[Samba] NT4 Machine Accounts/passwords expiring

[Wikked one]

Hi List,
           During a recent power outage my domain controller froze at the bios screen.
So for all intents and purposes there was no PDC (nor BDC) for the domain.
When I arrived on scene I restored order and rebooted the PDC,most machines were
not affected,however several NT4 systems as well as my Samba Domain member servers (using
domain security) all needed to be rejoined to the domain,while all XP,Win2K systems were not affected.
My question is: Is there a way I can prevent these systems from disjoining the domain?
I am assuming that the NT4 and Samba systems refresh their passwords on an interval that
was exceeded during the power outage.....and also explains why NT4 machines were particularly
stubborn when migrating the domain from NT to Samba. (during my testing phase I had no trouble
but implementation I had a "Vampired" account database and just as with the loss of domain control
the NT4 machines refused to log in and had to be rejoined to the domain)....
Samba Version 3.0.28 (I know it's very old and I am transitioning to 3.3) and I want to avoid this
exact situation when I make the change.
Thanks

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