Will a laptop "boot" without any RAM?

[ibex333]

I am trying to fix two broken laptops which both show a charge light when plugged in and one even spins up fans for a sec or so.


Will a working laptop at least show any messages on the screen without any RAM and no hard drive? Don't want to waste money on RAM if the motherboard is toast.



Thanks!

 

[Ketchup]

Nope. It will just beep, or show a series of flashing lights.

 

[Ken g6]

This is discussing a laptop. I should point out that while some laptops have all their memory accessible, others only expose one slot for half their RAM. So if there's two empty slots there's probably no RAM, but if there's only one empty slot there might be RAM attached to the mobo elsewhere. (Which would probably mean, in your case, that the laptop is toast.)

 

[corkyg]

Agree! No RAM is no RAM, SODIMM chip or soldered.

 

[JackMDS]

SODIMM chip or soldered.

QFT.

No RAM No Boot, and thus NO message on the screen.

Too many nervous breakdown shorten life.

That is why I first Bing/Google the Model number of any computer that I am going to deal with before plugging it in or and open it Up.

 

[ibex333]

i see.. this gives me hope. Both RAM slots are accessible from the bottom, and both are empty. So the laptops may be alive. Just gotta find the RAM