Both of the such circuits that I found like that were in a rental house I bought cheap because it was considered a tear-down for many reasons. It also had one circuit that nothing would work on some outlets unless something was plugged into one receptacle in that circuit. I didn't bother to even think about that one. I just pulled all the devices and replaced every one of them. I think that work was originally done in 1974. Everything works fine now in it.