On Without A Graphics Card?

[Funkstar]

I have a question, if I turn on my computer without a graphics card (and my mobo doesn't have integrated graphics) what will I be able to do. Will I be able to run Bios?

All the serious answers are correct in the general sense.

However there are specialist PCs that can boot without a graphics card and dump all the text data you normally get on screen to the serial port or via SNMP on the network. This means you can monitor a server remotely, especially in the later case. This can, in theory, mean you can completely manage a server from across the world. Couple that with an OS that can handle not having a graphics card, this means unix, linux, BSD, solaris, etc. and you can have a bunch of machines that don't have any graphics hardware at all, and can all be looked after completely from your bed via a laptop

With the domenance of comodity hardware these days in server environments, this is becoming pretty rare though. Especially as graphics chips or a couple of dollars to include on a motherboard. This wasn't the case 10 years ago.

[Agent]

However, it depends whether the BIOS is set to halt on errors...

This is a myth - it doesn't work

You need a card for any modern home system to POST. Changing the stop on errors bit in the BIOS does nothing. I've tried it on a lot of machines and not been able to find one person who can confirm they have had it working.

[TAKTAK]

This is a myth - it doesn't work

You need a card for any modern home system to POST. Changing the stop on errors bit in the BIOS does nothing. I've tried it on a lot of machines and not been able to find one person who can confirm they have had it working.

My old one let me :/

was an el' cheapo foxconn board IIRC, it was still booting (using as fileserver) as it was still making windows sounds and accessible via external.

[Fraz]

How on earth can you get into the bios without a screen mate? Seriously?

This made me lol, even though clearly the OP isn't as dumb as his first post made him out to be :-)

[Funkstar]

was an el' cheapo foxconn board IIRC, it was still booting (using as fileserver) as it was still making windows sounds and accessible via external.

I'm more surprised that Windows didn't throw a wobly to be honest.

I really thought it would fall over badly without a graphics card.

[Agent]

My old one let me :/

was an el' cheapo foxconn board IIRC, it was still booting (using as fileserver) as it was still making windows sounds and accessible via external.

Do you know the model number?

I have spoke to a few people high up in certain companies who have assured me this can't be done without hardware set-up with this in mind and is not really found on consumer devices. I'd be very impressed with Foxcon if they went to the effort. The major issue is that BIOS makers like AMIBIOS, Phoenix etc.. have a GPU requirement hardcoded in from the start, and working around this takes a lot of work apparently. More so as Funkstar highlights, Windows relies on the graphics card drivers heavily even during the install phase.

The exception that I know of to this is NT embedded and XP embedded, which include a "headless VGA driver" (IIRC) that 'fakes' a VGA output. A normal Windows install does not include this, so Vista, XP, W7 are out. Using XWindows on Linux also appears to need some config for this, and some distros don't seem to fully support it.

MSDN has a few bits on it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...bedded.5).aspx (and search at the top for more). All of which refers to the embedded versions of Windows as far as I can see.

Sorry to question you here TAKTAK, but this is something I am really interested in due to using a number of machines where this would really be handy.

What motherboard was it? What chipset was it? What OS did you successfully boot (and with what changes)? How did you admin the box?

Hope that doesn't sound like I'm calling you out mate, just really really curious.

[TAKTAK]

I'll try and dig it out tomorrow

All i can remember of it was the GFX card died but i still needed files that were on it, so i took the card out, (or did, i? it's a bit hazy :/) tried booting, et voila.

The OS was XP MCE2005 IIRC, but i'll try and get specifics tomorrow

[duc]

You'll be able to remote desktop into Windows if your motherboard supports headless mode.

[TAKTAK]

Haha, turns out I was being a nincompoop all along, the GFX card may have died, but it had an onboard VGA port that had been blanked off, so in essence I was just using it blind for no reason

Foxconn - 6100K8MA-RS

[Funkstar]

/me points and laughs at TAKTAK

[Fraz]

I always admire people that can post up their stupidity for everyone to enjoy

[xPETEZx]

If all you wanted was files off it, why didnt you just take out the HDD and plug it into the other identical system? or another computer?

Either way, you got it now.