Installing motherboard drivers from MS-DOS boot

Before I ask anything, I will (try to) explain what my computer has done, to save questions.

Some time ago, my CD-ROM drive stopped working. It was a very old drive, and despite everything I could think of (checking cables, reinstalling etc)I figured the drive was bust, but haven't got around to getting a new one yet.

A few days ago, my computer had its monthly system-wide crash. Basically, it corrupts the HDD, requiring a reinstall of Windows. I am used to this sort of thing.

I tried to reinstall windows from the CD as normal, using my DVD/CDR-RW drive. It didn't work. It was then that I realised that the reason my CD-ROM didn't work was because my motherboard had done something with the CD drivers, which are also used by the DVD/CDR-RW drive until Windows boots. (I discovered this when I got a pile of error messages to that effect when I tried using the 95/98 boot floppy)

At the moment, the ONLY drive that works is the floppy. I used another XP machine to make a boot disk (command interpreter), and, being unable to find the individual CDROM driver, I found a replacement motherboard driver online (Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG), which came as a .exe file. I put this on my boot floppy, and ran it from there. At this point I get stuck. A program about writing stuff to flash memory comes up, and my eyes glaze over at this point.

Has anyone else had similar problems, or recognise some of what I am talking about, or any ideas about anything that might help? Please?

Many thanks,

Mourndark