basic troubleshooting
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=91421
Printed Date: May 05, 2024 at 3:57 PM
Topic: basic troubleshooting
Posted By: DYohn
Subject: basic troubleshooting
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 10:13 AM
So a friend calls me last night and says his left speaker has gone out and is only producing alternator whine. The right speaker still seems to be working fine. I spend two hours with him on the phone discussing all sorts of possible causes, including a speaker wire that's come loose or a crossover that's shorted to ground or a bad amplifier channel or a loose ground or a cut RCA cable or a bad connection at the head unit or a defective head unit. I walk him through disassembling his left door panel and how to check the speakers and the crossover and have him hand-over-hand inspect his speaker cables. All seems OK. He says next let's make sure an RCA cable is OK so he pulls his head unit first and checks the connections there which are all fine, then he says oh yea, the amp is under my seat. So he slides his seat forward and notices the left RCA cable has been knocked out of the amp. He plugs it back in. Problem solved. Moral of the story: basic troubleshooting says to check the obvious things first. Duh. I feel like a buffoon. ------------- Support the12volt.com
Replies:
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 1:22 PM
 You just didn't want to embarrass your friend by asking him to check something so obvious.
Yeah, that's it. ------------- Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 3:45 PM
It's because I sometimes get so caught up in the details and possibilities and science of things I forget the simple stuff like "is it plugged in?"  Oh well, remember the basics!! ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: haemphyst
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 4:02 PM
DYohn] wrote:
It's because I sometimes get so caught up in the details and possibilities and science of things I forget the simple stuff like "is it plugged in?"
Welcome to my world... Try being a PC tech sometime. LOL ------------- It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 4:27 PM
Sort of like "my left speaker does not work anymore"....solution.....check balance control first.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: Paradigm
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 8:29 PM
forbidden wrote:
Sort of like "my left speaker does not work anymore"....solution.....check balance control first.
Now that's funny! ------------- VEHICLE: 2002 GMC Sonoma ZR2
Alpine CDA-7940
AudioControl EQT x2
JL Audio 1000/1
JL Audio 10W6 (originals) x3
Kicker ZR120
Kicker ZR460
Polk GXR-6 x4
Polk GXR-4 x2
Posted By: dwarren
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 8:57 PM
forbidden wrote:
Sort of like "my left speaker does not work anymore"....solution.....check balance control first.
How true is that one! Actually had one today! Well DYohn I guess that was a bit of a humbling experience? I suppose the K.I.S.S. method can be applied almost every where. -------------
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 9:41 PM
Humbling. Yes. I think we all need to be humbled now and then, and by sharing the story here I'm certain you guys will remember to remind me about it once in a while. ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: dwarren
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 9:52 PM
That's the first thing I was taught in this industry. Be humble and stay humble. One can feel like the best installer and an overly confident attitude puts a hole through a gas line, talk about humbling! No hard feelings DYohn...sheesh. -------------
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 10:33 PM
The problem (in this case) lies in being on the phone and not there on the spot. I hate it when I can't do my own inspection. If he were there, DYohn could have solved it in 10 minutes and saved his friend two hours of "consultation" billing. Now THAT'S a hefty sum!
------------- Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.
Posted By: Steven Kephart
Date Posted: March 08, 2007 at 11:03 PM
I can't count how many times I've done that. In fact I replaced my timing belt on my car, then found afterward the problem to be the screw on the rotor in the distributor had come off allowing it to free-spin. Another humbling experience once was accidently using the wrong terminal on the battery for an amp install, then using the other battery terminal for my test light to make sure the fuse was good. The fuse of course tested good (power flowing the other direction), so my conclusing was that I had a break in the new, 4 awg wire I just ran. I was embarassed when I figured out the truth.
Posted By: kassdog
Date Posted: March 09, 2007 at 3:58 PM
My experience came when I installed an amp,sub,speakers,deck into an suv. Installed the amp under the drivers seat and grounded it about 6 inches away. Well get everything done and testing it out. Everytime i turned more than 25% of the way it cuts out. I assume its a speaker wire(ran new wire to speakers). Nothing then I proceed to basically switch out everything. Everytime I test something new I get nothing. Finally after a day of testing I just happen to stumble accross the ground and guess what, it's loose. From that point on I always check grounds first.
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