>>>Usually, there's a key sequence like Ctrl-Esc or something similar that has to be pressed during POST to enable this. It's time to RTFM; there's no standard keystroke or warning displayed. If you're stuck; the IBM Thinkpad Forum on CI$ is pretty good.
>>
>>Ok, we'll try for that key. I don't have it with me but I will forward that information to the person who works on it now.
>
>With my Thinkpad 150 and 180Z, I had to hold the F1 key down and then turn the machine on. Once started, there is no option to enter the BIOS.

This is what we discovered.

It turned out to be that a driver was not installed, thus now the regular COM port answers to the new device.