Minimal requirements of post

[kelzhul]

so, a friend dug up an old comp and decided to task me with getting it to run. problem is, i cant get it to post. here is my question to the community, what is the minimal requirements for the motherboard to post?
can i get to the post screen with JUST the psu plugged in? ive removed everything including:
cmos battery
ram
hard drives
dvd drives
video and sound card
network card

the cpu is still in. atm, the computer does not post, the fans do spin, but no display.

 

[Dogsnake]

PSU (obviously), CPU, at least 1 stick RAM, Video Card if no on board graphics is present and HD.

 

[kelzhul]

i just need it to post, i don't care about getting to the OS atm, im just trying to figure out if the board is dead, or cpu is dead.

 

[jsc]

PSU (obviously), CPU, at least 1 stick RAM, Video Card if no on board graphics is present [strike]and HD[/strike].

You do not need HD, keyboard, or mouse to successfully POST (single short beep usually). The "No boot device" error message occurs after successfully POSTing.