Motherboard failed in Vostro 400, cheapest replacement?

[kaydubs]

Hi. My father's business computer needs to be up and running as fast as possible and the local computer stores are charging too much for mediocre motherboards. So I am opting for Newegg.. but I was looking for some advice. He has a Dell Vostro 400 desktop and the most important thing we retain is the hard-drive of course, but also I'd like the motherboard to have 4 dimm slots for our 3 gigs of ram. Also the processor is a 2.2 ghz core duo.. and the fan is a screw on fan. I would just like something that is compatible with our setup at a low cost.

Also the motherboard failed because of a Keyboard failure boot message and a Diskette seek failure message.. there was no power going to the USB sockets so it was impossible to get past the boot screen (f1 f2) to go into the operating sys.

 

[tlarkin]

Order the part from Dell, you will have all kinds of issues software wise if you replace it with a different board.

Or, invest into a new computer and pull that HD out and toss it in there as secondary.

 

[oscaryu1]

From what I know, you cannot use the keyboard during bootup if you're using a USB device, unless you have the option enabled in the BIOS.