practical to repair ATX connector?

[Berg]

A couple weeks ago my family computer's atx cable melted in the mb. I got a new mother board replacement and a new psu. It kind of feels bad to waste a perfectly good psu though just cause the plastic cap for 3 of the pins completely melted and the rest of the head is slightly yellowish. The PSU was a Antec 300 and worked perfectly up till when i disconected it because of the smell. Is it possible to cut the cables on the atx connector and put on a new 20 pin cap? My mom has a some background in electrical engineering and she said she would be able to do this but will it work and is it practical? Has anyone else tried and succeeded in this before? Does radioshack have 20 pin caps?

 

[Engineer]

You can buy one of these and cut and splice it in.

Note: The above is an example and I don't have an opinion on the vendor, simply a "Yahoo search". You can find ATX extender cables at many places for use. Simply cut off your old PS end, cut this extender and splice in. Use heatshrink to seal the soldered wires.

Good Luck.

P.S. I don't think Radio Shack has ATX extenders.

 

[Zepper]

Places like jab-tech.com and svc.com have ATX shells and contact pins but a crimping tool will run you about $10. You can use a fine point plier to crimp but you have to be careful not to distort the contact or you might not be able to get it to stay in the shell (I recommend both crimping and soldering if you are not using the $25. factory crimp tool) - or even go in in the first place. OTOH, you may be able to use the original pins with a good cleaning with contact cleaner and tightening. SVC.com just got a nice new ATX M/F pin extractor tool in that also runs about $10.

The reason that happened in the first place (the melted ATX shell) was poor contacts - either corroded, loose crimps to the PSU wires or expanded/loose female contacts from thermal cycling or some combo of the three - NOT an overload.

.bh.