ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2020 Entry 4th January 2019: Post 01: Acorn - A3010 and A3020 boot up. Acorn - A3010 and A3020 boot up. I do not have enough Acorn monitors and space to have my Acorns set up to check they are working. One of the issues with the Acorn computers is the need for a battery to auto-boot. So when I removed the batteries to avoid damage to the motherboard I decided not to fit the rechargeable replacements, but to leave them without a battery. To boot into the system the trick is to wait till you get the green 'Num-Lock' light appearing and then hit the DELETE or 'R' key. After a short while there will be disc activity and an orange light and then a short beep. Which means the computer is basically working fine. With the A7000 the hard drive will only be recognised without the battery by first going through the startup process as above but then clicking the application to configure. I then add an IDE drive and like magic it finds the hard drive. With the A3020 there is a hard drive on the machine which you will hear as the machine is fired up. I could fit batteries but I never use the computers so it really isn't necessary. The good news is that all machines were operational. If you do connect an Acorn to a monitor and need to boot this way then you will see a series of coloured rectangles on the screen as the computer boots through its startup process. Below are some very short videos of the four A3010 computers firing up along with the A3020. I include the serial number of all five computers for reference. Tomorrow I plan removing the last battery from my A7000. I also have two A3000 machines which I will test. Acorns are pretty robust I have to say. Shame I never had one in the day. Five Acorns and five videos. Acorn - A3010 and A3020 boot up.

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Last updated 4th January 2020

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