Where did the system come from? Who put the parts together? I'd be looking for the BIOS version. It's such a waste of time to beat your head against the wall if they've fixed the problem with a more recent release.
Set it to boot from floppy and put in a blank so it won't get past the error. Somewhere on that screen should be a clue as to the MB version and vendor. Relay what you can so we can try to help. This might get interesting.
