Hoary on Dell precision 370's doesn't load gnome

[Stephen Ward]

The company I work for recently purchased a batch of dell precision 370
desktops. 

When they start up x starts and a mouse pointer appears (and is
moveable) but gnome never loads. 

We have tried the  64 bit and i386 versions and tried both live and
install cd's.  In desperation we tried warty but the cdrom doesn't even
detect sucessfully.

Does anyone have any idea what the trouble could be, or better yet -
have a solution?

Thanks in advance
Stephen Ward