TheMatt

I am thinking that the other BIOS chips are slightly different. You have to be very careful because even a slight difference in the BIOS it could prevent the computer from booting. Remeber - the BIOS is the second most important [socketed] component on the motherboard, second only to the CPU itself.

A computer only needs four basic things connected to the motherboard to function properly - CPU, BIOS, RAM (memory), and PSU (power supply). Missing any of these will always prevent the computer from POSTing and often not even giving off beep codes.

A computer can in fact function without a video card, but it is obviously not much use to the user to not have one. Most BIOSs will beep an error code if no video card is present. Keep in mind this is usually not a problem on most laptops though because they have integrated video.