🚀 go-pugleaf

I have an old gateway 486 with a PheonixBIOS.  When I got it there was not
hard drive IDE cable, so I put one on.  When I tried to configure the hard
drive though, it wouldn't let me enter the setup utility.

At first it gave me a "wrong ISA configuration" error and said press esc to
enter setup, which I did.  This brought me to the blue setup screen with
esc->menu at the bottom.  Pressing escape (or any other key for that matter)
did nothing, and eventually pressing a key made it beep.

I removed and replaced the reset CMOS jumpper on the motherboard in hope
that this would force me into a usable setup utility.  It didn't.  Now it
just says "No boot device found" unless I have a boot disk in A:, in which
case it boots just fine, but still no HD access.

I've tried Ctrl+alt+esc, ctrl+alt+space, ctrl+alt+s (listed in the gateway
home page), but none get me to a setup utility.  The gateway page also
suggested locking the keyboard at boot, waiting for an error message and
using these key combinations after unlocking it, but this computer has no
keyboard lock.  Gateway doesn't recognise the serial number, so they won't
help me.

My question:  How do motherboards and BIOS work?  If I put a new BIOS chip
in, does it have to be the same type, or can I just snag an AMI BIOS of
another motherboard that I have?  Any other suggestions would also be
appreciated.

TIA
--
Adam
carheden@holly.colostate.edu