I found the situation where the bass doesn't work on player boot up.

Definition of "doesn't work": When you set it to be Bass +6db, and the player boots up, the bass is not boosted by +6db until you go into the bass adjustment menu and twiddle the knob. Then it suddenly pops to life.

When it doesn't work: In the car... If I yank the player out of the dashboard while it is playing, then re-insert it, it will boot up into "playback" mode. In other words, it begins playing tunes as soon as the boot process is finished. In this situation, the bass doesn't work.

When it DOES work: In the car... If I press and hold the top button so that the player goes into standby mode. Then I remove the player from the dash and re-insert it. The player boots into "standby" mode with the pulsing light. Then I turn the volume knob to wake up the player. In this case, the bass is properly boosted when it begins to play tunes after waking up from sleep mode.

To recap: Wake from standby: Works. Wake straight into play: Fails.

This is with Hijack 241.