Osborne Encore

[curtis]

Well, finally had a chance to tinker a little with the Osborne Encore I picked up.

I actually got it in a couple of weeks ago, but was so busy it just sat in the computer room. Wife couldn't believe it sat there that long!

Anyway, when I pulled it out of the packing I was very impressed with how good a condition it was in. Very few scrapes and dings.

I attempted to open the floppy drives and could get the door on the A drive to trigger. Finally got a dental probe in there and tripped the latch. There was a floppy disk wedged in there! Pulled it out and did my best to flatten it on the odd chance it might be bootable.

Checked the battery compartment with a lot of fear. The battery looked brand new with no corrosion! Plugged the power supply into the AC and into the computer. Hit the power switch. It came on showing the calendar, map and clock! Okay, it's not dead!

Pressed the diskette icon to boot off the disk that was wedged in the drive. IT BOOTS!!!!!!!

dir shows only command.com on that diskette. Pulled out a 3.3 I've got and repeated the same process. Boots up like a charm.

dir shows all the files and the truncated screen doesn't scroll off the bottom as I had feared.

All in all, this thing is perfect! After finals next week, I'm going to take a little more time checking it out. Will also take pics and let everybody know what I got.

 

[tezza]

Well done on the Ozz Encore. I'd like to see some pics!

Tez

 

[barythrin]

So, I'm confused ;-) I thought you already had an Encore? I can't remember if you sold it or maybe it had an issue of some sort?

 

[curtis]

I do have another one, but it's suicided on me! At first, it'd turn on and give the typical calendar/map screen. However, when I inserted ANY disk, bootable or not, it'd choke on itself.

I pulled the drives out to see if perhaps they were toast and when I very carefully reassembled, it decided to die on me. Absolutely dead. Pulled it apart again and checked all connectors and looked for any visible damage to no effect.

So, right now, I am the proud owner of 1 fully functional Osborne Encore and 1 parts machine.

I have considered testing parts from the dead one in the working one, but I'm afraid the death throes might be contagious!

Anyway, pictures to follow.

So, I'm confused ;-) I thought you already had an Encore? I can't remember if you sold it or maybe it had an issue of some sort?

 

[curtis]

Finally found time to get the Encore on the workbench and shoot some pictures of it.

Here they are (hopefully)

 

[curtis]

Okay, looks like the limit for attachments is 5, so here's 5 more pics.

I've got one more picture to upload.

 

[curtis]

Okay, sorting through all these pics, you can see the unit is in almost pristine condition. No visible scratches or gouges. Heck looks almost like it was never out of the box!

When I got it, there was a floppy jammed in the A drive. Took a dental pick to get it out and I was about to toss the diskette when I decided on a whim to straighten it out and see if it would boot. Much to my surprise, it did! DOS 5.0! Nothing on it except command.com and the hidden files.

I then booted with a MS-DOS 3.3 diskette. Fired right up. I did a chkdsk and the results are as you see. Only 228K of RAM.

Battery hasn't leaked and it's the same for all 3, the Zenith Z-170(1), Morrow Pivot, and Encore. This one won't hold a charge more than a minute or 2. May see about getting it rebuilt.

The back panel is pretty bland. No way to add an external CGA like in the Zenith, and I believe the Morrow. Only ports on this one are parallel and serial and a place for a phone jack.

Well that pretty well sums it up.

Questions class?

 

[1ajs]

is that the machean that osborn went bankrupt trying to bring to market cause they jumped the gun?

 

[curtis]

No, that was the Executive and Vixen.

The Encore was supposed to be the resurrection of the company.

However, the non-standard screen and lack of funding as a result of the previous bankrupcies killed them before the Encore was came out.