

2:38: this thing was pretty friggin small *grunts the grunt of a thousand men *

[@BobofWOGGLE]

"I think it's only about 14 pounds," he says, referring to a _portable_ computer. We've come a long way, and I'm glad we did.

[@TiberianFiend]

+Bob Woggle Have you ever tried lugging a Commodore SX-64? It weighs over 20 lbs., and it doesn't even have a battery.

[@wotsac]

The Zenith z161 was more like 45 pounds. It was a pretty big improvement for the time.

[@HackThePlanetNow]

Bob Woggle my gaming laptop weighs about 12 pounds so not really that far haha.

[@thescrewfly]

This is at the low end of the machines usually referred to as "luggable".

[@BEdmonson85]

I owned an Alienware gaming laptop, m9750 i think, 19" screen nvidia SLI dual graphics cards back aroun '07 that thing was over 10lbs.

[@luiscanamarvega]

Old LGR videos are a warm blanket of comfort.

[@novafawks]

For those wondering; Its very likely the clock looped around to the earliest possible date the system can display(usually Jan 1, 1969) Or, it'll be stuck at 12/31/2015, but it's WAW more likely for the former

[@iCach0]

It would be sweet to see a quick followup video on what happens to this computer after 2015.

[@dradeel]

I'll have to be honest, I'm a bit impressed by its multitasking capabilities. That's nifty! They even struggle with making multitasking well in today's portable systems. Relative to the limitations of the day, this machine probably did it better than many phones and handheld devices do today.

[@TheSimoc]

Yes. We had perfectly working multitasking with PC Windowses beyond human memory, as well as on smartphones with Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. However, those eventually got displaced for bad with Windows Phone, iOS, and Android, which all ditched the true multitasking from their design paradigms entirely. They instead took a persistent grab on broken-by-design philosophy that system and apps would know users' need better than the user, which in reality cannot even theoretically work ever, and would also give pure zero advantage over traditional user-controlled multitasking anyway. Latter would have been able to provide all same minor advantages with simple OPTIONAL automation features, which user could have activated to work on certain known patterns where user would desire such. But the companies are purely ego-driven and refuse to even acknowledge their stupidity about their entire paradigm concept, and keep on rather worsening it with even more confusion-and-bloat-contributing overengineered "solution". That, combined with all other horrible code bloat, as well as terrible UI design, has more than nullified mostly all development on software and especially hardware technology over last two decades. Since late 90's, there have been any hardware limitations on any average use purposes for computers. Only heavy state-of-the-art gaming, video editing, and to lesser extent some frivolously super-hyper-hd-video streaming needed to ever upgrade hardware. All the other everyday tasks were piece of cake for any computer, and should be still. But unprofessional software industry has created new problems, with even more problematic solutions.

[@patryksg]

I love this show, as it gives me an overview of personal computer (and computing) history, in an entertaining way.

[@megamanfan3]

Talk about multitasking. You can run PC-Man while using the calculator

[@VGA_Guy]

This is the first LGR video I ever remember watching, ages ago. Started to watch your uploads (before I had a youtube account) around 2014, I believe. Keep up the awesome channel.

[@LGR]

Thanks, I'm glad you've stuck around!

The oversized clothes peg remembers me of the pair of giant keys he used as a measure unit in his Compaq Contura review. Awesome.

[@wotsac]

I had one of these for a few minutes maybe 25 years ago. It was a real step up from the z161, which was a more conventional portable form factor, which they achieved by taking a desktop z151 computer, and shoving that and a 9" monitor in a distinctly unusual case, with the floppy drives on a pop-up tray on the top of the computer. Was it heavy? SO HEAVY. 45lbs heavy!

[@dave4shmups]

Great video! I LOVE these overviews and reviews you do of old computers!!

[@kc8hnz]

You have really come a long way in production quality!

[@visitation4908]

Sleep like a baby tonight. Love to see progression through your videos

[@Jaredsfarm]

I'm totally coming back to your channel in 3 years to check the clock on this computer!

[@Nielsblog]

This is probably the first machine you reviewed I'm really getting intrested in. I want one!

[@8BitPicklez]

That oversized clothes peg really helped me with a size estimate. Many thanks, Clint!

[@flyingninja1234]

We had a Zenith cable box in wood grain, when wood grain was popular.

[@frugalprepper]

My high school had 4 of these that we could check out and take home. Teachers got first dibs so every day after school I would see if one was left, and if it was I took it home. I learned Turbo Pascal on one of these!

[@1943crab]

I used to work for Heathkit, which was owned by Zenith Data Systems at the time. I sold lots of their computers as well as several of the new (1984) 128 k Macintosh computers. Later I worked directly for ZDS and became their regional training director for a seven estate region. ZDS was bought by a French company, who only wanted their twist LCD technology. They shut everything else down and dissolved it. I had to find another computer support engineer position.

[@shokforums]

I came across one of these in the mid 90s and still have it now, haven't powered it up since maybe 98 but I have to start it up now and see how it handles 2016. I spent countless hours on it back in the 90s logging into a BBS and then using IRC from the BBS client.

[@facechewer]

I like how you are saying it's so small and when you move it we hear a nice ,"nghhhh, ugghhhh, gahhhh"

[@dangerforthebrain2]

i just realised, this video was released on my birthday, a little late :( but hardware reviews are my favorite thing on your channel!

[@TheOtherSteel]

KZbin offers me a video from eight years in the past. I watch.

[@TheTurnipKing]

4:06 Huh. It's 2015. What's the deal with this thing's clock, now?

[@toddstewart9070]

My father used to bring one of these home from his workplace to do work at home on in 1986, I remember playing Frogger on it. This was just before we got our 1st computer, the AT&T XT 8086 with CGA gfx in 1987.

[@charles9655]

You're the only person on youtube to review old computers in fact you're the only person to give any details about the computer. :-)

[@wolfcanine100]

8 bit guy as well

[@spiderjerusalem100]

Great interesting stuff as always. Thanks for making my inner geek happy.

[@TitanSix]

New LGR video? Woo! It is always a good day when a LGR video is uploaded.

[@willrun4fun]

That Refresh rate is so awesome

[@robertkilbourne323]

Gotta love the refresh rates on those old LCDs.

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

Hey, if you still have the computer, see if it still boots and runs in 2016 :P

[@LGR]

Certainly! Just doesn't roll over into 2016 is all :)

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

Lazy Game Reviews What do you mean by that? It didn't automatically move over to 2016 or it just can't move over to 2016?

[@JadenYukifan28]

+Matt Brine It was from 1985, meaning that it CAN'T go forward.....2016 hadn't even "appeared" yet back then

[@JadenYukifan28]

danielroxheaps I really don't want to think about that....lol

[@Zellio2011]

Brooke Katz Then how would it show time after you bought it? The real problem is this old architecture that's 8 bit and 16 bit suffer from the y2k bug

[@parnicksmusick]

Such a cool vintage gear review, thanks!

[@parca95]

i would love to cram a modern day pc or notebook in there. just for shits and giggles

[@Chaos89P]

Especially if you get an emulator for the OEM!

[@ess1898]

mine also has the strap and power supply. I got mine in the exact same way back in 1995 or so. the IRS used to use them and a guy got a huge pallet of them at an auction when they dumped them. I got myself and my uncle one and introduced him to BBS systems.

[@Audiomancer]

Wow, this thing seems reeally impressive for the era in which it was released.

[@teranokitty]

Cool, thank you for the information, and thank you for the awesome video!

[@PeaceLoveAndGuns]

Lol! I love the size reference! The almighty and ubiquitous over-sized clothes pin!

[@semco72057]

The price was one of the reasons that Zenith went out of business in this country. I have one of their portables and love it. The one I have came with MS-Dos 5.0 on it and I got it from a friend at my last job who was selling used computers and I gave him 75.00 dollars for it. The carrying bag didn't come with mine but there was one included with it. The one you have is larger than mine and they didn't have the internet then, but there was bulletin boards to connect to through the model. I still have some of the cables and need a battery since it didn't come with one. I hope that I can still get a battery from one company who sells batteries for computers and other hardware. My computer came with the monocrome screen also and I want to put Windows 3.0 on it and see if it works since I have that OS on CD from Tandy.

[@unspeci8852]

Shout-out to his cat walking in the background at 6:41 or so

[@jackkraken3888]

And I thought his house was haunted.

[@Heliocentric]

@ 6:26

[@ParanormalNewsToday]

Zenith: ZEE-NITH.

[@kelli217]

Clint tended, at least during the time frame of making this video, to prefer British pronunciations, though he does not try to use a British accent. Note that he also says COMPosite.

[@denniswoycheshen]

Never heard it with the soft e before. Like, ever. Interesting. I have probably been hearing it wrong.

[@Aleph-Noll]

@@kelli217 yeah ive noticed that too kinda weird

[@override7486]

Zee? It's Zenith, like Zebra, not Zeebra.

[@SimirJohnson]

Quality goes in before the name goes on.

[@frankbergmanII]

I thought this was going to be a lazy sewing machine review at the beginning. Zenith used to make the best consumer electronics on the market.

[@WAQWBrentwood]

I can attest to that I have a 1939 Zenith console radio. It's used almost daily (especially during baseball season!).

[@YEUWYU]

Great review as always

[@toddstewart9070]

My dad had one of these in 1986 that he used for work. I used to play frogger on it.

[@evanescencespawn6]

I think it would be awesome to go back in time and bring a pc of the same price with you and show them what we have now. Just to see the look on their faces. Even just a tablet and a smart phone.

[@alexriesenbeck]

This is fantastic LGR! Love these old laptops, wish I didnt smash my collection when I was young... ahh youth

[@macbuff81]

that screen reminds me of my first GameBoy I used to play with in the mid 90s :)

[@johnandrewthomas1981]

Very impressive machine!

[@ConfuSomu]

I saw your cat!!

[@TheStanHill]

ConfuSomu , hope it was named Duke

[@ryanisagamer1106]

So, you mean, back in the day, you could take this thing on a road trip with a case full of games and play? Dude, that's rad.

[@lucianodinino]

I would try to make a phone call with that thing. Magic jack phone line, receiver, the computer, and a phone number all put into one situation. Too much awesome to handle.

[@jonathanpusar5931]

Crazy to think how dominant Zenith were at one point, and now they're just LG's budget brand.

[@StCerberusEngel]

That vintage LCD ghosting... more like LSD amirite!? XD Time is the enemy of all things.

[@santisven]

I wonder if i'm the only geek subscribed to this channel in Argentina.

[@Turnbull50]

I love the idea of a guy going around selling glass vacuum cleaners (or even a wicker one)

[@DKGCustom]

it would be cool to hear tech comparisons of all the gear you have reviewed and the series 'Halt and catch Fire'

[@smittenthekitteninmittens2679]

all the best wicker toilet salesmen had Zenith machines

[@teknifix]

Man I want one of these now. Damn you!

[@ThomasSpychalski]

I lol'd when we got to the carrying strap..I lived through this era...they had some strange features...but no more strange then the Gamecube's handle later I guess...

[@just_a_saeu88]

that looks so good :D

[@ess1898]

I still have one of these (at least if my dad didn't throw it out.) I got it for 20$ at a flea market and used it as a portable terminal to get onto BBS systems and my UNIX shell account in the 90s. I had one floppy wtih DOS in one drive and a floppy with procomm plus in the second drive.

[@Jaguara87]

At around 8:50 I was more interested in the cat than the computer itself.

[@SeerShadow]

I love Zeniths products.

[@josephlafaele1]

Bout time you uploaded a video, i need my hit man. :P

[@RetroGamerVX]

Oooh, I love your hardware reviews, this has cheered up my nightshift :o) The earlist 'laptop' I have is the 286 which is awaiting the power supply but I really want one of these early 'luggables' to go with it too :o) After 2015, Rocket engines come out of the bottom and it flies it'self to the moon!! ;o) I think I've seen one similar to this on the Computer Chronicles :o) Nice drives, quite slimline on the outside and love the covers :o) Tv out on a luggable, posh. What you really.....

[@TehNewV]

I love the awkward-ass blue-ass primitive LCD screen of this old-ass computer.

[@markfrancis-he4ve]

the zenith. never seen this before. Gonna tell my mates about this one.

[@Vitor_hugo25]

please make more episodes like this

[@markwood7319]

I know this is an old video but that would be an awesome base for modding in new components and RGB haha

[@EmergencyChannel]

I collect Zenith radios and TV's. Zenith is probably best known for inventing the remote control and being the last company to use hand soldered chassises when most companies used printed circuit boards. Zenith made mean't quality from 1940 to the late 1970's. Many Zenith radios and TV's still function with minor repairs. The 1980's brought trouble for Zenith, and by 1996 Zenith was fully owned by LG. Sadly most of the great American electronics manufactures are gone, including Curtis Matthew.

[@SammyRenard]

I wanna hug that computer

[@offperception]

Pretty cool video review, LGR! How about the Compaq Portable 3/386 next time? It is only similar to the Zenith in form factor, but actually runs on DOS and has this amber gas-plasma screen, which works really well for games. Let me know if you're interested but can't find one, I have a spare european model, though it ought to work in the US.

[@WAQWBrentwood]

I could see having this for some vintage programming (BASCOM MS FORTRAN, etc) and to run WordStar, ETC just for fun as it would take less space than an IBM-PC.

[@alxcuisine9575]

A user named Bourbaki , awesome !

[@benjaminbowman1866]

The way this is filmed makes it seem like cherished home video of a young family member, but it's actually about a 14 pound computer lol

[@onofriomasina4916]

Freaking cool machine!

[@NESMASTER14]

it's about the size of 2 over-sized clothespins :) neat system, thanks for sharing

[@CaptainSouthbird]

11:10 "Set to 1985 because Marty McFly." There must be a way I can just shift reasoning to Marty McFly somewhere in general conversation.

[@98of99]

Oversized paper clip as a basic unit of measure - priceless

[@windows95se]

Still better than the Imperial system.

[@floof5359]

atleast that it goes in STANDARD AND NOT 16 TO 12 TO 3 TO 5280, WHAT THE HECK

[@evilkillerwhale7078]

16ths of an inch make sense. 2^4. Meaning that you can, with your eyes, get highly accurate measurements without tools. 12 inches in a foot because 12 is a perfect number and highly divisible. Yards and feet are different types of measure, which happen to be 3 to 1. 5280 was 4000. Then 5000. Then the British decided to ruin that beauty by making it 5280. And all of those steps make sense. 4000 feet is 1000 (mille) Roman steps. Over 2000 years, we've gotten larger, and 1000 steps became 5000 feet. The British cared about the furlong. So 5280 was used because it was close enough. All of the systems are based around using your body and simple tools for measurement. I always have my knuckles to measure inches. I always have my feet to measure feet. I always have my paces to measure miles. How often do you have the ability to measure the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299782458 second? I'm going to say... never. Yes, the metric system makes expressions in scientific fields potentially simpler. Acting like that makes it a better unit system for everyday usage, however, is stupid.

[@MycroSopht]

does this pre-date the banana for scale?

[@jobsgarage]

I like these, old computer, video, things on the KZbin thing. ;-D

[@Roxor128]

Oh, I remember the issues with old LCD screens from back when I had a 486SX laptop with a black and white screen. The smearing was tolerable most of the time, but it did make some games awfully hard to play.

[@WedgeBob]

Kind of like the ancestor to the laptop/notebook.

[@alexsmith6607]

OzzY Osborne Encore! :) Would be sweet to play a bit from ozzy when that picture was up hehe , but with goggle how they are , guess your video would get pulled in a heart beat :(

[@samsulummasamsulumma6898]

Also marketed as the Osborne 3. Some say it had improved on the Encore's IBM PC compatibility. Not sure, though, info is scarce on the internet or elsewhere.

[@46danz]

It’s funny when i hear 1985 as retro,it feels like yesterday.Also young folks piss me off,must be getting old.

[@Wingnut353]

Just FYI, you can attach a monitor or TV via composite to it... if you have the video card upgrade.

[@OneEyedJack1970]

You know it's old-school when the keyboard flips out instead of the monitor screen flipping up.

[@terabyte13]

thinner than macbook air!

[@StellaFoxxie]

Macbook airs great grandma

[@valtonwilson]

"birk!" that made me lol