New Kenwood headunit problems KDC-BT755HD

[alex16]

I recently purchased a new (out of box) head unit off of ebay,

link to the head unit purchase...

Kenwood KDC BT755HD in Dash CD Receiver Out of Box KR15 019048203182 | eBay

I installed it about a week ago (the day after I got it) using basic crimps on my Honda metra adapter harness (its about 1 year old and has been used on my past sony and xo vision head units). After about 12-24 hours I will go to turn on my car and the radio will randomly not come on, completely dead. I thought it was a power/ground issue at first, I unplugged the harness from the radio inspected everything including the fuse and it looked good. Plugged it back in and it worked, until another 12-24hrs passed and it did it again. I tried the reset button behind the face this time and it started working again... going through the demo off, bass, mid, treble, bluetooh>all speakers> clock adjustment>color adjustment annoyance every time. It continued to do this over and over. I finally was so irate I pulled out my power probe and verified sufficient voltage and ground going into the head unit when it "defaulted" and did not power on. I tried the power button, remote power on, removing the face, ect. I then thought possibly the amplifier signal wire, so I wired that into the unused illumination wire from my metra harness since I normally drive with my headlights on, still no solution. Is there anything else to do or check? I really like this radio and don't want to hassle the seller if its my fault.

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[Jepalan]

Some units won't power on if there is a short on the speaker outputs. Check these very carefully. Can you ohm then out from the harness?

Otherwise, it might be internal to the radio...

Does it do this more often when the temperature outside is extreme hot or cold? Or during humidity swings?

Are you comfortable opening up the radio and looking for cracked solder trace or a cracked component or mounting pad?

 

[alex16]

Not sure on temperature or humidity but it does not shut off when it does power on. It could be on for over an hour and then I could turn the car off and it will not power back on after turning the key off just for a few seconds, after resetting it I can power it on and off over 10 times without any issues. I'll double check my speaker wiring today. I'll go look for my ohm meter as well. I don't feel comfortable opening it to be fair to the seller if a return/exchange is done.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

get rid of that crappy adapter, I've seen so many of the metal pins in these fail and cause damage. use the crimp connectors and crimp straight to each wire.

take the unit out and test it at the battery. with a small battery (aaa or 9v), test you speaker cables are correct by putting pos and neg on either side of batt, it'll make the speaker make a small pop/crackle noise so u no that wire is connected to that speaker ect.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

dont do this^^^^^^^^^^^. harnesses are just fine. do make sure pins are straight and making a solid connection. dig out the multi meter and when the problem happens take some readings. after it doesnt turn on, when it finally does turn on is the clock reset? if it is problem could be ground or 12v constant, if not acc will be the problem. It could be a bad deck, it does happen from time to time with a new out of the box. I personally dont like kenwood after about 8 years ago almost every motorized faced cd player would die right after being installed for a year.

 

[alex16]

pins are good. I have used this aftermarket adapter for about 6 months with two other head units with no issues. I have not "reset" it in 2 days and it has not powered back on, on its own, its getting 12v power signal and memory (red/yellow) and the ground is good. The clock resets when I "reset button" and it turns on. After it has been reset it will work as it should, keeps time, auto bluetooth connects, stations saved ect.

 

[bobby1224]

I recently bought my car and it came with this same deck already installed and it is doing the same thing to me.

 

[alex16]

I replaced the wiring to the speakers and it still did not solve the problem. I sent the head unit back to the seller.

 

[MikeBaf]

I had this exact same problem, it turned out to be a firmware bug in the shipping units. I grabbed the firmware updates off of the kenwood site and updated both the bluetooth an main unit firmware, no problems since. Firmware updater | Kenwood