Can computer boot without RAM?

A

alifay

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Brockenhurst, Hampshire, England

• Mar 22, 2003

• #1

I have an old dual p.pro mobo, and dont have any ram for it. Would it be possilbe to boot the motherboard to test it without any RAM in it? I would like to be able to test the mobo before I purchase some RAM

 

filip04

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Vancouver Canada

• Mar 22, 2003

• #2

not that i know of... you absolutely NEED ram to boot a computer... this is where EVERYTHING is stored... sorry for the bad news :

 

Kronos138

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Canadia...eh

• Mar 22, 2003

• #3

nope you can't

 

LutaWicasa

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Huntsville, AL

• Mar 22, 2003

• #4

No sir.

 

timmyqwest

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illinois

• Mar 22, 2003

• #5

actually, isnt the CPU and RAM (and a bios chip of course) the only things you need to boot up the mobo

 

LutaWicasa

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• Mar 22, 2003

• #6

timmyqwest said:

actually, isnt the CPU and RAM (and a bios chip of course) the only things you need to boot up the mobo

Click to expand...

And vid

 

RagingGecko

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Aug 18, 2002

• Mar 22, 2003

• #7

Well it might have onboard vid

 

Sterculus

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Dec 18, 2002

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Seattle

• Mar 22, 2003

• #8

it might give a post code if it doesnt have any ram...i know that mine do. check the manual for it(if you have it) and see if theres a listed post code for missing/damaged ram...

 

Breadfan

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Northern VA

• Mar 22, 2003

• #9

Well you do need RAM to boot, but you don't need ALOT of RAM...if its old SIMM's, you can probably find a 4mb pair gettin' tossed out for free many place.

Maybe ask around local shops if they have any old computer or old RAM they wouldn't mind giving up for free/a few bucks.

 

LutaWicasa

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• Mar 22, 2003

• #10

RagingGecko said:

Well it might have onboard vid

Click to expand...

Still vid ain't it?


I didn't say "vid card".

 

filip04

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Vancouver Canada

• Mar 22, 2003

• #11

technically, you can boot without a vid card... extremely hard to do anything useful, but you can still boot..

you could still boot up, and run services... but that's about the extent of it... only useful as far as servers are concerned, AFTER you get it all set up....

 

OP

A

alifay

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• Mar 23, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #12

Its got onboard vid. Here's another thread on my old mobo -> http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176315 Oh well, never mind. Cheers anyway, looks like I'm going to have to purchase some old RAM before I can see if this mobo works....

 

A

Avatar28

No, I showered

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Feb 27, 2002

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Nashville, TN

• Mar 23, 2003

• #13

Boot no. POST, probably. Most likely you get some sort of POST code, which tells you that the MB and CPU are fine at least that far. Memory, though, is generally one of the very first things initialized and tested so it won't tell you much.

 

OP

A

alifay

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• Mar 23, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #14

Er....what's POST? Sorry, I'm not up to speed with the lingo!

 

B

bubba gump

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CA, USA

• Mar 23, 2003

• #15

Power on Self TEst

its what it does to make sure everything is working and plugged in (thats necesary)

 

ninthebin

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Mar 24, 2002

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Liverpool, UK

• Mar 23, 2003

• #16

it will swear at you normally if you leave RAM out, luckily its own swear filter will pick it up so it will jsut sound like beeps

 

OP

A

alifay

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• Mar 23, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #17

So if the mobo turns on, and screams at me, chances are that the mobo is ok - the one I have is old stock, that is unused - yet it has been around since 1996, so it's probably had a few knocks.

 

Breadfan

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Northern VA

• Mar 23, 2003

• #18

What kinda RAM you need to test? I've got a huge box of old simms, most of it old 4mb sticks that I've not thrown away just becuase...if you just need a pair of simms to test it, I could mail you 2 small sticks in an envelope just so you can test it.

 

Kronos138

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Canadia...eh

• Mar 24, 2003

• #19

i s'pose if you can get yer no-ram system to make some type of beep...then you might assume that the mobo is fine however you can't really be sure until you have ram, vid, and proc

 

Breadfan

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• Mar 24, 2003

• #20

Kronos138 said:

i s'pose if you can get yer no-ram system to make some type of beep...then you might assume that the mobo is fine however you can't really be sure until you have ram, vid, and proc

Click to expand...

Yeah, the mem controller could be bad just as much as any other component on the board. I had some old P1 socket 5 and 7 boards that were trashed b/c of bad memory controllers...