ukwomble: extremely unlikely for complex electronic systems to be damaged in such a way as to have such specific failures.
Not so. If the inputs are screwed up, because a sensor is thrown out of calibration from heat or other damage, you could get a specific fault. Heat can cause added resistance, that makes 5 volts, which would be a "1" in binary, low enough, where it shows up as 0 volts, which is a "0". This could feed some radical numbers into the brains of your "complex electronic systems", and cause an intermittent, as the sensor heats up or cools, or consistent, but specific failure, , due to ambient temperature change. I think such a failure of some acceleration sensors was the cause of the Malaysian 777 stall in 2005.