What happens when you try to play a backup game in a psx without modchip or bootcd?

[NooK]

I wanna know if anyone can tell me what happens if you try to play a backup cd without having a modchip or bootcd, because my cousin bought a used psx and I don't know if it has modchip or not so I sent him a copy of tomb raider 4 patched (The patch that allows you to choose pal or ntsc and allow you to turn on all the cheats) to check what happens and he told me that when he puts the cd on, the playstation screen comes and after that nothing happens and the screen turns black. I tried playing in my computer and it goes well. Can anyone tell me by that if it's possible to tell with that information if he has a modchip or not. He lives in another country so I can't take a look in the psx.

Thanks a lot