Besides the external fuse on a x920BT, what else could cause the unit to not power up, and that means not even the fan is spinning.

Someone in another forum said it wasn't the Pico fuses. I wouldn't have a clue.

PS - the old car stereo works great, so it's not the factory harness or fuses in the car.

did you make sure that the radio had a good ground and power on both the ACC wire and the constant wire?

did you make sure that the radio had a good ground and power on both the ACC wire and the constant wire?

I thought I did. On the Pioneer power harness, there is a ground with silver dots that terminates in a metal nut connector. The manual suggests tying that off to a seperate ground point than the rest of the hardware (factory chasis ground - metra harness - steering wheel controls). However, if you phone Pioneer, they say you don't necessarily have to.

Any idea why the power harness would need a different ground point than the rest of the hardware?

some cars do not have a ground wire in the factory harness, this is usually the only time that you would need to do a ground, otherwise you would just want to use the ground in the harness, most of the cars that do not have a ground in the harness, either use a independent ground strap (Chrysler) or use a metal bracket that bolts into a metal frame in the cars dash (Nisan & subaru)

some cars do not have a ground wire in the factory harness, this is usually the only time that you would need to do a ground, otherwise you would just want to use the ground in the harness, most of the cars that do not have a ground in the harness, either use a independent ground strap (Chrysler) or use a metal bracket that bolts into a metal frame in the cars dash (Nisan & subaru)

because I had the time, I have run a wire to a large bolt that is holding the auto shifter to the chasis. floor. it's there if I need it I suppose. but from what you and others have said, it's ok to use the factory harness ground. good news

yeah dude, lots of people use the OEM wiring harness to feed the ground to the radio.

the OEM ground is always the one that you want to use, as not all points of ground in the car are as equally good, with the way that cars are built today by spot welding panels together, some of the panels can have a higher resistance to ground which can cause noise, when designing the cars, the manufacture chooses the ground point for the radio very carefully as to pick the spot that should yield the lowest resistance to ground, there are exceptions however when finding your own ground may be necessary, but those are usually application and condition specific.

OK, good notes, thanks. I guess Pioneer is just protecting their own ass by saying "find a different ground", that way they can always blame the customer or installer, which would be easier than fighting a car manufacturer

you think thats bad, you should try to call D.E.I.'s(viper, python, clifford...) tech support sometime, no matter what the problem is, they always tell you to try a different ground, usually two or three time in a phone call, and can usually never figure out why there product is not function right.