Huh? "Loading the OS" means loading it into RAM. If there is no RAM, you can't load the OS at all. And with "on-board" video, a portion of the motherboard RAM is used as video RAM (and therefore is unavailable for use as system RAM), and without system RAM, there is no place for the video circuitry to look for what to display.
Every motherboard I have ever powered up with no RAM (both on-board video and separate video card) has just beeped some beep code and stopped, well before ever displaying anything on video. In very early days (back in DOS times, but unrelated to DOS itself), the video card would display a "product ID" (of the video card) banner on the monitor, before displaying the POST and OS loading. It would likely have displayed the product ID banner of the video card without any motherboard RAM. But I haven't seen such a product ID banner of the video in 10 or more years now. Fred Holmes At 08:43 AM 6/13/2008, Tony B wrote: >A mobo should get as far as loading the OS even without RAM. You >should have no trouble getting into the BIOS. Of course, the on-board >video could be bad, but I suppose you'd need a PCI video card to check >it. > >I'm not sure what would happen if someone switched off the on-board >video in the bios, then removed the PCI video card. If there's a bios >reset jumper you may want to try that. Or remove the battery for a >minute. > > >On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 8:19 AM, Mike Sloane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I was given two relatively new (for me) PCs - a Dell Optiplex GX60 and an HP >> Pavilion 563W, each with stickers indicating that they have Windows XP Home >> installed. But, while they appear complete inside, someone pulled the RAM >> out, and I don't have any PC2100 DDR RAM handy. I tried to power them up >> without ram, but all I got were POST beeps and nothing at all on the >> monitor. Before I invest in any RAM, does this complete lack of anything on >> the monitor indicate a fried MB, or is the problem only likely lack of RAM? >> >> Both machines have integrated video cards and no AGP slots, so I can't swap >> components. I don't even have another machine with that kind of RAM to >> "borrow" from for a test. > > >************************************************************************* >** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** >** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** >************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
