Strange problem with Pioneer Premier deck

[curls]

Hey everyone... I haven't been into an online car audio forum in a while but am still in the "scene" if you will... and keep fairly current. I am happy with my current setup... BUT!!!

Just this past weekend I had a problem happen with my very reliable Pioneer Premier DEH-P720 deck. It's about 3.5 years old and hasn't given me a problem at all up until now.

I got in my car and started it up. No sound from the speakers. WTF? I look at the deck and it's not turned on. OK, press the power button. No result. Open the face and try to eject the CD -- no result.

So I drive to Subway to get soemthing to eat, in pure silence, only hearing road noise. Get to subway, grab some food, and when i get back in my car and start it up, the radio comes on like nothing was ever wrong. Halfway home, the radio is still playing but the faceplate goes blank (off). I try the volume knob -- nothing happens, but the radio is still playing. I remove the faceplate -- Radio STILL plays. Normally this would cause the radio to shut off, so I think there's a ghost or something.

Anyhow, I get home and pop the radio out of the dash, and when it's 3/4 out of the dash, it turns back on (and the display on the face comes back on as well).

Over the past 2 or 3 days, the radio has been doing this sporadically (not turning on when starting car, not responding to faceplate or eject button which is located on the unit itself and not on the face, playing while faceplate is disabled/removed, turning on when removed from the dash).

What on earth could cause such wierd, erratic behaviour? I plan on looking at the wiring after work today, but I'm wondering if the deck itself is dying, as it doesn't seem to be just a faceplate issue, or just a wiring/shorting issue. It's just a WIERD mode of operating.

Oh, and this morning, I get out of the car and normally the radio beeps 4 times for the In-deck alarm warning. Well, it beeped twice, and the last two beeps sounded "like it was running out of batteries" for lack of a better description. Just kinda fizzled out. I tried turning it back on but the only solution was to remove it from the dash 3/4 of the way and put it back in (which worked).

Any light to shed on this issue? I'd like to have it resolved today, as I can get a newer (used) deck for $250 CDN -- mp3, Pioneer DEH-P7400mp. I'd rather keep my deck as it has better preouts and features, and mp3 playback on the 7400mp isn't the best from what I've heard.

Thanks for reading my novel.

~Eric

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[Loudrango112 10+ year member]

the porblem u had I had with my sony xploed deck like 4 years ago... (it was the first deck i bought) and the only solution i found was to smash it on the cement floor about 10 times till all that was left was peices //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[H4cK 10+ year member]

and then you went to pioneer, and never turned bacl

 

[BooLeaN 10+ year member]

I'd take a serious look at all of your connections in the back of the deck. As well look at the connection between the face plate and the deck.

It sounds like the deck has internal problems but unless you are experienced with that sort of stuff, you are SOL.

Good luck,

Craig G

 

[The Big E]

Most Premier Heads have a hard reset switch on the unit. If your is like the ones I had in the past, take off the face and look for a little hole. It will be on the head unit still in your dash. Take the tip from a pen and place it into the reset hole. wait about 20 seconds. You will lose all of your settings, but the unit will be rest. I've had weird issues with my premier decks in the past and this always fixed them.

 

[curls]

Most Premier Heads have a hard reset switch on the unit. If your is like the ones I had in the past, take off the face and look for a little hole. It will be on the head unit still in your dash. Take the tip from a pen and place it into the reset hole. wait about 20 seconds. You will lose all of your settings, but the unit will be rest. I've had weird issues with my premier decks in the past and this always fixed them.

I will try that over lunch, thanks! Do I leave the pen/paperclip pressed-in for 20 seconds, or just press it in momentarily and wait 20 seconds before I turn the unit back on?

Also, on another note, driving in from work this morning, the deck was working fine until 2 minutes before I get here. The face went dead yet the unit was still playing. OK, so I park... turn off the car, remove the key, and yet the unit is STILL ON. This is wierd because when I turn the car off, it's supposed to turn the radio off as well -- maybe the relay internal to the deck is messing up here? Wouldn't explain all of the other problems, but might indicate internal problems and not wiring (I checked the wiring thoroughly last night and there were no loose or exposed or pinched wires at all).

Thanks!

 

[The Big E]

Hold the button down for 20 seconds. That is longer than needed, but will ensure the hard restart. If the unit is staying on and it did not before, there is most likely an enternal issue with the unit, and a hard restart will not fix that.

 

[curls]

Hold the button down for 20 seconds. That is longer than needed, but will ensure the hard restart. If the unit is staying on and it did not before, there is most likely an enternal issue with the unit, and a hard restart will not fix that.

I assume "enternal" is supposed to read INternal, correct?

My thinking is that there is a chance that the relay (internal) might be screwing up in that it is not always responding to the signal to turn off/on with the switched power wire OR the faceplate removal.

Think I might be on the right track?

~Eric

 

[curls]

Big E: I didn't see one single place where a pen or paperclip could be inserted at all. I looked all over the entire deck and thoroughly scoured the area behind where the faceplate would be -- there are no recessed buttons or anything. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Any help?

~Eric

 

[disturbed_cbr 10+ year member]

Sounds like a problem with the power or ground wire ground problems will do some crazy **** man.....And for the faceplate not coming on or flashing and whatnot get some alcohol and a Q - tip and clean the contacts thats what fixed mine as for the other problem thats all i have mine did some crazy **** similar too yours and it was my ground. So i ran seperarte ground and power straight to the battery and solved that problem or it may be internal relay problems as someone else said before me..................GOOD LUCK MAN

 

[98f150]

i had a problem like this.. i disconnected all of the wires, and reinstalled it , and have never had a problem since..

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

moving to HU //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[xSomeguyx 10+ year member]

Wacky problem. I'd bet it's a problem with a connection somewhere. Whether it's your ground/power, or the connection between the face and the deck is hard to say. Since the deck stayed on and the face went off while it was playing, I'd bet on a connection with the face. Try rubbing the contacts down with a q-tip and alcohol and see what happens.