as well. To wit:

Years back I reported the tribulations of a friend who had ordered an expensive Dimension 8100 to do video editing.
(Subsequently I fired up her first Mac Pro.. with her old HD ready to copy over files == no instructions needed.)
Make that Dementia 8100 ...

Eventually , One brave Tech concluded I was Not making-up all the stuff I reported -- sent along a new mobo, HD (but not the possibly flaky memory, too..) Bottom line: it too would not load a legal, fresh retail copy of W2K, etc. etc. -- making it look as-if only Dell-sold copies of any OS could install.

Eventually, quite later-on when I was given the hulk, I solved the problem (likely for both mobos, but not willing to re-swap) -- by shorting the CMOS before installing new battery: it seems in retrospect that -- the fuxxored bits within memory were within the subroutine for cksum! ergo -- it never examined itself and never threw a flag. No brilliance here, just remembered something heard about such weirdness happening.

A new battery merely retained the stored/deranged program! You had to zero the sucker First.
(It's still working, but with only 256M of expensive memory: unused now. Anyone want it?

Screw You Dell, for incompetence as well as malfeasance. And for being the spawn of an asshole like Michael Greedhead.