Power supply fire/mobo issue

Hello, everyone. This is rather sudden on my part, but I've had a couple of computer hardware-related issues in the last month that have really been bugging me. Granted, the problems are solved now, but I'd like some advice or explanation for why and how these problems were caused, as everyone I've asked and everywhere I've looked hasn't given me very much closure.

Around early December, I was up late one evening and noticed that something on the inside of my computer had made an extremely distinct pop and crackle sound, and something started giving off an ozone smell. Long story short, the power supply had caught on fire. I immediately shut down my computer and pulled the plug to the supply just in case, then let it sit overnight. I called my local computer store ahead of time to let them know that I was coming in to get it diagnosed, and then, just to check if anything went wrong myself, I plugged the power supply back in and powered on my computer. It worked for hours until I had to take it in. The person they had on duty at the store cleaned it out and said that nothing seemed like it was damaged. However, a thick, ozone smell (like burnt electrical wire) continued to come from the power supply. I decided to play it safe and take it back in to get the power supply replaced.

Seemed like I was right about the smell coming from my old power supply. My computer worked just fine for about two days afterwards, then when I tried to wake it up out of sleep mode one afternoon, the monitor, mouse, and keyboard became unresponsive. This problem persisted no matter how many times I restarted the computer, and I reasoned it to be a motherboard issue as not even the lights on the NIC were coming on either. I took it back in for another diagnosis and a day later, everything seemed to be working fine. The tech they had on staff just reseated everything on the inside and ran a diagnostic program overnight. My computer's been working fine ever since.

However, I find that those problems are still bugging me due to the lack of explanation I received over what, exactly, went wrong both times. Was my old power supply defective? Could dust cause it catch on fire like it did? Why was it still working fine after the fire? Why did I have to get my computer reseated after getting a new power supply installed, when it worked just fine for a couple of days after the installation? Did the person who installed it at the store might have not connected something properly?

I apologize for the long post. I'm just bugged by what all happened, and I've been incredibly paranoid about my computer ever since. If I could receive some explanations or answers from individuals more knowledgeable than myself, then I think I would gain some peace of mind from this dilemma.

For my computer's specs,

PSU that caught on fire was an Antec EarthWatts 650W, and I got it replaced with a Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 700W.

CPU's an Intel i5 2500K

Mobo's an ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

GPU's an AMD Radeon HD 7800 series

6 GB of Dual-channel DDR3 RAM

And I use a 1 TB Seagate HDD.

Again, I apologize for the length of this post. I guess this isn't a traditional plea for support, but any input I could receive would be most appreciated.

 

Hi and Welcome!

Yes, If your PSU caught fire that it should be replaced! Why would you want to run something that has damage to it? Antec usually makes pretty good products so it's odd to hear that one has caught on fire.

It's possible stuff may have been bumped when they installed the new PSU.

 

Thanks, pclover.

I know, it was dumb of me to do that. And I've seen that comment before about it being unusual for Antec products to malfunction like that. Is it possible that the PSU was defective the entire time? I had it for almost exactly a year at the time that incident occurred. My computer also tended to make intermittent crackling sounds along with short, quiet buzzes. After installing the new PSU, my computer's been absolutely quiet (aside from the fans, that is, but there's nothing to worry about there).