Solved IBM Netvista (8305) BIOS Has No Option To Boot From USB

My student computer club receives donated PCs from hospitals, etc. We refurbish and upgrade, generally install some Linux distribution and make them available to fellow students with financial difficulties. We recently were given 30 NetVista 8305 PCs with original hardware including USB ports, CD-ROM and 3.5 FDD. We prefer using USB sticks to load OS, but none of these allow for USB in the boot order. There is Removable, CD-ROM, IDE HDD, Network options. Expanding “Removable” will list “Floppy Drive”; no other choice.

Many of the systems have faulty CD-ROMs that we intended to troubleshoot and diagnose after Linux was installed.

The most common EPROM Rev. (according to BIOS) is 24KT55AUS. We are having difficulty discovering if a more updated revision exists and if it would allow for USB to be recognized as bootable media.