Well, he does say:

Otherwise, it shuts down when the key is pulled.

...which is why I asked the question! I think you misread me - I was aware he said it won't shut down when crashed. That is one problem. However, if he turns off the ignition and the player goes out, that means either:

- he has set his sleep timeout at 0 seconds in emplode
- he has mis-wired the permanent and switched power lines.

In the second case this means that session info could be lost when he turns off the ignition. You have absolutely no idea what state the machine will be in when it comes back.

If it's crashing/hanging while playing, I would say that this is probably likely to be an overheat problem aggravating either the IDE header soldering problem, or a dodgy drive cable.

Two ways to check this: install HiJack and check the temperature to keep an eye on how hot the unit is in normal operation before a hang. Secondly, get hold of a serial dump from the player while it is in the car, preferably just prior to a hang.

One of the reasons why there is a power line filter built into the harness is to filter the main, non-switched supply to the player. Normally, this is the car's "Memory" feed to a conventional head unit. However, this is the one the empeg uses. If you have the two wired the wrong way, you could be using the switched supply to feed the player in the sled, and who knows what rubbish could come down the pipe.

I think HiJack temp readings and serial log are a good starting point.