@ehcanadian perhaps there is a workflow or user event script running that is having a particularly negative impact with certain records (perhaps meeting certain criteria or containing certain data)

on a search though? the fields returned aren't formula or anything like that.

yep, I read your post a bit quickly. I actually don't think those would affect a search, as I don't think scripts or workflows would actually fire. If the script was loading the records, then perhaps it might.

yeah - it's bizarre. I'm chalking it up to a bad disk sector 😉