Ascertaining if fault is hardware or software fault

Hello

I have a G3 PowerBook with OS 9.2. It has developed a fault and I need to
ascertain if the fault is hardware or software. I have been told that the way
to do this is to reinstall the OS having erased the hard-drive first. This
makes sense but it has occurred to me that I could just start up the Mac from
an OS on a CD ROM and see if the fault occurs, if not then it would be a
software fault.

Would simply starting it up from an OS on a CD tell me if the fault was
software or hardware?

It's easy to know if the fault is present or not because at start up the Mac
tells me, I get a dialogue box which says:

"The built-in memory test has detected a problem with cache memory"

and then goes on to advise me to take it to a computer technician or
something like that.

TIA

--
Patrick

Brighton, England

In article <01HW.BF980F1600018EA706F27680.DeleteThis@news.freeserve.com> patrick j,
nospam.DeleteThis@nospam.invalid writes:
>Would simply starting it up from an OS on a CD tell me if the fault was
>software or hardware?

It would eliminate the system folder on your hard disk in case it has got
corrupted or something. I've never seen this error before but suspect
some hardware issue, especially if you get it before the happy mac.

G.