You can swap out the bios chips while the system is running.  It is
called "Hot Swapping" or "Hot Flashing".  This allows you to "revive"
a dead bios chip by putting the dead chip in to an already running
system and flashing the dead chip.
Check out
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/what-is-hot-swapping-the-bios
(http://tinyurl.com/apmev ) (a random site from a Google Search) or
run your own search on Google for more info.

With that said...
Hot-swapping the bios chip is NOT an affair to be taken lightly.  It
can damage and/or destroy your motherboad on either system involved
very easily.  I would NOT recommend it.


Tony Mayer


>No you can't pull the chip with the system running. Well you can however,
>you may fry the board. All components are replaced with the system off and
>unplugged. TO replace a component such as a BIOS chip or memory would cause
>a spark going in either direction. Out of in. In the past when I was new at
>this game I used to unplug and plug the power connection to the hard drive.
>That was before I learned you can't do that. I fried several drives that
>way. Shorted out the drive motor and cooked the board. Be safe and shut down
>the system.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Frank Suszka
>netTek Computers
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