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Will a PC run without a CPU?

gijoe50000
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Ok, So I was having a troubleshooting discussion recently with somebody and this question arose: will a pc run without a CPU? I don't mean will it boot, obviously.. but will it do ANYTHING?

 

My thoughts were that you would get a few seconds of fans and maybe the beginning of the POST sequence at least, but the other guy seemed to thing that you would get NOTHING at all, like if you had no power. I'm assuming that fans run up to full as soon as the mobo gets power regardless of a CPU being present or not.

 

The discussion arose from troubleshooting a dead pc after a power outage, that wasn't related to the PSU. My thoughts were that the mobo was dead, but he said it could have been the CPU, to which I replied: if it was only the CPU then you would get something happening.

 

Am I wrong? Is he wrong? Does it depend on the mobo/cpu?

 

Thoughts..

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Ok, So I was having a troubleshooting discussion recently with somebody and this question arose: will a pc run without a CPU? I don't mean will it boot, obviously.. but will it do ANYTHING?

 

My thoughts were that you would get a few seconds of fans and maybe the beginning of the POST sequence at least, but the other guy seemed to thing that you would get NOTHING at all, like if you had no power. I'm assuming that fans run up to full as soon as the mobo gets power regardless of a CPU being present or not.

 

The discussion arose from troubleshooting a dead pc after a power outage, that wasn't related to the PSU. My thoughts were that the mobo was dead, but he said it could have been the CPU, to which I replied: if it was only the CPU then you would get something happening.

 

Am I wrong? Is he wrong? Does it depend on the mobo/cpu?

 

Thoughts..

Might get fans going but thats about it

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Actually the PC won't turn on without a CPU.

But Some Asus mobos BIOS FLASHBACK features gives updating the BIOS without a CPU.

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I'd probably assume that you'd just have maybe some fans spin up and a beep from the mobo speaker saying you have no cpu, but you definitely wouldn't get any display output since the CPU controls what the GPU gets to render etc.

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Nope you won't be able to do anything but to flash the bios on some Asus MB.

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Will a car run without an engine?

Yeah it will if you pushed it down hill.

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Um... No.

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Yeah it will if you pushed it down hill.

then push your pc down the hill see if that runs your pc

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then push your pc down the hill see if that runs your pc

I don't have one :( .

  ﷲ   Muslim Member  ﷲ

KennyS and ScreaM are my role models in CSGO.

CPU: i3-4130 Motherboard: Gigabyte H81M-S2PH RAM: 8GB Kingston hyperx fury HDD: WD caviar black 1TB GPU: MSI 750TI twin frozr II Case: Aerocool Xpredator X3 PSU: Corsair RM650

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Ok, So I was having a troubleshooting discussion recently with somebody and this question arose: will a pc run without a CPU? I don't mean will it boot, obviously.. but will it do ANYTHING?

 

My thoughts were that you would get a few seconds of fans and maybe the beginning of the POST sequence at least, but the other guy seemed to thing that you would get NOTHING at all, like if you had no power. I'm assuming that fans run up to full as soon as the mobo gets power regardless of a CPU being present or not.

 

The discussion arose from troubleshooting a dead pc after a power outage, that wasn't related to the PSU. My thoughts were that the mobo was dead, but he said it could have been the CPU, to which I replied: if it was only the CPU then you would get something happening.

 

Am I wrong? Is he wrong? Does it depend on the mobo/cpu?

 

Thoughts..

Nay

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Nay

Is that true in your photo running at 2.2V ?

  ﷲ   Muslim Member  ﷲ

KennyS and ScreaM are my role models in CSGO.

CPU: i3-4130 Motherboard: Gigabyte H81M-S2PH RAM: 8GB Kingston hyperx fury HDD: WD caviar black 1TB GPU: MSI 750TI twin frozr II Case: Aerocool Xpredator X3 PSU: Corsair RM650

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then push your pc down the hill see if that runs your pc

I think that a better comparison would be to wire the mobo directly to the wall, that would definitely get something going.... 

 

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If it isn't working absolutely perfectly, according to all your assumptions, it is broken.

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I don't have one :( .

eez k, if u haz one without cpu. send it to me and i will attach some... legs. to make it run... away

 

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eez k, if u haz one without cpu. send it to me and i will attach some... legs. to make it run... away

If you haz one CPU send it to me I will attach it to da board.

  ﷲ   Muslim Member  ﷲ

KennyS and ScreaM are my role models in CSGO.

CPU: i3-4130 Motherboard: Gigabyte H81M-S2PH RAM: 8GB Kingston hyperx fury HDD: WD caviar black 1TB GPU: MSI 750TI twin frozr II Case: Aerocool Xpredator X3 PSU: Corsair RM650

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If you haz one CPU send it to me I will attach it to da board.

Ah that reminds me i have a LGA 775 CPU unused, been tryin to sell it for a while.. Do you want my Intel E2160?. You'll pay the shipping tho

(NOW)War Horse:

CPU: AMD FX-6300 | Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 | RAM: Corsair Vengeance Dual Channel 8GB 1600Mhz | GPU: MSI R7790 | Case: Dazumba D-Vito 903 | HDD 1 & 2: Seagate 1TB and Seagate 500GB | PSU: Corsair CX600
(WAS)Old Coop:
CPU: Intel C2D E7500 | Motherboard: Gigabyte G31M-ES2L | RAM: V-Gen 4GB Dual Channel | GPU: Galaxy GT210 | Case: Power-Up ??? | HDD: Seagate 500GB | PSU: Power-up 500W

MyAnimeList Profile | Heaven Society | HEIL THE MIGHTY AND POWERFUL LINUS | My Blog 'Unfinished Pieces' | Code of Conduct

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I don't have one :( .

Push your friends build down a hill?

 

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Sort of in the name CENTRAL processing unit. 

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Push your friends build down a hill?

Nope not going to do it, first going to play on it, do some cable management, wire things probably, take some pics, make a topic about it then maybe I wont push it down a hill.

  ﷲ   Muslim Member  ﷲ

KennyS and ScreaM are my role models in CSGO.

CPU: i3-4130 Motherboard: Gigabyte H81M-S2PH RAM: 8GB Kingston hyperx fury HDD: WD caviar black 1TB GPU: MSI 750TI twin frozr II Case: Aerocool Xpredator X3 PSU: Corsair RM650

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