So my PSU somehow burned and melted some of the wiring in it.  It happened sometime during the day while my computer was powered down, so I came home to a lovely burning plastic/rubber smell.  I've known there was something wrong with the system for a while now and suspected the motherboard, but it looks like it was the PSU after all.  Explains some of the oddities like USB ports and the CD drive on the front panel sometimes restarting the computer when activated.  I've ordered a new one because I want my system back up and running as soon as possible, assuming nothing else is damaged in it.  I rarely ever go for one day shipping, but I'm trying it for this.  I'm currently posting from the old laptop that still somehow lives.  No significant gaming capabilities but I'll be around on it.

 

I ordered this one

http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Series-Fully-Modular-Performance-compatible/dp/B004P1IWZU/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

I figure with it being fully modular and compatible with i7s, it'll be perfect to have for when I finally upgrade my computer someday.  I'd like to get a new tower, motherboard, and hexacore i7 processor some day (at least those parts, maybe a bigger SSD for Windows and a faster HDD to install games to as well).  Figuring out all of the wiring will be a good start on figuring out how to put a computer together when I finally get that stuff much later on.  1000w is still probably overkill (the old one was 1100w), but should be plenty if I ever get dual GPUs.

That should be a more than sufficient psu. Sucks yours burnt up like that. It's strange it went while powered down, but there is always some power going through it if you haven't hit the hard switch.

You shouldn't have any trouble changing it. Though, it can be a pia routing the wire depending on your case design.

With a quick look, the wiring doesn't seem to be THAT hard to follow.  I will have to cut off a few zip ties and probably put some new ones in.

all that anime porn you been downloading

all that anime porn you been downloading

 

That would be Fluffeyy.  I have no interest of that kind in the animated.  I hate overly gratuitous anime in general.

 

I did get the zip ties today, and am really hoping that the PSU will arrive early tomorrow so I can get started putting it back together.  I don't have to go to work until a bit after 4PM.  This laptop is slow as the dickens (golly).  It doesn't help that it doesn't seem to accept the signal from the ethernet cable and I'm stuck on wireless internet, which out here is pretty weak.  #firstworldproblems #FML #hashtagsaredumb

It was here when I got up, so now I have about three hours to try to work this out and see if I can get my system running again.  The thing is intimidating to be sure.  A heavy box with a PSU and a large pouch.  Inside this large pouch, holy hell.  It's like if the Aztecans sacrificed a computer and put all of its intestines in there.

lol. Luckily, since it's modular it won't be that bad when you're done. You should have a clean case by the time you finish.

I DID IT!  It wasn't that hard, following all of the former wires with the new ones, and much easier being modular because I could plug all the wires in alone, then put the bulky PSU in and hook it all up.  I definitely feel like I can build my own PC when the time comes now.  The great thing about having a fully modular PSU is that, if something like this ever happens again, or I decide to upgrade, I can just get another fully modular PSU and it will be a simple matter of unplugging/replugging into it, rather than tracking wires through the whole computer and having to remanage them.  Speaking of wire management, there are basically just black coils of wire in front of the PSU for the moment, but all of the cables are nicely braided so they should be fine.  I still have the zip ties, so I can try to make it look prettier in there later if I ever feel the need.

 

As a precaution, I'm wondering if I should power down the PSU entirely when I'm away for extended periods of time now.  Though I get the feeling that the issue was with the former PSU, and not anything with the power in my room.  There have always been weird power issues on this system, mostly with the front panel and it causing random shutdowns.

 

Either way, it feels so good to have everything working again, and a nice feeling to accomplish it on my own.

Glad you got it done!  Not hard at all.  I wouldn't bother powering down fully. When a PSU is ready to go, it's ready to go. If it's gonna fail it will just fail when you power it on the next time.

So the front panel is still a bit borked.  Plugging in a USB device into the front panel blacked out the screen and forced me to restart.  This is nothing new, and everything's still back to working fine, but I will power down the PSU when not using the system for more than a couple hours as a precaution (just one more button in the back to push when turning the system on or off).  Perhaps there is faulty wiring that caused the melting issue.  On the bright side, this PSU came with 5 year warranty, so it will be easy to replace, especially with its modularism.  Leaving the system powered off won't change much.  Motherboards have a cell battery on them to power a few things like the clock to keep system time from getting out of sync.

So here's basically how it went down.

I pretty much performed a Zan-Datsu on my computer.

Lol. Gutted.