Brother Meritus A53
The Brother Meritus A53 is a Socket 7-based desktop replacement laptop that was released in 1998. This laptop is extremely rare - this is only page on the internet that describes this system in any detail. Brother's website from the late 90s also never referenced this machine, at least, not in any place I could find. I can only document this laptop because one showed up on eBay and I bought it. I bought mine in the US from a US seller, but I think these were sold in the UK. The keyboard layout is almost, but not quite a UK layout.
One thing I can say for sure is that Brother didn't manufacture this machine - Veridata did, and Veridata's archived website did have a specsheet for a model A53. Veridata at this time was owned by CTX, and mostly manufactured laptops for them, but they did occasionaly supply laptops for other companies. The A53 is special because it is not a model that CTX sold. Currently, the Meritus A53 is the only version of it that I've seen. The manual references that there was another version of this laptop that used MMC1 processor modules instead of Socket 7 CPUs.
Luckily, the CPU jumper codes are printed on the back of the CPU cover. Mine came with a 266MHz Pentium MMX, but it supports the correct voltages to run a K6-2, at least in theory. The fastest clock speed printed is 266MHz.
One weird feature of this laptop is that it supported the extremely short-lived 3-inch hard drive standard. The specsheet references that you can use 2.5 or 3-inch drives, and the A53's hard disk bay is definitely large enough to fit one. That being said, exceptionally few of these laptops likely came configured with the 3-inch drives, and installing one would require the proprietary adapter that Veridata would have made, which is complete unobtanium, just like any other parts for this laptop.
Despite having Chips & Tech graphics, the A53's BIOS does proper (or close to proper) DOS screen scaling. This combined with the Yamaha sound chip makes this laptop a great DOS-gaming system, if you can find one.
Specifications
Specs below include all options listed by Veridata - it's possible that not all of these were sold by Brother.
| Spec | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | CPU Type: Socket 7 Intel Pentium MMX @Up to 266MHz |
| Chipset | Intel 430TX |
| RAM | Type: EDO or SDRAM, 1 slot Standard: 16MB Soldered Maximum: 80MB |
| Hard Disk | 2.5" or 3.0" IDE Uses proprietary adapter?: Yes Standard: N/A |
| Display Options | - 13.0" Passive Matrix LCD @1024x768 - 13.3" Passive Matrix LCD @1024x768 - 13.3" Active Matrix LCD @1024x768 - 14.1" Active Matrix LCD @1024x768 |
| Graphics Chipset | Chips & Technologies 65555 VRAM: 2MB |
| Audio | Yamaha OPL3-SAx - Stereo Speakers - Microphone |
| Main Battery | NiMH or Lithium Ion (Duracell Standard) |
| CMOS Battery | Soldered 1220 Lithium |
| Power Supply | Barrel Jack |
| Disk Drives | 3 Spindle (double-height modular bay) - 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive - CD-ROM Drive |
| PC Cards | 2x PCMCIA/CardBus Slots (2x Type II/1x Type III) - ZoomVideo Support |
| Networking | Modem (Optional) |
| Other I/O | - 1x Parallel - 1x Serial - 1x VGA Out - 1x PS/2 - 1x Dock Connector - 1x MIDI/Game Port - 2x USB 1.x - 1x Composite Out - 1x Mic In - 1x Line In - 1x Headphone Out - Infrared |
| BIOS | AMI (GUI) |
| Pointing Device | Trackpad |
Resources
 Driver CD-ROM |
 User Manual |
|---|
Common Faults & Maintenance
The plastic on this laptop has gone very brittle with age, and it will form cracks near the display hinges no matter what. You will need to add epoxy or some other reinforcement to keep it intact if you're planning on using it. If you take the display bezel off (as you'd need to in order to fix/reinforce the hinge mounts), you're likely to break almost every clip. The hinges have an adjustment nut on them that I'd highly recommend loosening in order to remove as much stress from the plastic as possible. I have mine adjusted so that the display can just barely stay up on its own.
The only other potential design flaw I've found in this laptop is that the DC/DC board (located under the CPU door on the bottom) runs very hot. I don't exactly know if this is a problem, but I can imagine that the heat could cause problems if the laptop has seen a lot of hours of use.
Gallery
Click on an image to view the full-size version.
Page last updated (MM/DD/YYYY): 01/09/2025
Update Reason: converted to php
Have additional information on this laptop? Want to send me photos to use on the site? Send me an email: macdatnet@gmail.com
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