First post, by Keatah
As part of restoring and refreshing my vintage 486 rig from the early 1990's I decided to backup and save all the Flash ROMS, BIOS EPROMS, and ISA card firmware. At least as much of it as practically possible.
I examined the datasheets for most of the EPROMS and they're rated at >200 years if properly programmed according to specification.
So maybe it's wasted effort. But I feel better having saved the data; as the exact versions are not likely available anywhere anymore. For example, I over the years I picked up a couple spare mobos of the same model, but all have earlier BIOS revs. And then I haven't seen any more boards like mine for sale again.
I'm using a basic clone TL866A I got from ebay for like $35. It works it does the job, I burned some blank ones and put those in to test, and they worked.
So I'd like to hear other perspectives on this activity. Something really worth doing?