RAM and or HD Problems Macbook Late 2007

Hi,

I am trying to set up an old macbook as a server and I am having a few problems getting the macbook to perform properly.

I know that one of the RAM slots are broken, should that effect the system if their is no RAM in that slot?

I get the occasional read/write error suggesting that their might be something wrong with the hard drive not sure what to do about that. I have zeroed out the HD twice as I herd that that figures out what memory blocks are still writable but it was of no help.

There is definitely something wrong and I need to test everything to make sure that it's working. I am running memtest as I speak. Is there anything I can do to check the performance of my HD?

The main problem I am having is that if I use software update, or try to install Snow Leopard the macbook reboots and sticks on the blue screen with a mouse. I have to reinstall the OS to get it to work again... this has happened a few times now. This also happens if I install a hardware demanding program such as Adobe Photoshop CS4 and reboot.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what could be the cause? Or what hardware should I test?

Thanks
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Conor

Some memtest errors:

"Block Sequential: testing 67 of 256

FAILURE! Data mismatch at local BUFA address 0x25a203dc, BUFB address 0x61283dbc
BUFA Data: 0x42424242, BUFB Data: 0x42404242

Bit Flip: testing 124 of 256

FAILURE! Data mismatch at local BUFA address 0x25a203dc, BUFB address 0x61283dbc
BUFA Data: 0xffff7fff, BUFB Data: 0xfffd7fff"

Everything else returned ok. What do these errors mean? Could this be an error with the RAM slot rather than the RAM, ie if I buy new RAM should it solve my problems?

Thanks
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Conor