Can't boot 5.x

[Gerald S Stoller]

	I tried to boot  FreeBSD  versions  5.0 ,  5.3 , and  5.4 ; all were
unsuccessful.  I was told that something basic in the boot stuff was
changed and my micro-processor (or  BIOS , or whatever) may be
out-of-date vis-a-vis the new boot process.  My system's  uname -a  is
FreeBSD  4.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.3-RELEASE #0: Sat Apr 21 10:54:49 GMT 2001
    jkh at narf.osd.bsdi.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC  i386

The booting messages were:something like (this is an old copy):
Building the boot loader arguments
Relocating the loader and the BTX
Verifying DMI Pool Data
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:
CD Loader 1.2

	Is there any way to get the new system (into a fresh slice) with a boot
loader that works with my system?  If not, what upgrades do I need and do
you know how to go about getting them?