[ale] No RAM = No BIOS?

[JD]

> What do you think provides the beeping?  (BIOS!)

That's what I thought too.

Background:
I'm building a new XBMC box.  Found a $99 case+MB with an AMD E350D APU and GPU
onboard.  I couldn't "scrounge" and RAM around the man-cave, so I wanted to get
into the BIOS to look around before a run for the Microcenter.  Connected
installed the MB, PSU, and made all the connections - except HDD or RAM.

* Powered up expecting to get into the BIOS - nothing.
* Beeps for issues with were common on other MBs - nothing.

Picked up some RAM at MC last night, installed it - saw the POST, connected an
old SATA HDD and saw a Linux fsck started ... 384 days since the last check. ;)
 I have no idea what is on that HDD - the boot crashed for some reason, so I
decided to sleep on it.  I want to look around the HDD - it **MIGHT** have
something extremely critical .... that I didn't notice the last 3 yrs. ;)

Earlier in the day, contacted Gigabyte support because they don't include a
troubleshooting section in the manual. Their response:

--

Dear customer,

Yes, RAM is required for the system to Post.

--
I think the GPU uses part of the RAM for video memory, so there's no way to
drive the screen without it. There might be a really weak speaker, but I don't
recall a speaker connector to the case. Hummmmm, perhaps if I connect an
external speaker ... too much work to get at the RAM at this point.

Need to quiet down a case fan today. Sounds like a jet engine whether blowing or
sucking. The sucking was louder if that is possible.