Stereo keeps powering off

i installed my stereo last night and for some reason it will cut off after about 6-8 mins of usage... it stays powered (clock/lighting still on) but it wont respond when i hit power, or any button... after about 5 mins of TRYING to figure out what wire is loose, it returns to working properly....

meter the speaker wires..you either have a dead short to ground..or something below 4 ohms.

If you don't have a meter you can connect one speaker at a time and let it play until it cuts out..you have found the culprit. It could also be a defective speaker which can also short to ground internally or have a low ohms reading..but thats whats happeneing..the deck is going into protect mode due to the heat from the short and then resetting again in 5 minutes...keep that up and you will toast the deck.

ok, i'll check the speakers one at a time in the morning.... but how do u bench test?

thank u guys for your help...... i need to have this done by sunday

any meter will work that can measure ohms..resistance..try like an auto parts store or sears..home depot..lowes or any tool place..don't need an expensive one at all. It's called a DMM (digital multi meter)

If you don't have a bench test remove the deck and connect it directly to your car battery. this way you know it has good power. If the problem does not happen again you know it is your power wires at the dash or a bad ground. If it does you know the unit is defective.

But try the speaker test first..when you get the meter you can use the voltage settings to check power and ground as well...many times there is a problem with low voltage that will let it light up..but cause it to have all kinds of issues.

alright... i found which speaker it was (turned out the wire got disconnected... long story) and i re-wired that along with all the other speakers, and now my amplifier for them isnt responding... when my engine is on and the deck is off, the amp light is red as it should be... i turn the deck on and the light goes away, but it is supposed to be green, not blank....

 i checked my remote wire on both ends and it is still connected, but im wondering if i burned something out in the amp when re-wiring, or what is it that we (my dad and i) did wrong?

Ok..when the deck is off..the light on the amp should be off..it has nothing to do with the engine running. However..when you turn the key off..the deck will also turn off..and the amp light will also go out.

The problem is you guys are trying to troubleshoot and I can guess you are not using a meter. The problem with that is you can not "see" what electricity is doing..and the light on the amp only tells a small part of the story.

You need to check that the ground , power and remote AT the amp are good..and measuring at least 12v. If the ground is good...the power is good..and the remote wire has 12v when the key AND deck is on, it should play if nothing else is wrong..if not..you have a bad amp. But once again it is IMPOSSIBLE to check this with any kind of accuracy without a meter..even a basic test light is better then nothing but...it is unsafe for other circuits in the vehicle..and it will tell you where there is voltage present..but will not tell you how much...will not read current  will not read resistance..all things you may need to find out to fix the system.

Now if the power and ground at the amp are good (may need to check the fuse..connections etc) you need to find out if 12v is still coming out of the deck remote wire..and if so is reaching the amp. Now this is not that hard to troubleshoot because it is only 3 wires to be concerned about where we stand now..but there are quite a few things as you see that could be wrong with those 3 wires.