I have a brand new system that came with a virgin hard drive. It's not hooked up to internet yet. Computer specs are:

AMD Althon 64 3000+ processor
160 GB Hard Drive partitioned using Norton's PartitionMagic 8.0
1 GB of RAM

Strange things are happening to the partition with Windows XP. On my first clean install, the system tray icons were not showing up but everything else seemed to be working smoothly until I ran into problems with installing an HP business injet printer. This install caused havic on my system which was ultimately due to a Firmware issue.

After recovering from that tragedy, I had to reformat and reinstall Windows XP on the partition. Now I am having some issues with Explorer.exe. At times, the screen will just flash and reset itself. At other times, the screen goes blank instead of starting the screensaver and still other times I get a Dr. Watson apology screen stating that explorer.exe has had a problem and needs to shut down. I know the tech information in this error is important. I just didn't know how much you need to be posted here. Here is what I was able to write down before my screen flashed and the message disappeared...

Application Name: explorer.exe
Application version: 6.0.2800.1106
Mod Name: Unknown
Mod Version: Unknown
Offset: 00fd03ab
exception error: 0xc0000005
Flags: 0x00000000
Record: 0x0000000000000000

I tried to retrieve the txt document that would have been sent to Microsoft with the error but when I went to the location, the folder and file didn't exist.

I know there are lots of testing software out there. I also know many of them cause even more havic on your system. Is there a reliable and good program to use to test my system/windows partition? If not, how can I go about getting to the root of the problem?

Thanks
Geeky Girl