Hi westfw !
OMG, the creator of Optiboot ! your work is LEGENDARY !!
i tried hooking up the Atmega8A-AU to an Arduino As ISP setup and simply selected board "Arduino NG or older w/ATmega8", selected the correct com port & Arduino As ISP in the programmer section, then when hit tools > Burn Bootloader i got:
avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
Then tried one of your Optiboot loaders but im such a newbie for burning bootloaders im not entirely sure of what im doing, as long as ive got instructions saying to connect this pin to that pin and then hit the button, then im fine lol !
i found one of your optiboot bootloaders from here:
downloaded the files from github and slammed them into the libraries folder in my Arduino IDE (using 1.0.2 version), uploaded the sketch to an RBBB Arduino UNO Clone and hooked up the wires as directed to the SMD Atmega8A, powered it through USB Adapter and opened up the serial monitor to see what was going on and i hit the reset button, a few times, one after the other, not all at once, lol - just to see if i had the same error code come up but the error code changed each time and now im lost lol !
Error code was:
OptiLoader Bootstrap programmer.
2011 by Bill Westfield (WestfW)
Target power on! ...
Starting Program Mode - Failed, result = 0x7860
Target power OFF!
Type 'G' or hit RESET for next chip
second time i pressed reset:
OptiLoader Bootstrap programmer.
2011 by Bill Westfield (WestfW)
Target power on! ...
Starting Program Mode - Failed, result = 0x7070
Target power OFF!
Type 'G' or hit RESET for next chip
well i thought check a third time;
OptiLoader Bootstrap programmer.
2011 by Bill Westfield (WestfW)
Target power on! ...
Starting Program Mode - Failed, result = 0x7060
Target power OFF!
Type 'G' or hit RESET for next chip
so then tried as many files online through google searches that contained the words Atmega8A-AU + bootloader + Optiboot and i think i was really close on one of them where the signateure was expecting the DIP version of Atmega8A but now cant find that file and ive since deleted it from my computer, turned myself about a few times, sat in the corner, cried a bit and then thought about asking (begging!) for help lol !
Ive burned away a good bunch of Atmega328P-PU MCU's in PDIP flavor but cant seem to find an easy way of bootloading the SMT Atmega8A-AU sitting in the TQFP socket !
this is where i got the socket from: (just so you can see what sort of socket im using!)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220896147182?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
thank you so very very much for trying to help me with this, i can surely tell you that i greatly appreciate any light you can shed on this subject !