Here's my situation:

   A new client of mine had me take her Dell PC home to work on.
   I noticed something very odd - everything about it is deadly slow.
   I swapped the RAM, hard drive, CDROM drive and IDE cables.
   It's still slow - slow to reinstall the OS, slow when I GHOST
   an image of a similar Dell PC, slow even to get into the BIOS.
   It's a very recent PC - Pentium 4 with 256 or 512 megs of RAM 
   (depending on whether I have my chip or the user's in there),
   and should be fairly quick.
   I've reinstalled Windows XP on hundreds of Dells, many just like
   this user's and I've never seen this type of sluggishness.
   The problem is that I have a bad feeling that something non-specific
   like this will be very painful and difficult to troubleshoot with Dell
   (I'm going to do this, not the user, since English isn't her first
    language, and she knows next to nothing about computers).
   Can anyone provide me with pointers on how I can short-circuit Dell's  
   tedious procedures and cut to the chase and get them to replace the
   system board?
   (Oh, while formulating this question, I also flashed the BIOS
    and swapped the power supply and graphics card)

PCVentures,

What I have done, is cut straight to the chase when I have had similar
situations.  When I call support for dell, you either get Alabama, or
India, either way, I am nice polite, and I say hey, I am a Network
Engineer, I know that you have a set of scripts, but I need to speak
with a supervisor about this problem.  Be persistent, firm and nice.
Be NICE.  They will let you speak to a sup, it may take a sups, sup, I
have had that happen, but let them know in no uncertain terms, what
you have done with the machine and what the problem with the machine
is.

They will generally, (if under warranty) have it fixed within two
days. (overnight the part)

I have had the run around before, however, I have found that If I am
nice,and ask to speak directly with a Supervisor, I am allowed to.

Goood Luck.

Clint

If after trying the above suggestion you are still not satisfied then
try to locate a Dell Admin office in a nearby city.  Bring the
documentation of prior calls (dates, times, incident numbers) and show
up in their office and *politely* ask the receptionist if you can see
someone about an unresolved repair.  They can liaise with specialist
decentralized support units for large corporate/government accounts.

You may have a motherboard prob mate. Why dont you run a motherboard
diagnostic prog or check for any damge that may have happened to the
board due to chipping etc