Yep, something is fishy, and I suspect the wiring in the receptacle. A
few
years ago, I had a dryer that kept burning out heating elements, the temp
inside the dryer would get scorching hot, and if I didn't keep a close
watch on it, would burn the clothes.
Since the dryer was about 20 years old, I bought a new dryer. After a
while, the new dryer started acting the same as the old one. Digging into
the problem, what I found was that the 10ga wiring in the box was too
short to fit properly into the receptacle. One of the wires was barely
touching the receptacle screw. After a lot of tugging and cursing, I
finally pulled enough of the wire into the box to make proper connections.
Been working like a champ since.

If the OP's probe got zapped just by inserting it into the receptacle, I
can only surmise that the receptacle was broken and the internal contacts
were loose inside. Plugging the probe into the socket moved the terminals
enough that they shorted.

At any rate, the solution is to replace the receptacle, taking lots of
care for safety's sake, and be sure it's wired correctly.




He said the wires to the probes melted. The *only* way this can happen is a
short within the meter itself. Otherwise there's just no way to get enough
current to flow, most DMMs have an impedance of 20 megohms.