Hello - Acorn hardware find

[gmt]

Hi all,

I hope I'm in the right forum to ask about this.
I have been clearing an attic (south London area) and unexpectedly came across a load of old Acorn hardware from my youth.

It's a BBC Master (+ disk drive), an A3000 and a RISC PC (I think with StrongArm), (both with hard disks). I'm missing the leads to connect these to a TV and I have no idea whether any of them power up.
There's also a few manuals, some games, a C/C++ compiler, and loads of Acorn User /Archimedes world magazine disks too.

I'm based abroad, so unfortunately I've had to leave them in storage or else I'd have to pay £100s in shipping. I didn't want to just take them to the tip as they have sentimental value and hope someone else might enjoy them, but may eventually have to as storage is time limited. So I'd appreciate your opinions on what I should do with them. Is it possible they are still in working order? Is it a good idea to try to start them up? Are the magazine disks worth keeping?

I'm considering putting them on eBay "sold as seen"? Are they worth anything though? Would anyone be interested in buying without knowing what condition they were in, maybe for parts? I've read there can be problems with the CMOS batteries. I'd also prefer to remove the hard disks, but would this make them useless?

Sorry for all the questions, but it's been nice to find out there's still a fan base for Acorn/RISCOS. I'm still half considering keeping the RISC PC if there's a chance it still works, even if I do need to ship it abroad! I loved writing ARM code back in the day, maybe some of my little demos have survived.

[Multiwizard]

Hi,

welcome to this great Forum...


Greetings from my little Dutch Atomic Attic, Wim...

[lovebug]

Welcome

[jms2]

Great find!

The Master will almost certainly work, but the battery used to store its settings will be flat and so initially it will look like its not working. Hold R during power up to reset the settings.

The other two machines have PCB mounted batteries and so are at risk of corrosion. Even this is fixable though, so don't simply throw them away.

[paulb]

I hope I'm in the right forum to ask about this.

First of all, welcome!

I don't think you've decided what to do with your discovery, so this might be as good a venue as any. Later on, if you decide to offer anything via these forums, there is a forum for selling and giving things away. The moderators apply various sensible rules to such activities which should not be too onerous, but you should familiarise yourself with them if you decide to go that way.

I'm based abroad, so unfortunately I've had to leave them in storage or else I'd have to pay £100s in shipping. I didn't want to just take them to the tip as they have sentimental value and hope someone else might enjoy them, but may eventually have to as storage is time limited. So I'd appreciate your opinions on what I should do with them.

Please don't just throw them away. Someone will always take these things.

Is it possible they are still in working order?

Yes, although you might need to be lucky in some cases.

Is it a good idea to try to start them up?

In general, no. Some machines have power supply components which may fail spectacularly, and there is always a risk that degraded or damaged hardware might suffer from being powered on. As a rule, always try and inspect the internals of computers that have been left unused for long periods of time. And as a rule, do not open up CRT monitors without being aware of the safety hazards they present.

Are the magazine disks worth keeping?

Yes, in my opinion. Most of the later ones are probably not rare, but there may be some that have some rarity for peculiar reasons. Older disks may be less common if they were subscription-only, but that might not be the case here. Otherwise, there are people who like to collect these things, anyway.

I'm considering putting them on eBay "sold as seen"? Are they worth anything though?

Absolutely. Prices on eBay seem fairly crazy. Things that were being discarded decades ago are now desirable again.

Would anyone be interested in buying without knowing what condition they were in, maybe for parts? I've read there can be problems with the CMOS batteries.

I'm no eBay expert, but people do seem to acquire machines for parts in the hope that they may be getting a bargain. Often, untested machines do actually work, but the seller was unable to test them and was at least honest enough to say so, risking a lower sale price. Batteries can indeed be a problem and this is where you can get some advice, even by just searching these forums for previous cases.

I'd also prefer to remove the hard disks, but would this make them useless?

Not at all. Acorn's machines were known for being usable without hard disks, even the later ones in a basic sense. There are plenty of modern storage solutions that can make these machines highly usable again. Others may have some perspectives about hard disks and their contents, whether there might be interesting software on them, whether it needs preserving, and so on.

Hope this helps!

[daveejhitchins]

Welcome to the Forum, gmt . . . Enjoy . . .

I think Paul, above, missed one point: 99.9% of Acorn machines are repairable!

Dave H.

[flaxcottage]

Welcome, gmt.

[Lardo Boffin]

Welcome!

As a regular eBayer - yes someone will buy them.

I personally mostly buy ZX81s to do up. I almost exclusively buy untested ones as these are the only ones that ever go cheap enough to be worth the effort.

Prices can vary enormously from sale to sale with seemingly little reason.

There are a few basic guidelines for getting the best price you can:-

Name it correctly in the title! I once won an auction on a Spectrum 128 toastrack at start price because it was listed as a ‘toastwrack’ and nobody else bid.

Make sure the auction doesn’t finish at an odd time so nobody is around to bid. I found 7 to 8pm on a Friday to be a good end time.

Lots of good photos.

You can set a reserve price and it won’t sell unless it hits that. Personally I don’t do this - when refurbing I set the start price based on how much it cost me.

[gmt]

Wow, thanks for the warm welcome and all the advice.

There's a lot of points to think about there, and I'll probably be back here soon to see if anyone's interested in the magazine disks, games and compiler too, once I have more details!

One other question, is there somewhere to which I could send a vintage computer to have it restored to working order without giving it away?

Cheers!

[a1exh]

It really depends how bad it is.

Refurbish work can be done by https://www.retropassion.co.uk/ they will replace batteries, capacitors, give ultrasonic cleans, update power supplies etc. but they don't fault find. The computer must work or the fault and fix be known before they will take on the job.

They have done several Acorn A3000s that had the battery removed before they had self-destructed too much.

You could discuss an RPC battery repair but I am not sure they would accept it unless you have done the initial fault find as these fixes can be time-consuming if the rot has gone too far.

The most important thing is the next time you have access to storage is that you get them out and remove the batteries and if possible neutralise any alkali spill.

[tricky]

Welcome, sorry I missed this post.
Worth something yes
If it hasn't already been mentioned there is the London riscos user group. "Helpful" can help in sure

[a1exh]

Sold as seen RiscPC with StrongARM - £200-£250
Sold as seen A3000 - £150-£200 (but I expect this to go up as you can now buy replacement motherboard PCB for £65)