@yksyks: Well, I'm stumped. I can only think of a few questions, and I suspect they have already been covered by your good self. Reading through this, and to summarise and make a few assumptions (so please correct me if I am wrong), it seems that:
1. The error symptoms are:- After a long period of idle (usually overnight) the system crashes with several error messages "Delayed write failed..." The files involved are usually $Mft and C:\Windows\system32\config, but may include seemingly random others as well.
- In all instances where this happens, the USB ports and the network card stop working.
- Replacement and stress testing of the devices affected indicates no evidence of actual hardware errors.
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Question: Where any affected hardware has been removed and found to be OK, has it been subsequently
reinstalled to the same computer and had its performance monitored/observed, and has it
subsequently been affected by the same or a different error?
2. Common/differentiating factors in the population of computers affected:- All of the affected computers use Windows XP SP3 (but with differing language versions), and they all use BitDefender Free Edition. There are no other substantial/significant similarities.
- The affected computers do not share the same AC power supply. (Is this true?)
- The affected computers do not share the same DC power supply. (Is this true?)
- LogMeIn may/may not be a common factor for the affected computers. (Needs verification.)
3. Population of computers affected:The error symptoms have spread amongst what appears to be a gradually widening population of computers, some of which share a network and some of which are discrete systems - i.e., not interconnected or intercommunicating. (Is this true?)
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Observation: This sort of thing could look like the spread of a virus or bug introduced at a common point to all computers affected - e.g., maybe (say) at the point of a system/software update.
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Questions:
- Have the update (change management) logs for all computers - including those computers affected and not affected - been compared to establish what specific updates were done and when, on the run up to and prior to any manifestations of the errors?
- Were any system updates derived from the same media or update data file(s)?
- Does a checksum comparison of all of the "same" update files (and all/any other files on the media used) - for all computers affected and not affected - show any differences in the files? (There should be no difference.)
4. Conclusions thus far:- After a great deal of investigation and analysis so far, none of the errors have been deliberately repeatable, and so the cause(s) remain unknown.
- The causal problem seems very likely to be software-related, not hardware.
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