"Dead?" HP OmniBook 425 ?

[psergiu]

Hi,
I have acquired a HP OmniBook 425 sold as-is. Previous owner also got-it as-is and never tried to power-it up.
It's missing the ROM card ( no cards in slots A,B,C or D )
It has the RAM (little door in front)
It has the battery
I tried to power-it on using a center-negative 12 V power supply and it shows no signs of life al all. No LED, no beep, no click.
I tried to power-it on with 4xAA batteries - same thing, no signs of life

Can anyone with a OmniBook 300/425/430 tell me if that's the expected behavior when the ROM card is missing ?

I don't want to go chase a ROM card if the machine has other issues and it would not work anyways.

Thanks a lot !