Quote Originally Posted by rbudrick View Post
I guess the Brazilian humidity did a number on the EEPROMs.
I'm not sure how much of an affect humidity would have, but heat is sure to speed up the data loss. What happens in EEROMs is that bits are held high by an electric field(or low by the lack of one). That field slowly dissipates over time as electrons escape...which is sped up the hotter it is. This is why they were only guaranteed to last 10 years or so.

I would certainly hope that all proto-collectors are aware of this, though I'm pretty sure that most at least make personal ROM dumps right?