In my experience what you describe is normal behaviour. Ever since i've had the empeg i've been putting up with failed reboots. Never is a problem during the first boot, but if it is powercycled (eg when starting the engine, or unplugging ac power for 5 seconds or so) it often fails to come back up. I'm gonna try that thing with the capacitors though, it will be cool not to have to wait for the empeg to boot when starting the engine.