I'm going blind - so I need arrow down 3 times, Enter , Enter, etc.

I solved the problem:

Did the Dell tech chat on-line. Booted pc, tapped F2 (that would put the
computer in set-up mode. Alt F restored factory settings and Alt B saved
those settings. (All this was done with no video).

Dell told me that pc won't work with a video card and gave me the part
number for a new motherboard. Went to the Dell site to get the price, and it
was the wrong part number. However, when I entered the service tag, it gave
me a list of accessories for that pc - including graphics cards!

So I re-booted, F2 to enter set-up and at that point put in the video card
set-up CD, hoping the install screen would come up. Nothing happened, so I
hit esc to leave bios and got a message that windows fail to load and the
option to start in safe mode. Started right up in Safe Mode, no problem and I
had video through the video card. I wonder if F8 would have worked from the
beginning?

Went to device manager, which saw the new card, loaded drivers from the CD,
disabled the old (broken) video port - and - Success!