I had this same problem when I was switching from the player to the tuner. If the time showed "12:00", then switching to tuner would lock it up, although Hijack seemed to work. It would take up to 10-15 restarts to get the player to work. I assumed it was a clock issue since the time would reset overnight, but the clock resetting may just be a symptom of a different problem.

I could not get it to lockup using the AC adapter. My problem only happened in the car. My spare player does not show this problem in the same sleeve. Also, I switched tuners just in case it was a bad tuner, but this did not solve the lockups.

I sent the player in to support to fix the clock. Support could not find a problem with my clock, but they swapped empegs anyway. Hopefully when I get it back the lockups go away, otherwise I can't use the tuner.