Noobish question...

[shadowmatter]

If I were to connect my power supply to my motherboard, which has a processor/heatsink, RAM, and a graphics card -- but nothing else attached (not even a HD) -- and powered on, I should at least see the BIOS come up on the screen and tell me that it failed to find any HDs or devices to boot from, correct? (As opposed to a completely blank screen.)

Sorry if that really was an inane question, but I'm just troubleshooting my new-but-broken PC... Never had this trouble before.

Thanks.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, it should boot up, the bare miniumums to boot are ram, cpu/heatsink, and video card.

 

[jackschmittusa]

It is actually a good thing to do with a new mb, as it proves out the basic hardware before full installation. I usually do my bios setup at the same time as I do this.

 

[soydios]

It's usually a good practice to do exactly what you described. If it works, it tells you that your core components (PSU, mobo, CPU+fan, video) work, which would point to any components added later if you run into problems. Likewise, if your core components fail to boot, it significantly reduces the amount of troubleshooting and headaches you have to subject yourself to.

And don't worry about noobish questions. Sure, there's some tards on these forums (hey, it's part of the internet), but there's always someone who'll be nice and answer your question.

 

[shadowmatter]

Refining my original question: Do I even need the RAM? Or just CPU, power supply, and video?

- sm

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: shadowmatter
Refining my original question: Do I even need the RAM? Or just CPU, power supply, and video?

- sm

You need RAM