Need Help Understanding System Diagnostic Tools

[keakar]

when i run those diagnostic system checking tools what should i expect to find?

should there be no errors at all or are some errors normal? if so then how many errors of what type should i expect to find that are "normal" errors?

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Which system diagnotic tools do you mean? Errors aren't very normal, but it depends what they are. Post a log file if you want, that way someone here will probably be able to translate them into plain English.

 

[keakar]

im using s&m testmem4 and it showed 1 address error found in ram memory, a bad ide cable, and a hdd surface error. i replaced the ide cable which seemed to solve my computer problems but i still keep getting a hdd surface test failure due to an error found and the 1 address error found in ram memory. i get no other info about the errors except that the test failed because of the errors. i ran the windows disk check which says it finds no surface errors on the disk and so far everythings working fine.

what do i make of the 1 address error found in memory and the hdd surface error found?

 

[Jimmy 2004]

The error found in the memory means that you have dodgy ram, the error on the HDD probably means you have bad sectors - these can be isolated, but I'm not sure how (check disk might even do it, have you tried scanning for errors with that?). As for the memory, the only solution would be to lower your overclock (if you are overclocking that is) or to replace the stick of ram.