>Assuming you have already ruled out the possibility of a virus scanner having the file quaranteened for scanning, etc,

Yes, since every other workstation can delete the file, except for the two identical TabletPCs which can't.

> what happens if 'immediate purge of deleted files' is ON on the netware volume the files reside on? Does it work then?

I can't control this since it is a corporate group of servers run for about 10,000 users. Sysadmins wouldn't even entertain the ideas. As above, other workstations can delete the files that that the two TabletPCs can't delete.

> If so, there is definitely something wrong with the laptop releasing files

I've compared the network settings of the two TabletPCs with the settings from a WinXP desktop PC and they are all identical as far as I can tell. I wonder is there a WinXP file caching setting hidden somewhere else such as the registry?

> or the date/time on the files and the date/time on the laptop.

The two TabletPCs sync with the server time as do our the rest of our pcs when they login, and periodically when connected. Comparing the time on my TabletPC to a workstation 1 metre from me (very cosy office) the times are identical to the second.