urgent help...please tell me it's just my psu

today i was cleaning my computer. when i put it back together and turned it on my screen told me the video card (9800 pro) wasn't hooked up to a power connector. since i was certain that it was, i immediately unplugged the computer. when i took it down i saw that the five volt wire in the molex plug was burnt. this happened once before, but it was on an extension cord that came with the video card, and i assumed it was because i had a faulty fan hooked up to that same line. this time however, it was hooked up to a line directly from the power supply. i tested the power supply with a volt meter (without hooking it up to the rest of the computer) and the 5v line rated at 5.2, even on the burnt plug. i tried to start up the computer again, this time hooking the card up to a different plug on the same line. this time it showed a picture, but when it started booting windows the screen suddenly went blank. then there were horizontal zebra stripes across the screen. i didn't want to wait until something else happened, so i quickly shut off the machine. right now i'm running my computer on a backup power supply that i had lying around. i only have my primary master and my video card hooked up. everything seems to be working fine now.

so what's the verdict? do i need to replace the power supply? can it be fixed? or does the problem lie with my card?

that's how my ATI 9800 Pro was killed. Now i am using a medion. My guess is something shorted out your card.

my card seems to be working fine right now. i just want to know if it will stay that way.

ya, well, if it works today, it should work anyday. Try artifact scanning: if it performs like it used to, then it should be genuinely fine.

i was just able to run 3dmark03 and didn't get a single visible artifact. in fact it gave me a couple hundred more points than i remember getting last time.

sounds like ur past psu was a pos, time to get a replacement: fortron, antec, pc power and cooling. Enjoy.

Edit for your avatar: I wish I could hug my computer, he's just too damn big! nice avatar man\babe.

rofl...at first i didn't notice the slash in man/babe

yeah, i wanted to replace the psu anyway, i just didn't want to be forced into it.

that's my gf by the way