Broken PSU? System turning on for a few seconds, then off

[21crescendo]

So, until this morning everything was working fine. That's when I noticed a slight bend in my GPU when I decided to take off the case window and fix it. The PC was turned on at that moment and I was able to fix it.

 

That's when I noticed some light dust on the top of the GPU backplate, I then proceeded to brush the dust away. Sure enough I was able to do it, but upon my last brushstroke, I either touched a connector or a pin or a circuit or something and my PC abruptly turned off.

 

My impulse was to check the surge protector on the wall socket and it was fluctuating for a bit. I removed all electronics from it (monitor, speakers and PSU power) and tried it to plug it in directly to the wall. It still wouldn't boot properly, just would intermittently have power for a second and turn off momentarily.

 

I have tried to reset CMOS on my motherboard by removing the battery. The video I have posted is immediately after resetting CMOS. Power is being drawn directly from the wall. PC turns in intermittently, mobo, fans, GPU etc. Only the PSU fan doesn't turn on at all.

 

My guess is that the PSU's days are done. Any thoughts, suggestions? Specs are listed in my profile.

Edited April 29, 2020 by 21crescendo

[WaggishOhio383]

Take out your graphics card and see if the PC will boot normally. If your graphics card is shorting out, the power supply will momentarily shut off to avoid damage. If you were touching your graphics card while your PC was turned on, it's very likely that you could have caused some damage to your GPU. In general, you should never touch any of the components of your computer while it is on, or even while the PSU is turned on even if the PC is shut down. You should always turn off the PSU switch or even unplug your PSU before cleaning or messing with any of your internal components.

[21crescendo]

Thanks for the reply. I come bearing positive developments! My PC works absolutely fine now! 

 

What I did to get it working was remove the CMOS battery for 30 seconds and put it back again. Booted up to the same issue. 

 

Tried again, this time with one RAM dimm less. Same result. No boot and intermittent shut offs.

 

Finally, I unhooked the GPU, plugged in the HDMI direct to the processor, and turned on the power switch with just one RAM dimm. And sure enough it did the trick. 

 

I then put it all back together and powered up.  I had to reconfigure my BIOS settings like boot device, turbo boost and XMP memory. 

 

Lesson learnt. 20/20 hindsight I guess. Just thankful to have my PC back. And I'm super grateful for the comments, truly. Thank you.