that could be caused by the oxidation on the gold contacts of the ram sticks which is why I use a pencil eraser on those contacts. the reseating of your ram resolved your problem not re-starting the computer without ram then shutting it off to put the ram back in.
Did you check to see if the hard disk is indicated in bios? If you see it listed then check to see what the boot order is, and if it's listed make it first in line. Another consideration is to insure that all hard disk cables are plugged in and working, you could even try moving them. I've had SATA drives disappear only to have it comeback just by relocating the cable on the mainboard. Do you have the original install disk!
Whose post are you referring to, and how do you know it won't work? Just because he tried another hard disk doesn't mean it won't work, and it could mean he has the same issue If there is an issue with the RAM then it wouldn't post but you would get a repetitious beeping noise. Windows is terrible at keeping track of boot order, including if the disk contains the operating system. When you're trying to reinstall Windows, it's often a good idea to have only the DVD ROM Drive first, and even solo in the boot order, because the install disk will find the hard disk. So what I'm saying is that his problems could be a bios setting issue or he has a bad SATA cable, unless both drives are toast.
even with bad ram a computer can post but with issues like bad onboard video sharing main system ram or post only so far before it stops because of the bad ram.
That's true when you're talking about the integrity of the sticks, but you were suggesting that the contacts were flawed, and in every single flawed contact I've encountered the PC has failed to post. There was a series of non-tower office desktop computers made by HP. It had a single cooling fan that drew air in through the front right, and toward the CPU heat sink, and then out the back. I live in Florida so heat is an issue with any PC, so I questioned the decision to place more than 200 of them on campus. Almost weekly I got a call because a computer failed to boot making only a beeping sound, and in every one of them it was because of the RAM was not making contact. All that was required to resolve the issue was going into the case, popping out the RAM, and then reseating it. I've had sticks of RAM going bad where the chips have probably reached the electromigration stage, and they will as you've noted post but with errors such as distorted graphics, but none of that was indicated in his post. I've also had a single stick prevent me from posting at all, and I've had chipsets on motherboards also degrade, but I still suspect that his issue is a bios issue.
his problem is not a ram issue but a bios issue as you noted being he cannot access the cmos setup. as I don't know if he has tried resetting the cmos back to default to see if it corrects his problem or not then it is anybody's guess what the correct resolution is. the contacts weren't flawed per say just oxidized which a pencil eraser got rid of. learned that trick back in 98-99 while working at Celestica testing sun micro-systems server motherboards & daughter cards. used erasers on the pinless TI cpu's gold pads to clean the oxidation if the board\card failed a cpu test.
I don't think his problem is a RAM issue either, but I do believe that it is likely a bios setting issue that is confusing to someone who's never worked with it. Removing the board's battery might help, but he should also remove his SATA connections and recheck his hard disk power connection. If he can post, he should be able to access the cmos. Maybe his cmos battery is dead?
I already suggested the battery but he has not replied back on it. can also be a defective sata controller chip as ran into that on a customer's computer. almost replaced everything including the sata hard drive til the computer finally gave me the clue that it was the sata controller was crapping out. cloned his sata drive onto an ide drive & no problem for 2yrs til the ide drive started developing bad sectors.
