Kimbotha: My player is serial number 090001020... doesn't seem to be any close correlation there.

I can't say with 100% confidence that there is nothing wrong with my car's electrical system, but I am pretty certain that everything is within specification. There are definately no symptoms of any problems (besides the EMPEG problem of course). The alternator/regulator and battery are relatively new. But I guess it couldn't hurt to check into it.

I have other sensitive electrical components in the car that have not suffered the same fate. One of these components is a Crimestopper alarm system. While the unit has some nice features, my experience with these alarms in the past is that their voltage regulation circuitry has room for improvement . In a previous car, a battery that failed while driving (lost a cell) killed a very similar Crimestopper alarm. My best guess was that the output of the electrical system was not too clean without a functional battery to filter it, and the alarm wasn't able to adequately filter this resulting in the demise of important ICs within the alarm. I had other electronics in the car that survived the incident with no problems (mostly audio stuff... amps, CD player, audio control EQL, etc).

The EMPEG on the other hand, seems to have a pretty well built power supply... I would be extremely surprised if an electrical problem in the car killed the EMPEG before the alarm... but you never know.

Thanks,

Mike