Power supply concerns 2

[mapledoom]

untill recently I have always left my computer on 24/7 untill i decided to turn it off 5 days ago. then yesterday I came home and turned on my computer. after about an hour i noticed a burning smell. i couldnt tell if it was comming from my computer so i went to start and shut down and before I could shut down, the computer froze so I had became more worried. I hit the power switch of and waited about a minute and turned it back on to see if it still worked and it did so i turned it off quick, unpluged everything and took my case to the living room to plug it in and see the fans and sure enough, the fan inside the power supply was struggling to turn, moving slowly. i also noticed the power supply was really hot. I dicsonnected it, removed the power supply and opened it up to see what was going on. well miraculously none of the wires had melted even though the plastic rings holding them together had started to melt away and drip on a circuit board in the power supply also. it also appears as though some of the capacitors has exploded or leaked a little not sure but part of the circuit board in the power supply itself was blackened by the overheating. other than that i went forward and put some oil on the fan and put it back together and im not comfertable using it but i just make sure i turn it off when im not using it because i dont want to burn down the house. im dirt poor and its an ATX 350W. just wondering if its gonna be fine till i get money to buy a new one. or what is the worst that can happen by using this damaged power supply in the long run?

 

[brianj]

This faulty power supply could burn out any minute and take some other components with it, and that could be VERY expensive I would not use it till you replace the power supply

 

[TimeParadoX]

350w could barley handel the most simplest component upgrades ( videocards for PCI-e bus slots ) because most need atleast 400w minimum, Also I dont recommend leaving on your computer for along time because it will eventually get f**ked up and wont even work... plus it cost alot of money to power a computer 24/7 so electricity bill is high

Go to www.newegg.com and get this PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341002 it's a cheap PSU and 700w so you can run anything you want and leave it on for awhile not 24/7 for 10 months...

Also...

This faulty power supply could burn out any minute and take some other components with it, and that could be VERY expensive I would not use it till you replace the power supply

is true, either spend $140 on a PSU or end up spending 700+ on a whole new system