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I don't wish to be churlish, the player is in the car tonight and it's too cold to collect.

You have "South Cambridge" as your location, but I'm not sure whether you mean Cambridge UK or Cambridge MA My empeg is almost always left in my car overnight in Cambridge UK and I've never had a problem with start up.

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Aren't the EMPEGs specified to work from, say -10 to +55C

Operating temperature is 5C minimum. Standby (disk spun down) is -20C but that's pretty much irrelevant as the firmware stands.

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and the factory harddrives able to cope in a British winter?

They're able to cope with 5C as specified. Many of them will start up OK at lower temperatures but it varies from model to model (we shipped at least three brands) and unit to unit. Automotive temperature range drives didn't exist when we made that product - although they are available now. We considered various heating options but reached the point of diminishing returns.

It's also possible you have a dodgy IDE header which the cold weather is exacerbating.

Rob