Hmm... talk about an ambiguous question on my part.

I know the disk issue needs to be fixed by checking the cables, etc, and hijack can't fix that. The "can hijack fix this" question was in regards to the "not-turn-off" thing.

So, in effort to restate the issue...

When the Empeg is in a state where it's displaying the "hard disk not found" error, it doesn't correctly sense the loss of power on the ignition line, and drop into standby mode. When it boots normally (i.e. finds the hard disk and starts playing music), it operates as expected, dropping into blinking-blue-dot mode when the ignition is turned off. That's why I don't think this a hardware/wiring issue (beyond the obvious "fix the disk problem").

My thought is that it's the player application that's reading the sensor switch, and issuing the call to drop into standby mode when the ignition is turned off. When the hard disk isn't found, the player application doesn't start (is it on disk? or in flash?), and consequently, there's nothing monitoring the ignition line, to turn off the power to the empeg. Is this correct? And, is it the kernel that's displaying the "hard disk not found" error? Or is it some bootstrap code on the flash? If it's the kernel, then should the kernel be responsible for monitoring the power sensors, and dropping the empeg into standby when it's in an error state?