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.