Xerox 3700 Documentation?

Question

Cannot find any documentation on this computer, need some help identifying it. I am pretty sure this is some kind of print server and the date on the parts is 1989.

Answer 1

It looks like you have the control unit (probably including the hard disk, etc.) for a high-end Xerox 3700 laser printing system:

(image source)

The "3700" on the front of the unit and "Product Code M75" on the label both match this product safety data sheet for a "3700 (ESS only)." The unit is described as 54/27/41 cm in width/height/depth, which is about the size of that terminal/control unit on top of the main unit in the picture above.

Documentation Sources

This did a lot more than what you would normally think of even an "intelligent" printer doing today; for example you could [design forms] for it that the printer could locally merge with fill-in data and print for you. Thus, there would have been a lot of manuals for the various hardware and software capabilities; you need to specify more specifically what you're looking for.

• The Centre for Computing History in the UK has a page claiming they've scanned a background/intro manual, but it has only an image of the cover; I can't find a link there for the full scan. At only 21 pages, this wouldn't include detailed information about printer operation anyway.

Watch out, by the way, for various search results saying things like "Xerox Laserjet 3700 Repair Service Manual User Guides PDF, ePub eBook"; these are the usual "pay to get a free manual" sites that have worked to bump their search engine rankings, but the actual manual they provide appears to be for the HP LaserJet 3700, a completely different product. Xerox never used the term "Laserjet" for any of their products; it's an HP trademark.