Check if any of the switches inside the floppy drive are stuck or broken off (those left and right at the front). The PC may not notice a disk change...
You can use any of the standard images by Microsoft. If it does not contain all the drivers for that notebook (which I'm sure the image from Asus did...
You can not pull a bid back if an auction ends in 12 hours or less. So while your story might be true, "a few hours before the auction was to end" is...
If it's just for testing USB converters, I'd get a Classic instead. These are cheap and can even boot System 6 from ROM. Also, they come with a FDHD...
From the OEM 286 systems I have, it seems most don't let you enter the BIOS until an error occurs. I normally just keep one key pressed down so that...
I paid $55 for a tested 83 MHz version last year. While they got more expensive it seems, you are asking more than ebay prices are for the faster 83...