Hey everyone, I’ve been self hosting a few things on a raspberry pi like board and wanted to upgrade to a mini PC. I got my hands on an old Intel NUC model D54250WYB but it had no memory or storage, not even an enclosure. I bought some RAM and a power supply but the SSD I was planning to use wasn’t compatible (physically) and I didn’t install it.

I tried powering it on but I only get a Standby LED when I plug it in. Pressing the power button doesn’t do anything as far as I’m aware. There’s supposed to be a second LED that turns on to show that the computer is ON. I have an Ubuntu installer USB that should work that I plugged in but nothing changes when I plug it in. Also, the board heats up when plugged in so I assume it’s doing something?

I was planning on temporarily using an SD card or USB until I made sure the computer works so I don’t spend money in vain.

My question is: Could it be that the missing internal storage is preventing the computer from booting? If not, could it be that something is shorted/doesn’t work anymore? Has anyone had experience with this model? From what I found it was released in 2013 so it’s relatively old now.

TLDR: Intel NUC without SSD storage but with only a usb won’t boot. Is it the missing SSD fault?

Thanks in advance :)

  • BrickfrogEnglish
    5•3 days ago

    No display at all? I suspect something else is at play there…

    On that model during bootup

    F2 = BIOS

    F10 = Boot Menu

    You should be seeing something in the Boot Menu, or at least be able to get into the BIOS?

    Also double-check the USB formatting, I don’t remember if that NUC has UEFI boot support or if it needs to be enabled in the BIOS beforehand. e.g. if your USB is formatted to boot legacy then reformat it to boot in UEFI, or vice versa.

    I actually have a few of those NUC models around but am not sure what it does exactly with no SSD, I think/thought it should still be able to handle USB boot in that situation.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      1•3 days ago

      I haven’t tried to check for display yet, I don’t have any mini HDMI cables on hand. I’ll try to get it connected to a display.

      I was hoping to do the whole setup process “headless” but I guess I’ll find a cable and keyboard.