Released: Sept 1992
Purchased: Sept 2019 (eBay)
Processor: ARM250 32-bit RISC @12MHz
OS: RISCOS 3.11
I had memories of having used my uncle's A3010 (same machine, but without on-board IDE and with green Fn keys) way back when. Archies are rather unique British machines, now famous for being the first production computers to use Acorn's ARM processors.
Condition & Repairs
Other than being a bit dirty, the machine was in decent condition. Just a little yellowing, with some asset-tag stickers from the school it came from needing removal. Some dish soap and a magic eraser did the trick.
The Varta battery had indeed leaked, causing corrosion around the battery itself and the surrounding ICs, including the CMOS. This was repaired as follows:
- Bathing the affected area in white vinegar, whilst gently scrubbing the corrosion with a toothbrush
- Washing off the vinegar with distilled water
- Repeat until corrosion removed
- Final rinse with distilled water, followed by a spray of IPA to displace remaining water.
Luckily, no traces or ICs were damaged. So, a AA battery holder was soldered to positive and negative points for the old battery, and a rechargeable AA was installed.
Keycaps were all removed and cleaned, with the keyboard frame given a good dusting.
After reassembly, the machine was plagued with phantom keypresses (e.g., press right-shift, and ? or ; were also typed). Also, many keys were extremely sensitive to touch.
This was fixed by removing the sensitive keys and pressing the spring fully home into the keycap using a biro lid.
Finally, a 64GB Disk-on-Module with a right-angle connector was attached to the IDE port.