Brand New Sony CDX-GT320 car stereo won't work right - defective???

Question

Bought this from Best Buy, Tried to hook it up twice & got the same result...

When I press the "reset" button, you can hear the CD mechanism operating inside but when I snap the faceplate on & hit the power button (with the car running) nothing?!!? Am I missing something (I read the instructions) or do I need to take this back & exchange it?

Thanx.

Answer 1

It sounds as though you're not getting power on the red accessory power wire.  Are you using an adapter harness for your vehicle, and what kind of vehicle is it?

I've never seen a deck that was defective in the way you're describing.  Every time I've seen that problem, the accessory power has been the cause.

Edit:  The car explains it.  Here's the problem:  your vehicle doesn't have an accessory power wire in the radio harness.  If you look at the adapter harness, where the red wire is, you find that there's no matching wire in the factory plug.  The Chevrolet factory radio is turned on and off through the vehicle's data bus system, not through a key-switched accessory power wire.

You have two options:

You can purchase an adapter module that will link to the vehicle's data bus and provide an accessory connection.  The module is used in place of the adapter harness you have, and it will also generate the vehicle's warning chimes (a function that's lost when the factory radio is removed).  This makes the installation very easy, but the module is quite expensive: around $70 to $100. http://www.mysimon.com/9015-11143_8-2813...

Alternately, you can extend the red accessory power wire from your head unit to a source of key-switched power elsewhere in the vehicle.  I like to use the brown accessory output wire from the key switch harness, but it's not all that easy to get to.

If you want, you can just connect the red accessory wire together with the yellow constant power wire. This will make the radio work, but the problem is that it won't switch off with the key.  You'll have to remember to turn off the CD player or remove the faceplate every time you exit the car, or you'll end up with a dead battery.

Answer 2

should be 2 power supples to your stereo, ushally a YELLOW and a small RED one in the instructions the red one should say to hook up to your Accesory postion of the ignition key switch, but i couldnt be stuffed doing that so i just hooked it up to my car battery along with my main power so its always turned on unless you pres the off button or remove face, try that

best way to try is to put your head deck right next to your battery and hooking earth/black (make sure you do it first) then touching your YELLOW power and RED power to the positive of your battery, then the face should light up.

Answer 3

if you are positive that you have power going to both power wires then you should check to see if it has one of those screws installed that has to be removed before it will work (the s***w holds all of the internal components in place for shipping and the cd player will not work until it is removed)