i have an old box that i use to occasionally backup various music files and things of that nature, i want it to boot up completely with nothing attached to it, after messing with various settings it doesnt need a keyboard now to boot up, but it refuses to boot up unless there is a monitor hooked up to it...is there any way around this? im sure there is probably a bios setting somewhere, because i know it can be done.

i know there are some knowledgable people here that can help you, but you will get faster replies on a comptuer forum... i use em all the time when i dont wanna look like an *** here

umm.. what the hell do you wanna do with it than??? how are you goin to use it??? but check a fourm.. and it will be in the bios if you can do it.. im not sure. but again... why?

Your computer shouldn't even know if a monitor is attached or not. As long as there'* a video card there, it should be happy.

well thats the impression i was under, but when i turn it on without a monitor plugged in it wont boot, when there is a monitor it does, makes no sense to me....as for what im going to use it for i just want to be able to plug a power cord into it, and run my crossover cable to my exisinting PC and backup my files, without having to drag out a keyboard and mouse and all that other junk...the old box is sitting on my desk above my current setup, i just want to be able to turn it on and go.

and on that note whats a good computer forum?

well actually yea you do have to have a monitor connected for it to boot up.. .something they just have it do.. what you can do now.. is get a AV switch for a monitor plug, than get a Y adpt. and connect your monitor to both the good PC and the crap PC. i assume you have both computers linked up to one another??!?! if so than do it that way but you just wont ever have to use the AV switch, but use it so that the computer 'sees' a monitor connected. make sense??? hope so!


*EDIT* alrite maybe i should read up on my computer skills.... you can run a puter w/ no monitor.. havent found out how.. but servers can be done.. i dunno.. but the way i said should work... sorry.. google or yahoo.. check it out.

top of the list on google, cant be that bad...im a member there... but most of the questions i have are related to prepress printing, so im a member on those sites...

check this out

http://67.80.184.220:3/forum/

By any chance is it a compaq or an older gateway? I have two older boxes with video cards built in to the motherboard, and do absolutely nothing without the monitor.... Oh, and the Compaq wont even post without a keyboard... I had it set up for 3 days, turn it on, blank screen ... wtf... took it apart, cleaned it, checked everything ... still nothing... roommate says... is your keyboard plugged in? I say "I service computers all day long, you dont need a keyboard for BIOS to post..." Anyway, long story short... I felt pretty lame lol

Why not just buy a 2 port KVM? Then you can flip back and forth between the two systems quickly and still only use one keyboard, mouse and monitor.

its an old Aopen machine that i got for free so i dont want to invest anything into it, if i have to plug a monitor in every so often to boot it up then so be it i guess..i only use it for storage because i cant fit any other hard drive into my Dell...

right now the ol box is a 333mhz Pentium 2 that ive overclocked to 417, and i also overclocked the FSB from 66 to 80ish? the exact figure escapes me. but it works