Ram/OS

Can you install an OS with out any ram in a PC/laptop?

If there is no RAM you can't even start up that machine. You'll never make it past POST (Power On Self Test)

-DG

RAM is a necessary component, just as much so as the processor. There's no way the installer could actually run or do anything without memory to reside in.

Come to find out; this laptop I have (Dell) has 256 MB RAM integrated and a slot in back/bottom for additional RAM.

That might be enough to set up a DOS, OS/2 and WfW (Windows 3.11) or even some Linux flavors but certainly not se7en
-DG

Dell used to embed a memory chip in some of their laptops. I never was fond of the practice, because if that chip developed memory errors, the laptop was useless...and you couldn't swap it out.

SledgeDG said:

If there is no RAM you can't even start up that machine. You'll never make it past POST (Power On Self Test)

-DG

Hi there this is FALSE -- the O/P asked whether an OS could be installed without RAM (any OS - not specifically W7).

Some mother boards have a mini-os built into the BIOS (Gigabyte Mother boards for example) which can connect to the Internet so you can flash upgrade the BIOS BEFORE booting up the OS.

Although BIOS is also really memory too, by RAM I assume you mean the conventional RAM that is installed in the memory slots in a PC.

RAM is only required if the O/S needs more memory than is available in the BIOS.

In theory you should be able to run W7 from a BIOS and just use peripherals such as HDD's for saving user data etc.

Anybody who can remember the first IBM PC's should recognize that the original OS was in the COPYRIGHTED IBM BIOS and the non IBM PC manufacturers had to "reverse Engineer" this to be compatable with the then standard of PC's --the IBM PC.

(The BIOS was IBM BASIC - so you didn't even need the BIOS to have been compiled in C or whatever first. A built in interpreter generated the correct machine instruction codes).

The ORIGINAL IBM PC's didn't boot from a disk - although it DID have disk drives.

The "compatable" PC market started with booting from disks and had to "replicate" the IBM PC.

Note also that a BIOS OS can access peripherals so if Disk drives etc were made available to the OS operating in a BIOS then of course user data could be created and changed --no RAM required either.

A decent BIOS actually has a lot of functions in any case for acessing Disk drive etc etc.

Hopefully this clears up misunderstanding about this question.

Cheers

jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hopefully this clears up misunderstanding about this question.

It actually does quite the opposite, and I don't really get the purpose of your post, other than to wave your e-wang around.

Seriously. The context of the thread was that the OP didn't realize the laptop had embedded memory in it. What's the point of nit-picking to this level, other than to belittle someone else?

I guess if we want to nit-pick, I'll state that your comment is false, and SledgeDG is correct. The BIOS is an operating system, but the computer won't move past the POST...which where the BIOS ceases to be the operating system. The BIOS will run enough to politely tell you there's no memory installed. Many laptops won't even go that far, as they will immediately tell you to install memory before it could even attempt the post.

I don't mean to single you out, but we aren't playing Technical Trivial Pursuit here. There's no reason to belittle someone else and muddle the info given at the same time.