Thanks for the encouragment. This may sound strange, but after I swapped the BIOS chips around (and subsequently put them all back in the right boards) the soyo ones suddenly started to work a little more with my 4saw2 (maybe the friction of removing them and plugging them back in cleaned the fingers a little better than I did, I duno). The only problems I'm having now is that it won't go past that box with all the hardware listed in it and it won't read the floppy even from startup (I'm trying different cables and drives now).
I've started to look for some more parity ram for the OP motherboard as Old Thrashbarg suggested, because the parity ram I have got me nowhere. Also thank you for using words like "user error" instead of "nemesis, you're a complete moron". 😉 It sounds much nicer. 😁
I'm just happy to start making progress again.

Just a hint:Don't try and hurry things trying to get it to work. Being in a hurry is a most easy and quick way to destroy hardware 😉

maybe the friction of removing them and plugging them back in cleaned the fingers a little better than I did, I duno

Cleaning is actually a bigger factor than you might think, in getting old hardware going. Remember, you generally have 15+ years of dirt and tarnish built up in all the little nooks and crannies.

I've gotten to the point where I always clean off all the contacts of expansion cards and RAM with a pencil eraser, pull any socketed EPROMs, etc., and lightly scrape the legs clean with the trailing edge of a pocketknife, then spray Deoxit into all the slots and sockets followed by inserting/removing a folded piece of 600 or 1000 grit sandpaper in said slots a few times to get the metal fingers clean, and then give everything a good wash-down with alcohol and a soft brush. That routine has solved all sorts of strange hardware issues.

It'd also be a good idea, if you haven't already done so, to thoroughly look over the board for any damage. Especially look for any broken components and scratched traces... many older boards have spent time piled together in boxes, and many more have been victim to a slip with a screwdriver blade.

I've gotten to the point where I always clean off all the contacts of expansion cards and RAM with a pencil eraser, pull any socketed EPROMs, etc., and lightly scrape the legs clean with the trailing edge of a pocketknife, then spray Deoxit into all the slots and sockets followed by inserting/removing a folded piece of 600 or 1000 grit sandpaper in said slots a few times to get the metal fingers clean, and then give everything a good wash-down with alcohol and a soft brush. That routine has solved all sorts of strange hardware issues.

Well, now I have my shopping list together for today. 😁
Btw, I rarely went further than the alcohol and pencil eraser so that's probably a large portion of the issues.
I did check for scratches once or twice, but I might have missed some, I mention this because I checked my old Soyo board (dead one) several times before I noticed that a couple pins on a critical chip were bent enough to cross connection and one was broken completely. Apparently it was from crude storage with another board or something.

I try using alcohol when repairing computers but that typically makes me, at best, not do anything because I get sidetracked by leftover food and whatever is on the infomercial channel.

I just wanted to add this little funny story here. I was testing one of the drives that was given to me a long time ago in the 486 (first time testing the drive) and couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to disconnect the drive. When I gently pried the cable away from its connection, half the pc board gave way with it... it had been almost completely broken away from the drive before they ever gave it to me! I had to laugh. Can't hold grudges for something like that I guess.
(None of my floppy drives work in the computer so far so there might still yet be something I'm missing on the board 🙁 ).

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Cleaning is actually a bigger factor than you might think, in getting old hardware going. Remember, you generally have 15+ years […]
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maybe the friction of removing them and plugging them back in cleaned the fingers a little better than I did, I duno

Cleaning is actually a bigger factor than you might think, in getting old hardware going. Remember, you generally have 15+ years of dirt and tarnish built up in all the little nooks and crannies.

I've gotten to the point where I always clean off all the contacts of expansion cards and RAM with a pencil eraser, pull any socketed EPROMs, etc., and lightly scrape the legs clean with the trailing edge of a pocketknife, then spray Deoxit into all the slots and sockets followed by inserting/removing a folded piece of 600 or 1000 grit sandpaper in said slots a few times to get the metal fingers clean, and then give everything a good wash-down with alcohol and a soft brush. That routine has solved all sorts of strange hardware issues.

It'd also be a good idea, if you haven't already done so, to thoroughly look over the board for any damage. Especially look for any broken components and scratched traces... many older boards have spent time piled together in boxes, and many more have been victim to a slip with a screwdriver blade.

I whole heartily agree with Old Thrashbarg!! (double checks to see if I get his crazy name spelled right 😜)

I've revived more hardware then I can count by just cleaning the contacts!
Either rubbing alcohol+paper towel or using a pencil eraser does magic to reviving "dead" parts!!