Green 735

Green 735

The Green 735 was a three spindle (meaning it has a floppy, CD & HDD) laptop equiped with a 66 MHz Front-Side Bus (FSB) motherboard.

The Green 735 was sold by Jetta, HyperData, Trogon, ARM Computers and other reseller brands. Overall, the Green 735 can be roughly compared to the Chicony MP983 machine in many ways. Both have USB ports and both supported the AMD K6-2 CPU's. However, the Green 735 has a case cooling fan plus a CPU heatsink plate, mounted under the keyboard, and so doesn't suffer from the cooling problems of the Chicony MP983. The case cooling fan cycles on/off as needed.

The later motherboard revisions could take Intel MMX CPU's (233mmx) or the AMD K6-2 CPU's. These same motherboards can use SDRAM vs. early boards that need EDO RAM. G735 BIOS doesn't appear to support the AMD K6-2+/3+ CPU's and refuses to POST with that CPU. However, CPU Speed with AMD's K6-2 CPU's can go up to 400 MHz (but not with the K6-2/400) and so other than higher power consumption the older K6-2's aren't that much lower in performance at 400 MHz.

A somewhat related laptop to the Green 735 was the Green 756 which was a two spindle design that was somewhat of a cross between most of the features of the Green 735 crammed into the Green 755 two-spindle case. The G756 shared the two CPU daughterboard designs and so the Intel CPU modules removed from a junked G756 (Micron VLX+ or Trek, but not Trek2) may be a cheap replacement for a missing G735 CPU module. However, the socket 7 (mostly AMD CPU's) daughterboard is a better way to go since Intel CPU's stop at 266 MHz.

The Green 735 originally was offered with both a Ni-MH or a Li Ion battery, however at this time I can only supply new Li Ion batteries. Which isn't a bad thing since the Li Ion battery is lighter and have less charge storage problems.

New keyboards are not available and so care should used when working with the keyboard ribbon cable.

The Green 735 had two LCD sizes - a 12.1" TFT or 13.3" TFT LCD.

Maximum hard drive size is unknown to me at this time. I'm guessing that 8.4 MB or 32 MB will be the upper limitation. I know -- big difference. Stay tuned.

CPU's

Green 735 CPU were mounted on a daughterboard that plugs into the motherboard. The daughterboard came in two types. The CPU daughterboard is located under the metal heatplate that is located under the keyboard.

The first daughterboard type had the Intel 233mmx or 266 MHz Tillamook CPU, not a often reported PII. Some people are stating that these modules contain PII's to push the resale value of the Green 735. The Intel modules have soldered 233mmx or 266 Tillamook CPU's mounted to them. These modules have no switches and are auto ID'ed by the BIOS. Updating a Green 735 with one of these modules requires replacing this Type One daughterboard with a Type Two daughterboard.

The second type of daughter board carrier has a Socket Seven CPU socket. This daughterboard has four DIP (small slide switch assemblies) to control the CPU's Vcc voltage plus control the CPU multiplier.

A Intel 233 MMX CPU could be installed in this Type Two daughterboard, but the AMD K6-2 CPU family has a much faster top speed and cheap today. I've seen K6-2 CPU's in the range of 300 MHz to 400 MHz installed. If your Green 735 has a Socket Seven module then I see no reason why you couldn't pull a slow CPU and install a 450 MHz K6-2+. At this time we don't have the correct setup data for the K6-2+ but it does POST.

To replace the CPU in a Type Two daughterboard you need to gently pry out the old CPU. The daughterboard has a set of metal wells soldered to the daughter board to form the CPU female socket. Pry straight up on the sides of the CPU, in several areas until, you can remove the old CPU. Be careful to not break the daughter board when removing or inserting a CPU.

Note: Eight screws in the heatsink plate hold the CPU cooling heatsink and cooler to the heatplate and should not need to be removed when pulling the cooler plate.

Memory

The early Green 735 motherboards seem to work only with EDO SODIMM memory modules and so the effective maximum memory is only two 64 EDO modules. I say this because 128 MB EDO RAM modules are hard to find, very large in size and very expensive.

Later revision motherboards, those that support AMD CPU's, can use both EDO or SDRAM modules. SDRAM is the way to go with these laptops. I haven't worked out at what serial number the switch from only EDO to SD-RAM occurred, but I believe that it happened when AMD CPU's were also supported.

Feedback from owners regarding this would be helpful.

All of the later motherboards support low-profile 2x128MB SDRAM modules and some 256MB SDRAM modules can also be used, but physical size and compatibility is an issue. The 256MB modules that I have require the plastic case to be modified to be inserted into the front memory slot and are slightly too large for the rear slot. I believe that, with care, the front memory connector and the rear RAM module could be carefully trimmed to allow insertion of the second 256MB RAM module, but I haven't attempted this.

To add memory to a Green 735 or to change out the hard drive you need to turn the laptop over and remove the four screws along the front edge of the lower case. Then you turn the laptop right side up and open the LCD panel. Then the palmrest section of the upper case is lifted up and removed. Be careful with the touchpad cable connector. You also need to remove the hard drive module to access the twin memory slots.

Here's some Green 735 spec's from old web sites that I've uncovered:

735 Notebook Computer

High Performance Desktop replacement

from Maxtech!

The new roadwarrior from Maxtech is the perfect desktop replacement! We designed the 735 multimedia notebook to be able to handle all the tasks your desktop would, and much more! From the CPU, hard drive and screen - to the keyboard, PCMCIA slots and communication features - every compact 735 is fully modular to give you maximum flexibility. These barebone systems deliver a wide array of features and options guaranteed to keep you on the cutting edge of today's technology!

SPECIFICATIONS
Size:	12.1" x 9.5" x 2.0"
Weight:	6.8Lbs
CPU:	Pentium MMX/166MHz, Tillamook/266MHz, AMD Mobile K6/300MHz
Core Logic:	Intel 430TX
Memory:	0 MB DRAM Expandable to 256MB (2 slots), supports EDO DRAM and SDRAM (3.3V, 144Pin)
Cache Memory:	512KB L2 Pipline Burst Synchronous SRAM (on CPU Module)
LCD:	TFT: 12.1" SVGA, 13.3" or 14.1" XGA Color LCD
CD-ROM Drive:	5.25" 24X or higher EIDE
FDD:	3.5", 1.44MB (built in)
HDD:	2.5" - 17mm high max, support Ultra DMA, EIDE interface, reseller upgradeable
Keyboard:	89-key Windows 95 compatible
I/O Ports:	USB x 2, Serial , Parallel, CRT, PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse, TV-Out (S Video), Video-in, MIDI/Game, Line-in & out, mic-in, headphone, port replicator, FIR
Audio:	PCI 16-bit stereo sound, AC97 ready, AC-3 3D audio, Sound Blaster 16 compatible
Video:	Neo-Magic NM2160 High Performance Video graphics Accelerator with 2MB embedded video RAM, supports 1024x768x64k color mode on LCD (TFT) and external CRT
PCMCIA:	One type III or two type II, 3.3V/5V with Cardbus and Zoom Video support
AC Adaptor:	Universal, 100V-240V auto-switching (55 watts)
Battery:	Smart Battery, 10-Cell NiMH Battery, optional 9-Cell Lithium Ion Battery
FBattery Life:	Average 2-3 hours (NiMH), 3+ Hours (Li-Ion)
BIOS:	Phoenix - Supports Plug and Play with supervisor passwords
Communication:	HP compatible IrDA, FIR
Security:	Kensington Lock
Optional Accessories:	Port Replicator (mini-dock) with 2 type II PCMCIA slots, Spare Battery, External Charger