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Jen,
Before you get carried away re-installing etc, make a backup of everything (if you don't have a recent backup already, you're asking for trouble).
A second hard drive is a good idea. Cheap, easy, and given the vintage of your system, quite possibly a good idea to get a new hard drive anyway.
I work off a strategy of multiple hard drives. One for Windows/applications, one for all my "data". If Windows has a complete breakdown, I lose nothing I can't just re-install. Might be overkill, but this process has saved me at least twice in the last few years, and as recently as November last year when I dropped the windows/boot hard drive when I was putting it in a new computer.
If you can manage it, an INTERNAL drive is a good way to go because it will not require any drivers. An external hard drive is a little more expensive (it's the same type of hard drive just with a power supply and an interface to USB), but it will require drivers on XP (maybe) and will probably be a headache.
I concur that the problem is probably driver related. Video is normally a pretty good culprit too. After you've backed up everything from safe mode, then the un-install advice given so far is good.
ps. Swan Hill is just a little bit too far for me to come and help - if you were a bit more local I'd be there!
Turbo
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