No POST from a HD?

I think I allready know the answer to this, but can a faulty HD make a computer not POST?

Id think not.....but Im not sure. I have my "retro/vintage" benching rig giving me some problems the past few days, but I changed SO much hardware at the same time Im a bit lost where to start.

The harddrive was a bit questionable the last time I used it. Of course, this was almost 1 year ago before I really knew much of anything about computers and had never built a computer and never installed windows.....but I have some notes on this harddrive saying "maybe broken?".

I still need to test more, but Im guessing since I installed windows NP on this HD and it wrote to it without any issue that I can probably exclude the HD as a problem?

I allready switched the RAM out and that doesnt seem to be an issue.....CPU is a newly purchased used OLD OLD P4/celeron so it could be the CPU. I switched out the PSU allready and that didnt make any difference. Im hoping its not my beloved P4C800-E deluxe cuz I love that thing

TY!

bump

No it should still post with out a hard drive actually so even if it did not work it should. Ram has always been my biggest issue when not posting. If it was the HD it would post but would not load the OS, would probably say it could not find a boot drive.

I would say the Celeron is dead.
My Dad purchased an AMD 2600+ from e-bay that was supposedly a working pull.
Tried it in two different boards and it wouldn't post. Luckily he only paid $12 plus shipping.
I also have (I should say had) a used P4 1.6 Celeron that refused to post on three different boards.
Try a different processor if you have access to one.

Yea I have a dif proc that I will try tonight.

It POSTS sometimes, and then other times it does not.

I thought it was prob a ram issue, but I tried the RAM in my other s478 board and it works fine. Put the same ram in the rig in question and variable POSTs. This ram HAS worked fine in this exact board in the past though...

Ill spend some time tinkering more this evening. I felt I could say with a high degree of certainty that it was NOT the HD, and it seems that you all agree.

TY!