In general I would agree with the wipe, however as I have had that discussion
with the owner several times... he still attempts to squeeze every last drop of
life out of the already dead horse.
New info:
Got a chance to check said system out again tonight, it is running NTFS on XP home.
However, checking the system32 folder led me to find the files I replaced are still there,
even though the audio does not work.
The only difference then, would appear to be when I replaced the two audio files before (and the sound worked for a period
of time), I also installed the audio drivers again for kicks. So my line of thought is shifting to that as
a possible lead.
The original question about a file logger still stands though, as that would have various uses
for diagnostics.