A correlative error detection system (60) for a signal equalizer (10) that corrects a distorted communications signal. The detection system (60) correlates a sequence of bits in a signal from an FFE and/or a DFE processor (12, 14) with a predetermined sequence of correlation values. The detection system (60) includes a summing network (66) that sums the correlated signals. If the sequence of signal bits matches the sequence of correlation values, then the summed correlated signal will include a signal maxima. A peak detector (76) detects and holds the signal maxima so that a slow speed weight computer (40) can process the signal values to set weight values in the processors (12, 14). By knowing how often the sequence of bits that match the correlative values should occur in a random bit stream for an undistorted signal, the weight computer (40) can set the weight values to provide that magnitude of the bit sequence.