Tandon Computers

 

were good design during the late 1980's , early 1990's and even now. Tandon Corporation was developed after Tandon Magnetics. Tandon Corporation was located in Simi Valley, California. Tandon Corporation maintained it offices until now in Simi Valley. Tandon Corporation had its research and development plant in Moorpark, California. Tandon Corporation had technical support center and repair center were located in Chatsworth, California.

 

 

 Tandon Corp. sold its computers under various names. All Tandon PC names had almost the same great case design. It was sold through Price Club which late become COSTCO.  The brand name that was sold at Price club was called PC Positive. The same series were sold via mail orders were called PC Brand. The Computer Shopper magazine was a leading source for early computer buyers.

PC Positive was sold in 1990 first at Price Club as assembled systems of OEM parts . Shortly after few months, Tandon lunched its customized well done cases with riser board that can take up to 7 add on ISA Cards. The Tandon marketing pitch was " you buy our computer now and lasts you forever". The concept of cadged CPU board in a nice sleek drawer behind the front face was attractive to many.

Tandon sold their PC Positive Computer with Cyris 386 CPU, that shortly was running on Intel 486 CPU. The drawer was so slim that did not deal with  the heat that was generated by the CPU.  It was great computer that ran on MS DOS 5.0 (then 5.1, 5.2, 6.2. I tested it with Novel DOS 7.0 and Dr. DOS 6.0 without any glitches) . PC Positive was loaded with Microsoft DOS and Microsoft Windows 3.0 ). The computer ran greatly with both DOS and Windows 3.1). Tandon PCs came with Fax, Modem, Voice that ran with WinFax Pro (Canadian Developer that later became Norton Win Fax Pro )

PC Brand was sold directly via mail orders. The project ended with many lawsuits between Tandon and others. Tandon Corporation sold the same computers in United Kingdom (UK) under the name Option 486 and Option Pro. In Germany the machines were assembled in Vienna and sold under the name MCS Pro 486/33.

Tandon Corporation had very nice simple BIOS that ran with many languages (hold down ALT + Ctrl then hit Esc. to enter the BIOS). The most common problem with those systems were;
1. Battery 4.5 Volt (Duracell that broken and leaked inside)
2. BIOS file was lost and now way to get a binary file (after Tandon filed for bankruptcy in 1992-93.
3. Keyboard BIOS were damaged wasting motherboard.

Hard drives were 105 meg bite, Floppy 3.5 1.44 meg, and some with 5.25 me double sided.  Tandon Corporation sold its Hard Drive Division to Western Digital.

Customers who bought the desktops 386, 486 series went to buy Tandon Notebook that was very similar to Toshiba. Over all computer ran well. Customers were not very happy when their phone calls were not answered by Tandon. Price Club (Costco) told their members , you are on your own.

After Tandon Corporation going out of business. Its assets were located in one of their current two building in Simi Valley. Computers and parts were sold through Tandon Holding Limited Liability Company (TCL, LLC.).

Once I asked Mr. Paul Toma ( what is Tandon ?) . He responded that the company was started by Dr. Tandon the Drive Man.

To the followers of this blog , I will post pictures of some of Tandon Computers and its marketing materials over 22 years computer with Tandon name.


The picture on the left shows a tower was designed by Apple for Tandon. From some reason the company went out of business in the early 1990's. The founder is still working in the computer industry between the USA & India. There is a considerable number of the machines in the UK, Spain. Many people kept those machine in their storage (collectables).

http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/pcproto/RKS_Tandon.html