how to know if your amp works at all?

Thanks for looking and helping if ya can. heres the setup have a ford focus 2006 aftermarket radio: Panasonic CQ-C8803U amplifer: Alpine MRD-M605 Subwoofers: 2- MM2104 i remove the negative do all the wiring jazz in order as to not hurt my car or the amp. reconnect the negative from the battery after alls set in place and i turn on the car and theres no life of the amp. now i have 3 loose cables in the harness kit one which is blue with a white strip, that be the remote turn on for amplifers correct? well now that leaves me with a blue cable (no stripe) and a orange with a white strip going to no where. now i think and have check many documents saying thats how it goes and also asked some friends who have amps installed, they say the same thing. now is there a way that i can check the amp out and make sure its not my wiring. would this issue arise due to a doodiety harness?(bought it from circuit city) would this just point clear out that its the amp that has an issue? now i used the recommended wire gauge and made sure i had a good ground. everything else in the car seems fine and the panasonic radio works great but could it be that its not sending the power to the amp? any help would be great and if i left something vital to know of the set up ill update it asap thanks again chris

thanks doing that in the morning

Uh, if you have not connected the remote amp turn-on lead to the amp, then the amp will not turn on.Support the12volt.com

yeah it IS hooked up but it wont turn on. the wire you are speaking about in my harness was a blue/white strip and i connected that into the radio's blue wire which is the turn-on lead. i was wondering how a: i can test my wiring and make sure i did it correctly b: test the amp to make sure it works it was a second hand amp off ebay so im worried the amp didnt work in the first place. goes to show buy new lol thanks for the help i finally got me a reader to test the wire's chris

"the wire you are speaking about in my harness was a blue/white strip and i connected that into the radio's blue wire which is the turn-on lead." i meant that i hooked it up to the blue/white one (which is coming out the stereo head) to the cord with my rca plugs (they were all joined, 2 rca's and the remote lead which is very very thin, could that be the issue?) yeah sorry bout the double post didnt finish my first statement

did what KPierson told me and got 12v when the car is off from power to ground but i dont have 12v on remote to ground so its a wiring issue thanks for the help. now i gotta figure out why the remote wire is not sending power out of the head unit....good way to learn thanks again chris

My guess is the Blue/White wire is for power antenna and the Blue wire is the remote turn on from the HU.  Test it and see.Support the12volt.com

I just had a kenwood deck that had a bad power antenna wire straight out of the box. the remote turn on wire was fine and the customer did not care so I used that one. To expand on what DYohn suggested turn the fm radio on and test for 12v at both the blue and blue white wires. then turn the cd player on and do the same. then obviously use the wire that was showing 12v for both tests. If they both do not work then lets hope you still have the reciept...