Life expectancy of mine msx computer

I'll say it's good for at least another 30 years!

Impossible to tell, but I certainly hope Grauw is right!

I've had at least one solid-state chip fail without unknown reasons, it was a dead LS367 (Toshiba HX-10 ... I believe there's a thread about it somewhere here). But I presume overall they are quite sturdy!

Electrolytic capacitors might dry out, or worse: leak. I had a HB-75P which had some capacitors in it's power rails practically blown and splattered their content all over nearby components! I wouldn't have known, since the computer was working without (apparent) problems! However I opened it up "just to check", replaced the clearly broken parts and checked voltages afterwards (they are / were spot on ... would have been interesting to try before, but maybe there would not have been any difference, since these just "even out" the current demands from the perspective of an amateur electronics hacker =) ). Luckily those components are on separate small PCBs (can not make that much damage) and were easy to replace (IIRC I only replaced the electrolytic capacitors C6&7 in the service manual)

So, it never hurts to open it up and look around if there are any obvious defects. If it breaks, with proper equipment and skills (not me!) these machines are often repairable!

EDIT: And welcome to the forum! ;)

Got some emproms in my Frankenstein MSX. My guess is they're still fairly new since its mainboard was modded little over four years ago. But if they lose their content I think I go for flashroms instead.

But how often do you hear of the MSX Engine breaking down? It’s pretty rare, I think.

(And if it ever becomes a common occurrence, a CPLD replacement seems feasible.)

I was recently reading about a German who tries to do this for the SID chip in the C64 (those chips are literally becoming extinct by now).

http://www.fpgasid.de