but the player still has on the screen, "loading music database". do i just shut off power?

Oh, now I see your question.

Once you drop to the shell prompt, the screen doesn't change. Only the player software changes the screen. What you're seeing is just whatever was on the screen the last time before you got to the shell prompt.

I thought you were saying the player froze on "loading music database" every time you turned on the power. You're just saying that the screen still says it while you're at the shell prompt. That's normal.

When you are done at the shell prompt, type "exit" to get back to the regular software. If you haven't set the drives to read-write, you can also shut off the power if you like.