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First post, by Baoran

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Does the year on the bios sticker chip have anything to do with when the motherboard was made?
Basically I am trying to figure out when a motherboard that I am thinking of using in a build was made and bios chip was the only thing that I have been able to find that had some kind of date. The motherboard has AMI (c)1988 bios sticker on it.

Reply 1 of 3, by Deksor

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No, it's just the copyright for the bios.
If you want to know when your board was manufactured exactly, look for a "datecode" printed on the PCB. It should look like this : "9031" for example. Depending of the norm they use, the first two digit may represent the year and the last two digits the week. In my example, the board would have been made in 1990, during the 31st week.

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Reply 2 of 3, by dionb

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Failing that, check date codes on the chips - usually in the same year+week format. The most recent date is the closest to actual manufacture.

It can be interesting to compare dates of different components. Very similar dates on everything indicate high volume production, a big spread more leisurely pace. Usually the least speed/price-critical components (glue logic, BIOS E(E)PROMs etc) will show the biggest spread of dates, but sometimes you can see surprises on major components, which can indicate things like old stock being dumped (if you see a 1994 chipset on a 1996 motherboard, for example).

Reply 3 of 3, by Baoran

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Thank you for the help. I found 9245 on the back side of the motherboard. I just didn't realize it was a date. It is actually quite good date for me because I think I upgraded my 286 to 386 in 1992. I think my conner cp30104 hard drive would fit perfectly with the build and also my sound blaster CT1320C and that would make it early 90s 386 build. I have a good case from that time period too, even though it seems to have had a 386sx system originally based on a sticker at the back.

Edit: I also found (c) 1990 from keyboard chip on the motherboard after this, so they must have used quite wide range on components (agewise) when they manufactured the motherboard in 1992.