Ugh, what happened?

[SaltBoy]

Over the past week or so, my computer had been randomly rebooting for no reason at all... no viruses or spyware to be found anywhere. Anyway, last night the rebooting got so bad that I couldn't even get past the post screen.

I unplugged the computer, opened it up, and noticed the following from the outlet that connects my power supply to the motherboard and the actual power supply cord itself:

Crispy1.jpg
Crispy2.jpg
Crispy3.jpg
Crispy4.jpg

The motherboard is a standard EPOX 8RDA, the powersupply an Antec TruePower 430.
Other specs:
xp2800+
512 MB 3200 Corsair XMS RAM
Two HDDs
Radeon 9700pro
Standard Ethernet Card
SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum

Two questions:
1. What have I done?! I don't overclock and I have kept my computer clean of any malware, viruses, etc.
2. What will I need to replace? Part of the plug on the power supply cord has melted off onto the motherboard outlet, so I'm wondering if I'll need to replace both. Everything else seems intact.

 

[magratton]

Replace both.. hope you still have warantee.

 

[WuGahCha]

maybe its overheating???

my XP2600+ (non barton) gave me random lockups in WC3, later found out my heatsink was cloged with dust, it was a lil better, but still crashing, so i put some artic silver 5 and bumped Vcore a lil bit (dunno if its necessary but i dont care if the POS cpu dies), and now its fine. 39C idle, 50ish load

i'm running asus a7x-x and enermax 300W btw, not OC either


edit----------
oh nvm just saw those pics, surprised u can still start the pc... u got another problem there

 

[Burn2619]

I have seen this happen before when the contacts in the plug and system board don't fit up right IE(non tight fit) and some arcs occur and after time become larger shorts and soo fry like whats seen on your system board. Like Magratton says hope you can still RMA something. Or if your a techie break out the iron and put in some new connectors and a new end on your PSU.

 

[TTM77]

if U want a quick fix then just replace the connector.
If you are a sure fix, replace everything. (including your wife.. ha ha)

electronic devices don't like losing power in the middle of working.. so your hard drive might have problem on there. U should do a full scan of your hard drive.

Looks like the old connector is bad and didn't give 100% contact. When there is a tiny contact, that creates a resistance and burn the crappy thing. When U kick it or move the connector then it has good contact again and works again.

If you want good.. solder the thing directly. No more crappy connector.

Even with solder, you could get what is called "Dry Solder" happen and that will also burn like this. But instead of burn @ the connector it'll burn where the solder is bad. But solder will give you 99% sure of good contact.

 

[SaltBoy]

Slight *bump*

 

[Dennis Travis]

Am I seeing things or are two of the Electrolytic Caps Buldging and leaking out the tops? It your first Picture it sure looks like that. Check to be sure. The Tops should be FLAT and not bludging out and I am sure I see something right in the middle of two of them! It's the Two Large Caps behind the printer port. The one under the wire and the 3rd one over from that. The other two look bad too but no fluid.

The Six Caps right by the CPU look flat. It's the ones on the other side of the Inductors and the one by the Power plug looks buldged out too.

 

[SaltBoy]

Originally posted by: Dennis Travis
Am I seeing things or are two of the Electrolytic Caps Buldging and leaking out the tops? It your first Picture it sure looks like that. Check to be sure. The Tops should be FLAT and not bludging out and I am sure I see something right in the middle of two of them! It's the Two Large Caps behind the printer port. The one under the wire and the 3rd one over from that. The other two look bad too but no fluid.

The Six Caps right by the CPU look flat. It's the ones on the other side of the Inductors and the one by the Power plug looks buldged out too.

Wow - I'll have to check that out when I get home. What causes something like that to happen?