it probably said the standard NT 4 startup message "To boot from last known good hardware config, press space".
Be advised, the BCM has a driver installed for the monitor, keyobard, and mouse that NULL out the ports. Its enough to make the event viewer not complain that there's no device, but blocks access to the BCM desktop.
If I recall, there are two serial ports, try each one at 9600 baud. If there's only one port, thats really wierd. I've had issues in the past with changing IP's causing it to not be accessible from the LAN. Is yours a Modem + LAN, LAN + LAN, or WAN + LAN config. If its LAN + LAN, try connecting to the other IP address. Also, keep in mind. Whatever IP's you changed it to, your laptop has to be in the same subnet as the BCM or else it won't know how to get to you. I've also had issues where I changed the IP, but forgot to change like the Gateway. It let me do it, but then I couldn't get into it. Also, you can run into problems if your two Network (LAN or WAN) interfaces are in the same subnet.
Why don't you post the IP settings that were there, and what you changed them to. That may help to figure out whats going on.
Kris