Running a computer with no graphics card?

[XA04]

Is it possible?

Say if you had a graphics card in a computer, installed the OS, etc. Then installed VNC, and removed the graphics card... would it work? Or would it just refuse to even boot?

I've done a similar thing before (with no monitor hooked up...), but it had onboard graphics.


If it's not possible... would the problem start as soon as you got into Windows? if so, is there a driver available to trick Windows into thinking there is a graphics card there so you could control it remotely via VNC still?


Cheers

[ultim8um]

I would have thought that your best bet would be to set it up with a graphics card installed and then remove it afterwards... Think you can get round the booting issue by telling the motherboard (via the settings in the bios) not to stop for any errors...

I can recall someone answering this before on another forum and saying that it could be done with linux...

GL

[XA04]

Yeah, well that was the plan (removing the card afterwards).


Just wondering if I would bump into any problems after removing it as the mobo doesn't have onboard graphics.

[Barry]

Just disable stop on error in bios, I have a few pcs running with no graphics/mouse ect

[XA04]

Cool. I'll look into it then, thanks!

[Budding]

I think it would depend on the Operating System. Some OSes require a graphics card to run (Windows for example), while command line OSes don't (DOS for example).

[Barry]

windows 98/2000/xp/nt and nix all work fine without a graphic card

[XA04]

The only option I can see in the bios is:



It was set to VGA, and I changed it to absent. I haven't been able to test it yet so I don't know if it will work, but does that look like what I needed on?

[Barry]

Something like this

[XA04]

Hmm, looks like what I did in my screenshot then..

Will just have to wait and see.

[gamesaregood]

I think its normally on the page with the hard drives etc...

[Budding]

windows 98/2000/xp/nt and nix all work fine without a graphic card

That's wrong. Even Windows 95 requires a VGA compatible graphics card to run. Without it, Windows won't boot.

[XA04]

That's what I was worried about...

I installed UltraVNC on a computer recently (rather than the standard WinVnc), and it installs something called "Winvnc video hook driver" in display adapters (where it usually shows graphics cards).

So hopefully, this will work without a graphics card... because UltraVNC will trick Windows into thinking there is a graphics card.


Can anybody confirm this though?

[chrestomanci]

Perhaps a simpler option would be to pick up a low end junk PCI graphics card just to keep windows happy?

[XA04]

Well I have a 2mb graphics card, but it's for a project I am making, and I'd need to buy a PCI raiser... which I could well do but I'd rather not (trying to keep as much space as possible inside the case).

On a side note, I came up with the idea of using the display drivers you get with Vmware - SO, hopefully if I install them.. that may keep windows happy.. because it will think there is a graphics card there.

Can't test it for a few days anyway... but will report back if anyone is interested?

[scrandman]

Yep - let us know.