>>it may show strange diagnostics on the serial port if you play a playlist with non-existent items in it
>I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about.

It's nothing to worry about. What he means is this:

If you are running the Empeg and it gets an error (any error during regular playback mode, not just the missing file problem he mentioned), it sends some diagnostic text to the serial port. Just a short ASCII text error message.

It does this whether or not you're using the USB port. If you have a piece of terminal software running, and it's connected to the serial port, you can see it scroll by on the screen.

If you don't have a terminal program running, the bits from the messages clog up the serial connector and you have to clean it out with alcohol and a q-tip. The bits are very small, so it takes a long time before you have to clean it. I wouldn't worry about it, though.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144