Your BIOS is probably set to halt on certain errors, such as no keyboard 
which would also include no video card. The new ones will have a feature 
that will not make it stop at any error. Look around the BIOS settings 
for it.

Jeremy wrote:
> I dug around and found an old Diamond Stealth 64 (circa 2001).  It booted just 
> fine.  X won't run, but I don't really need it on that machine.
>
> I'm still curious what hung up.  Since there were no beep codes, and the hard 
> drive showed a little bit of activity, I'm tempted to think it wasn't bios.
>
> Jeremy
>
> On Tuesday 01 January 2008 1:02:26 pm Jeremy wrote:
>   
>> How can I run a box without a video card?  My video card fan fried
>> yesterday. The card still works, but something makes bad smells when it
>> runs (I think it's the fan).
>>
>> I'd buy a new card, but the stores are closed today.  I might try to
>> salvage or improvise a fan from my pile of parts, but I was hoping I could
>> just run the box headless.
>>
>> I tried booting without the card, but I can't ping the box.  There weren't
>> any beep codes.  The HD light flashed a number of times, but not enough to
>> indicate a full boot.  I can powerdown with a quick press of the soft power
>> button, so I'm guessing it's either a bios prompt or something early in the
>> boot process.  The mobo is a gigabyte ds3r for core2-quad, and doesn't have
>> onboard video.
>>
>> What would be stopping the box from coming up?  Is it a bios prompt, or is
>> Linux expecting something?
>>
>> Jeremy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org
>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list
>>     
>
>
>
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>