[rescue] Divide and conquer

[Peter Corlett]

Andrew Weiss <ajwdsp at cloud9.net> wrote:
[...]
> All PC's boot without a monitor... it's old Macs that don't boot without a
> display on the sense pins... something that can be fooled with a Mac to
> VGA adapter.

Ah, I've got a Mac LCII that apparently boots, but nothing comes up on the
display. I've been told that it's because the battery inside is flat (in
fact, it's missing :) - would this be the cause, or is there some deeper
problem?

> All PC's I know of won't boot without a video card. (I've heard there are
> rare exceptions, but most machines will just BEEP really loudly without a
> VGA adapter)

Are you sure that's a failure, or just a warning?

I agree that they beep loudly when no video card is detected, but they will
often just contine with POST and boot anyway.

> Many PC's don't boot without a keyboard attached.

Booting without a keyboard is such a common requirement, I've yet to see a
machine that wouldn't do so when you select the blatantly obvious option in
the BIOS.

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