Thanks for the replies, Volkard (back channel), and both Marks.  I'm still
letting this puppy sit, for now, as I await hearing from Promise Tech
Support in the slight hopes that they might be able to tell me whether there
is a known incompatibility between the EIDE MAX II and the BIOS on this
motherboard.  My own guess is that this is simply the case, and the posts to
this list would seem to confirm that.

Picking up on some of the suggestions so far, Mark Rode thought that I might
be able to use the EIDE MAX II independently of the onboard BIOS.  I did try
plugging the hard drive directly into the EIDE MAX II card, but I couldn't
get this to work.  I tried several variations on this, based on what port I
had this connector on the EIDE MAX II identified as.

I don't think there is a way to keep the EIDE MAX II from updating the
motherboard's BIOS.  This is basically a jumperless card, so you change the
settings from an onscreen menu.  The only jumper on the card is for
"troubleshooting", and I think it is for resetting the card to default
settings.  The configuration available has to do with what port address and
IRQ each of the EIDE MAX II's IDE channels will use and setting the memory
address for the card's BIOS.  I can set the memory address to none, which
would perhaps be the same as disabling it.  I'm not sure about that.  So
perhaps plugging the hard drive into the EIDE MAX II and setting the card's
BIOS memory range to none would be worth a try.  At least it sounds like
something I haven't done already.  :-)

I pretty much need to keep the original controller card in there, at least
in the final outcome, since I do need the floppy connector on it.

Mark Paulson noted that the odd ISA connector is likely a VESA Local Bus.
I've pulled out my books and gone back and looked at this connector some
more.  I think the difference that I'm seeing between this last connector
and the others is that it is an EISA connector and all the other connectors
are 16-bit ISA connectors.  I overlooked the difference between these two
connectors when I was first trying to identify it.  The fact that it seems
to be marked as a Local Bus Slot is interesting however, since I would
expect this to require a connector like the VESA Local Bus connector that
Mark mentioned, and there is no extra connector, beyond the end of this EISA
connector

I'm not sure if the original IDE connector card will allow me to disable the
Hard Drive connector on it or not.  I have no documentation for it and there
is no identifying information on it for trying to track it down.  It does
have two jumpers on it, both of which are jumpered.  Perhaps removing the
jumper disables the connector.  I'll try this along with Mark Rode's
suggestions above.

The CD-ROM that I'm working with is a Generic brand 32x CD-ROM, the Promise
BIOS was identifying it as BCD E520C, which I think is a BTC drive.  So,
ideally, I'd like to take advantage of the ATAPI that the Promise card
enables.

As far as the processor and its connector goes, it is fitted into slot, not
soldered, though it is not a zero force design.  The slot is marked as
"486DX/486SX/DX2".  There is also another slot for the math coprocessor,
marked "487SX/P23T".

Thanks for the information folks.  I think I have a couple of more things
that I can try at this point to at least see what happens.

The other possibility that I decided to explore is whether I can get a
replacement BIOS chip for this motherboard, such as a MR BIOS chip.  I've
submitted information to the vendor's website and I'm waiting to hear back
from them.  They do mention support for the Opti 82C496 chip, so maybe this
is a possibility.  I'll let you know more, when I do.

John

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com