It's currently a bare box, no hdd or floppy. The onboard video doesn't output anything and nor will any ISA video card I put into it. If I remove the ram it will spew out post code indicating that the ram is missing. Could it be that it required a hdd and floppy before it'll output a proper signal?

Even without hdd and floppy it should still show POST SCREEN on the Monitor, are you sure the Monitor is OK? By the way further up the SPPORT FORUMS is one called GENERAL HARDWARE: http://www.computing.net/hardware/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

The POST code with RAM removed means the mobo ain't dead. With the RAM back in, do you get any beeps? As hiho says, no drives / OS required to put out POST video. Remove all other cards, NIC, sound; detach any periphs, printer, KBD, mouse. M2 If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

I did notice it but since this is a DOS forum I figured more people with better knowledge of older hardware would be lurking. With the ram in I get no beeps at all. The monitor is definately fine as I use it all the time for projects like this. My 486 was recently used on it in the last few days so it works with it at least. The only things its got peripheral wise are the onboard serial/parallel/etc.

Since it seems to have onboard video, you would probably need to disable that in order to allow any add-in display cards to work. Check the motherboard for a 'disable video' (etc.) jumper Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne