WinBook XL

The WinBook XL was a Socket 7 laptop (Pentium MMX/AMD K6-2), initially released in late 1997. It was WinBook's first 3-Spindle notebook, and the first WinBook with AMD processor support. The XL was one of the best-selling WinBooks, and one of the most common today.

The XL ranged from the low to high end depending on configuration options, but WinBook really pushed the low-end models in advertising based on price. Most out there today are base-model units with passive matrix LCDs, but if you can find one that was a little nicer speced, you have yourself a decent machine (aside from one very notable issue - hinge failure - see the issues section for more info on that).

The WinBook XL was manufactured by Twinhead, and was supposedly based on the Slimnote 9TG (aka the P85) according to one source. I actually think it's based on the Slimnote 9TE (aka the P79TE) though. The P79TE has the same video and audio controllers, and a nearly identical design. I don't have a specsheet for the P85 though. It's possible that different XL revisions were based on different Twinhead machines.

Some XL owners back in the early 2000s attempted to create a modified BIOS that would allow the use of AMD K6-2+/K6-3+ CPUs. Unfortunately, these efforts were not successful and such a mod was deemed impossible due to hardware limitations.

Thermal LCD

One specification sheet from WinBook mentions a "12.1 inch Thermal LCD" as an option. I have no idea what this means and no one else seems to either. It also isn't mentioned on other WinBook documentation. Hmm.

Specifications

Spec	Details
CPU	CPU Type: Socket 7 - Intel Pentium MMX "Tillamook" @233, 266, or 300MHz - Intel Pentium MMX @166, 200, or 233MHz - AMD K6-2 @233, 266, 300, or 400MHz
Chipset	Intel 430TX
RAM	Type: EDO or SDRAM, 2x 144pin slots Standard: Unknown Maximum: 128MB
Hard Disk	2.5" IDE Uses proprietary adapter?: No Standard: 2, 3, or 4GB
Display Options	- 12.1" Passive Matrix LCD @800x600 - 12.1" Active Matrix LCD @800x600 - 13.3" Active Matrix LCD @1024x768
Graphics Chipset	Chips & Technologies 65554 VRAM: 2MB
Audio	Yamaha OPL3-SAx
Main Battery	NiMH or Lithium Ion (9 cell)
CMOS Battery	Appears to use a supercapacitor
Power Supply	Barrel Jack
Disk Drives	3 Spindle - Modular 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive - CD-ROM Drive
PC Cards	2x PCMCIA/CardBus Slots - ZoomVideo Support (bottom slot) - TI 1131 Controller
Networking	Modem
Other I/O	- 1x Parallel - 1x Serial - 1x VGA Out - 1x PS/2 - 2x USB 1.x - 1x Composite Out - 1x Dock Connector - 1x Line In - 1x Mic In - 1x Line Out - Infrared
BIOS	AMI
Pointing Device	- Trackpad - TrackPoint (Optional)

Resources

Own a copy of the WinBook XL Restore CD-ROM? Upload it to archive.org and send me an email letting me know!

Drivers	User Manual	Archived Support Pages

Common Faults & Maintenance

These appear to be VERY electrically reliable. Most problems these suffer are structural-related.

Hinge issues and other plastic failures

Most XLs that show up for sale will likely have utterly destroyed plastics around the display hinges. The plastic is most to blame, being brittle like nearly every other 90s laptop. The hinge mount design doesn't help this as well, as it relies on three little plastic screw posts on each side of the screen housing to mount the hinges. There is also a LOT of empty space inside, and the thin screw posts are also quite tall, which I believe leads to a lot of additional flexing. In my own XL (which is actually intact - you can still find them this way), I've blanketed the area around these mounts with JB Weld Plastic Epoxy to attempt to hold things together longer. This helped for a while, but eventually the right side standoffs managed to fail anyway, and the housing stress cracks still slowly got worse. These should be a great candidate for 3D printing though, if you're able to create a design that replaces the original hinge mounts and adds a structural brace inside the case.

I'd also strongly recommend re-lubricating the hinges themselves while you're in there. Mine weren't too bad, but I do get the feeling based on how bad the damage I've seen on some of these is that they're prone to going stiff.

CMOS Battery?

I opened my XL up on day one to check for any signs of a Varta NiMH battery inside, as was so common on 90s-era laptops. I thankfully didn't find one. Granted, I didn't take it 100% of the way apart, but I took it far enough apart that the only other place it could have been was below the motherboard, where it didn't even look like there was enough space for one. Plus, if there was one there, I think I'd be seeing a lot more dead units.

What I also didn't find however, was ANY CMOS battery. What I was able to locate was a small button-sized supercapacitor below the CPU. I believe this cap is being used as a low-capacity CMOS battery of sorts in this model. It wasn't too uncommon to do this, Apple's iBooks and the original X-Box did this. Of course, if you know the original X-Box, you'll know that the supercap in those is extremely prone to leaking. The WinBook XL's isn't that same type, it looks exactly the same as those found in the iBooks. However, I've seen a few instances of those leaking too, so it still may be a good idea to remove or replace this supercap. Mine looked fine last I checked, but I'm going to be closely monitoring it. I'm not sure if these laptops can operate without a working one installed.

Mine still works fine - my XL holds CMOS settings for a couple weeks with power removed.

Other notes

The XL's hard drive plugs in under the modular floppy drive, and doesn't need any sort of proprietary adapter board, so you're safe to buy one that's missing the drive.

The XL Lithium Ion battery uses Sanyo cells, which never work anymore as they're prone to leaking with age. This usually isn't significant enough to cause any damage, but they will let out a bad smell when they're leaking. On the bright side, these batteries look dead simple to rebuild.

The XL uses the exact same TrackPoint caps as IBM ThinkPads, so replacements are still readily available.

I don't currently have the CPU switch settings for the XL. It appears they were at one time posted on the WinBook support forum, but none of those links were saved by the WayBack Machine.