Specs;
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...cs.htm#1084976
A buddy of mine asked me if I could help him with his box (the local comp store quoted him a new motherboard for $500US to start).
He said on a reboot both the hard drive and keyboard weren't detected.
I have it now to see if I can fix it.
Here is what I have done.
The hard drive was toast, put another in and went into bios and everything seemed ok.
Still get random errors on reboot about the keyboard.
Tried to put a minimum install of debian on it but it is super slow.
Took the processer out and tried it in anothe box and it is fine.
Memtest passed.
Took all the cards out but the video and still slow slow slow ...
Put another video card in it same thing.
Put another power supply, same thing.
Could a bad motherboard cause this?

Your device level troubleshooting didn't mention changing the keyboard or mouse even though you saw error messages about the keyboard. If you haven't disconnected the keyboard during this procedure then do that and clean the connectors, then connect and reconnect the keyboard and mouse plugs a few times to make sure that the jack is clean, then plug the keyboard and mouse back in and try using the computer. If that doesn't work then try another keyboard and mouse.

It did the same thing at his house and mine, so yes it has been connected to a different mouse and keyboard.

Are the keyboard and mouse PS/2 or USB? I've had trouble with USB keyboard and mouse on Linux. I could probably fix it by adding the USB driver into the initrd but for now I just use PS/2 connectors because I already have them.