Mysterious Laptop: got info on my MiniVMac Hack Chassis?

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Not much to go on, it's from a large government purchase for an agency which will go unnamed. h34r:



Has anyone seen this one before? It goes by NOTEBOOK COMPUTER B2.

There's more info: Orange pi ONE Laptop Build . . .
 

 

[Gorgonops]

*shrug* Everyone and their dog was making 386sx/sl laptops like that in the 1990-1992-ish time period so it's *really* hard to say anything much about it. It could be an OEM Librex, although its hinge layout doesn't match any Librex that turns up in a quick Google search. (It doesn't *really* match the layout of the one you put a picture of in your thread at the other site, for that matter.) Hardly matters if you're just going to gut it anyway?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Doesn't match? You're kidding right?

 

[Gorgonops]

Doesn't match? You're kidding right?

No, I was referring to the one in the "Greek auction listing", that one off the Japanese website does indeed look like a dead ringer for yours. Unfortunately it's such a tiny picture and the fact that it's a native Japanese version of it doesn't help us much in trying to track down if it was ever sold or reviewed under a US name *as* a Librex. In the PC Mag archive on Google Books there are multiple reviews of Librex-brand notebook computers but I haven't found one that looks much like yours...

No, wait, I found it. It's a Librex R386SL:

https://books.google.com/books?id=v9TVJ_G_sk8C&lpg=PA240&ots=Yi1-Rl_AUm&dq=Librex%20R386SL&pg=PA240#v=onepage&q=Librex%20R386SL&f=false

According to the review the company apparently folded up its tent and left town in April 1993. That raises the interesting question of whether your unit was sourced directly from the Japanese parent company as an OEM (which might explain its lack of badging) or if the customer bought them as "Librex"-es and specificially wanted them de-badged.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Very cool! Mine's definitely a direct purchase on a large scale by the gov't. The covers for the fasteners holding the case together were put in place and set in stone to prevent tampering. I've never seen anything like it! Also, there are no contacts provided for putting a third(?) battery into the FDD Bay, just the standard FDD connector and a metal wall. The docking connector on the back was locked up tight at the factory with no way to open it. Not your run of the mill set of features. Interesting that the "calculator" is just a DOS prompt setup LCD though, that's a surprise.

edit: forgot to mention that the tag on the bottom looks to be standard issue Librex, but the top portion for branding is just blank space and that strange model number: NOTEBOOK COMPUTER B2

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

With the generous help of samurai-j, I've been able to piece together what's probably a much clearer version of two machine translations of this post:

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* 新日鉄 Librex
友人からもらった。
知ってる人はおそらくそれほどいないマシン(笑)。
強烈に個性的なノートパソコンで、合体組み立て合体ロボットみたいにバラバラになる。
HDDやフロッピーディスクはもちろんのこと、液晶モニター部分もレバー一つで引っこ抜け、
モノクロLCD に差し替えたり出来た。 http://teeart.net/mi...et/misc/pc.html
___________________________________________________________

* Nippon Steel Corporation Librex
I got it from a friend. A laptop (笑) that there is probably not anyone knowing very much about it.
With an individual Notebook PC, I can take it apart with Transformer robot intensity.
Not to mention the removable HDD and floppy disk, I was able to pull off the LCD monitor part with one lever,*
an then replace the monochromatic LCD.**
___________________________________________________________

* There are two tabs on either side of the hinge assembly on mine, sliding them to the outside frees the LCD for release and reinsertion.
**It's a 4bit grayscale LCD, often confused with 1bit B&W LCDs in common usage of this infuriatingly, eternally equivocal terminology.

If anyone else can offer a fairer translation from the Japanese, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the detective work ,eudi.

image edited for clarity and posted for educational purposes
credit: PC MAGAZINE DECEMBER 22, 1992