Motherboard Testing????

[PortzJ]

Hey guys,

 

Can I just plug a motherboard into the psu without anything else attached like ram or processor. Just to see if the motherboards leds turn on to see if it gets power?

 

Thanks,

PortzJ

[ProjectBox153]

Why? It won't work without a CPU and RAM. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

You can... it just won't do anything other than light up the LEDs. You won't get any output and maybe a bunch of beeps from the beeper speaker.

[PortzJ]

@BlueChinchillaEatingDorito it wont fry my motherboard will it? And if it lights up is that a good sign or could a damaged motherboard do that too??

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, PortzJ said:

@BlueChinchillaEatingDorito it wont fry my motherboard will it? And if it lights up is that a good sign or could a damaged motherboard do that too??

A damaged motherboard could still power up. Back in the day there was a nasty virus called CIH that would've overwritten the BIOS of systems. Those systems would still turn on and light up, but would do nothing as the BIOS was basically gone.

 

Other forms of damage could still allow a board to boot, but will have instability or features would just plain not work.

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, PortzJ said:

it wont fry my motherboard will it? And if it lights up is that a good sign or could a damaged motherboard do that too??

it would be really badly made mobo if just connecting power cable causes damage. It receives very little power when just cord is connected. And if its new from factory, all capacitors are empty to begin with. Only thing with some power is CMOS battery (1.5V). You could be smashing on-board power button or shorting pins all you like and nothing would happen. Only set of high end Asus mobos can do very basic operations without working CPU. But they still need CPU and RAM to be attached for that.