"Serious" malfunction with my empeg

For the first time in about two years of use, my Mark 2 empeg showed signs of serious problems last night.

Driving home, the volume setting would spontaneously increase accompanied by the appropriate screen display. Then the player would switch to the "Auxilliary" source, and then spontaneously switch back. The volume would continue to increase even in Auxilliary mode. I would turn the volume back down and it would be OK for a bit -- then start going up again.

Thoughts of the infamous runaway volume bug from pre-1.0 software versions went through my mind. I noticed that the problem would occur most often when I went over a bump. Somthing loose inside the player?

I pulled the empeg out of the dash, it wasn't hot -- still cool to the touch even -- after only 10 minutes of driving. Put it back in, rebooted, sat on the side of the road for a bit, seemed to be OK. Probably just some temporary corruption in RAM or something.

Next bump I hit, the volume started going up again, all by itself. Drove the rest of the way home, reaching over to turn down the volume every 30 seconds or so.

Got home, turned the car off, picked my camera bag off the passenger seat, and uncovered my KCA-RC600 remote (see attached picture) which had been activated by the weight of the bag.



tanstaafl.

Good one! Glad it wasn't anything permanent!

"So that's where the remote went!"

I seem to remember a thread a while back about someone looking for a lost remote, and the places it could have been. Glad it wasn't anything serious!!!

Moral of story:

"He who lies bag on obsolete Remote without disabling it in emplode shall suffer indefinable malfunctions"

You would be wise to bear this wisdom to your heart with deep sincerity.

I had a similar issue in California when all 4 of us were in my car out looking for food. The player kept bumping the volume up a notch or two. Also, coming back from the place we at at, the player was no longer in standby, both firsts for my car. I asked my empeg owning friend if he had his remote on him, he said yes, in his pocket. He couldn't understand how it was working burried in his pocket and him in the back seat, but finally he gave it up, and the problem managed to go away.

this reminds me of when I was helping my friend install his brand new stereo (not an empeg, unfortunately). After we got it installed and turn on the car to test it, it played fine for a bit, then turned off mysteriously. Then he turned up the volume, but when he let go, it kept on going up! he was getting pissed off for buying a broken stereo, until I showed him the remote control in my pocket