[phosphoros]

i sent back the asus because of the picky ram situation, and i purchased a Shuttle AN35N-Ultra. same thing, it wont load anything onto my moniter, but the cid card is correctly installed, and so is the ram.

so my question again is, what parts are necessary for a computer to run?

all i have set up is the:

cpu, fan
motherboard
harddrive
video card
RAM.

cd rom is the only thing i dont have insatlled, does that matter?

 

[PaulB]

Nope doesnt matter with ram a cpu and a mobo you should at least get the bios to start up the video card. Try unpluging the monitor and turning it on right after you boot... I have been completely baffiled by my monitor not coming out of low power mode before...

 

[Denmor]

if the above fails, try the video card in another machine and see if your video card hasnt crapped out for some reason.

 

[Lothos]

most boards will not activate the bios without cpu and ram installed. You get beep codes without video or ram.

 

[The Duke]

Sorry but RAM does matter. Some boards do not want or like "buffered" RAM. Check your RAM specs. Buffered RAM has 9 or 18 chips, unbuffered has 8 or 16.
Some boards dont like 1 stick w 8 and 1 stick w 16 chips together either but that is uncommon. Also some boards do not want or like RAM w/ ECC either.
BTW The only thing you need to boot is a CPU/FHS, the power connected to the MOBO,vid card and a likeable

stick of RAM.