MacBook won't start unless battery indicator lit

[Rohde48]

i have a unibody MacBook i received first off there is no hard drive in this, the magsafe light on the adapter is dim, the only way I can get the MacBook to start is holding down the power buttons and tapping through the battery indicator light until the lights freeze then it starts but when it starts the fan runs really high, my question is would no operating system make the fan run countinuously fast? Would a bad battery do this? Any info would help thanks.