Possible issues with my power supply unit

Hey guys, i am using a computer that i built myself by buying the necessary parts. It has a dual boot of Windows Vista SP2 and Ubuntu 9.10. My problem is that i have been having some problems with both the installations. I have been having complete system freezes in Vista when using Chrome. I have not been doing anything resource intensive, just been using Chrome and the iplayer. Nothing is also shown in the event viewer log. In Ubuntu it would appear that the complete system freezes when watching Flash iplayer in full screen. I was using my 23 inch widescreen. I disabled my compiz to use metacity. i also removed pulseaudio and replaced it with ALSA. The situation is same here and nothing comes up under messages in the kernel log viewer. The fact that is crashes in both the operating systems make me wonder whether the issue is with hardware and not a software issue. I am inclined to believe it is my power supply unit causing the frequent crashes. My system is as follows:

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AMD Phenom II x4 955 black edition
4gb corsair ram ddr3, msi 770-c45
gigabyte 9600 gt

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I have 2 fans connected and my psu is arctic power 500w. Please guys help me out in figuring this problem out and finding a solution.

Well if you suspect the power supply unit is causing this problem then i suggest you to try and replace it with one which you know is working 100% fine. This should tell you 2 things, whether the power supply unit is causing the issue and if the same issue is faced then it is probably something else like your drivers or some other piece of hardware such as RAM. It is possible that your system is overheating leading to your cpu taking this kind of action, that is freezing the system. If it isn't the power supply unit then most probably it is the cpu, keep that in mind.

Check if the heatsink is properly fitted on to the cpu. See if there are any burn marks on it. If it isn't locked in place properly then this could lead to cooling issues and eventually overheating of your cpu. I think you should run a diagnostics of your hardware with something like the everest system diagnostics tool. The lack of contact between the heatsink and the cpu could lead to overheating if you are maxing out your system with a lot of applications being used at the same time. Also try using another psu for a while and see if it makes any difference.

It could also be an issue where the cpu and the motherboard do not receive the amount of power that is needed. The easiest way out of this is to use a different power supply unit on your system first and see what results do you get. You could also check all the connections from the fan, the psu and so on. There should be the 24-pin connector which must sit all the way, make sure of that. Check the one 4, 6 or 8 pin power cable that goes in right next to the cpu. Also check whether the fans actually go around or not when you turn the system on. The graphics card has a power cable of some sort as well so that will need checking too. I think the power supply unit not being able to take the load is the most obvious cause in such issues next to overheating.

This might look like a bit of a weird advice but why don't you try saving some power to see if this stops the computer from freezing and locking up. If you have more than one hard drive then try unplugging one. The same concep applies to the CD-ROM's. In the bios under the overclocking section, try and see if you can manage some sort of overclocking in the lower end on the cpu. Basically you should try and get the vcore voltage as low as possible. There is one more thing, check whether your psu rated high enough. I feel if i ran my system with a 500w psu then i would definitely get in trouble. So check the power output of the power supplying unit.

Well i have the same power supply unit as you. Haven't had any issues with it although it is not the most popular one in the market either. There are some limitations and i have had some issues of freeze ups as well. But those were related to the Gigabyte utilities i was running. I remove all of them and my system is fine now. You should try doing the same. I have found issues with the RAM not being properly fitted in its slot even though it passes the memory test easily. Try using one stick of memory and running the system. See if that changes the pattern. Ubuntu runs fantastically well on my system so i can't complain much with regards to it. Monitor your cpu temperature when you are using it and when you are using many applications. They will be the biggest indicators as to what the problem is.