Ok,

I made a rookie mistake, I NEED HELP! I have had the F90 connected and working beautifully for a few weeks now. Tonight I decided to tweak the amps and my crossover. I, being a complete careless A$$#OLE, decided to move the rca's around while the system was playing to test a theory. Upon disconnecting the second set of rca's, there was a popping (really loud) that played through all the speakers and subs, then when I re-connected the rcas (with more popping) I had the most ridiculous alternator whine that I've ever heard. Before I screwed it up, I had absolutely no hiss or whine, now it sounds like a dentist drill in my ear even when the engine is turned off.

WHAT DID I DO!

If I did destroy my deck, what should I do next?

sounds like you blew a speaker... sorry.

No, its not a blown speaker, this is really loud alternator whine at any volume level, even when the deck is powered off. None of the speakers appear to be blown. Is is possible that I damaged the rca outputs from the deck by unplugging/plugging them in when the unit was playing?

why would the RCA outputs be causing an alternator whine when the deck is off? that doesn't make sense. I would think you did something to your amplifier or speakers

im' sure you'll figure it out sooner or later.

why would the RCA outputs be causing an alternator whine when the deck is off? that doesn't make sense. I would think you did something to your amplifier or speakers

 

im' sure you'll figure it out sooner or later. Your next move is to take it someone who knows what they're doing, LOL

Sorry, I wasn't clear, the interference actually happens when as soon as the deck powers up, and if I hit the 'off' button it continues, there is still power to the deck, the screen is still on, and it remains to send a signal to the remote lead. I believe that the power surge created by the popping sound may have overloaded or damaged the part of the headunit that supplies the 5v preamp out. Does this make sense? I also have a crossover, which I will bypass today and see if maybe it is coming from there, but I have a gut feeling that I damaged the hu.

So...

- the speaker or speakers are not blown, the interference is playing through the whole system

- the interference starts about 10 seconds after the unit is powered up, when it starts sending signals to the amp

- the amp that I was monkeying around with was one of the sub amps, and the interference is playing through one of the high level amps which wasn't touched in the process.

- that would leave the crossover and the deck as the possible cause of the problem right?

Well, you can easily test the headunit by plugging in some RCA wires to your pre-outs and connecting it to an alternate amplifier -- like a home amplifier or boom box with RCA inputs to see if there is any distortion --

if it sounds fine -- it's probably your amp/crossover

Thanks guys, fyi, I found the info that I was looking for on another forum, see below:

"Pioneer head units are really sensitive to "hot swapping" or making connections with the unit powered up. Doing so often blows an internal "pico" fuse that ends with all kinds of alternator whine entering the system.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/diy-mobile-audio/13889-pioneer-rca-preout-noise-prevention.html

To confirm this is what you've done, try wrapping a wire around the outer RCA barrels on the back of your head unit and connecting it to ground- if this reduces or eliminates the noise, you've found your problem. This is a band-aid type of "fix" and the modification discussed in the DIYMA thread is exactly that- a modification where you replace a fuse with a resistor. The only real fix is replacing the pico fuse with an identical part, and that's probably best left to Pioneer's service centers. Never swap connections on a Pioneer head unit without disconnecting the battery first."

Hope this information helps someone other than me, not that I wish it on anyone.