2-3 yrs not extremely old i can get the one originally designed for this system and give it a try and hope that will work um also what do you mean by rails and capacitors are you talking about on the mobo or are you talking about the powersupply
just wanting things cleared up also the other powersupply is only 480 watts
also if burn marks are on the connectors of the powersupply is that a bad sign as well
True, not as old as it could be, although the spec makes it sound a little more so in my opinion.
Well the total wattage of the PSU isn't always the most important part, the 480W (& the 500W) that you have by looks of it can handle the system as a whole, atleast when new, the other part is the amount of amperage the PSU supplies through each of the rails, simply put, if it isn't enough it can cause alot of problems. The Capacitors on both the motherboard wear & the PSU also wears over time which result in less power being supplied, obviously this can cause problems, although usually the only problems occur when there were never sufficient amps in the 1st place. (this likely won't have happened with your comp) however the effects are the same if any other malfunction/defect within the PSU causes less voltage to components.
If there are burn marks about, I would probably deem it unsafe myself, but I don't really know if it really is dangerous, one would assume so. (Logically atleast) As said try another PSU, atleast it'd tell us whether it's the PSU that is the problem or something else.
The other obvious answer for your problem I'd assume you'd have checked internally & externally would be the memory, since memory problems are often the cause of alot of problems. By internally & externally, just to clarify, I mean internally as a memory check with software made to detect defect/bad memory & externally, just to reseat it (take it out, then put it back in)