How can I test my ram to see if its bad?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

MS Office is crashing and my browser gives error message when I close
it. I was unable to reinstall IE for some reason unknown to me.

Specs…Toshiba Laptop P3 1g Cel 512mb ram XP Home.

2

If you have a CD burner, the best way is to download, burn and boot from MemTest86+
http://www.memtest.org

Cheers
Vlk