About 6 months ago i bought the 791XV online somewhere, had it installed by circuit city because they are right across the street from my work. Everything goes fine, though they don't program it for some of the goodies its capable of, fine with me.
Flash forward to a few months later, its now taking a couple tries of pushing the unlock button for it to finally unlock. Basically, it wasn't picking up my remote every time. It progresively got worse until one day i had to use my key to get in, which caused the alarm to go off, i had to pop the hood, unplug the car battery, and go unplug the alarm and got myself back home.
Today i went to a local audio shop who is an authorized dealer. $100 bucks for a new remote (if that was the problem). Fine with me, they usually go for $75 + ship on ebay. So before i know it, the guys brings out a new remote. Apparently it wasn't the remote, rather the brain. They said they have problems with the 790/791 series with the brains and the antenna's.
1.) is this a common problem? do they just die sometimes? he blamed it on the heat for the antenna.
2.) Is it possible to buy a new brain? he said about $200 which i could almost buy a whole new alarm for that price.
3.) Is there any way to figure out if it is just the brain that has a problem? I don't know anyone really around here (Pasadena, CA), let alone anyone i could borrow the brain from for a minute.
p.s. A couple days before the alarm started dying on me, i ended up putting the car battery in backwards and connecting it. Not my fault. My brother put it in that way and i assume it was correct when I told him to put the terminals back on. All it did that i could tell was blow the 40A battery fuse under the hood.
I've installed a number of 790/791, being a Circuit City installer myself. The only real trouble I've had were from the 790's remotes. Drop them a couple times and they were done for. I would go back to the original Circuit you went to and get them to take the brain out. DEI does offer a lifetime warrenty on the brains, but unfortunately we're not selling DEI anymore. They can give you the address, info, etc in order to send the unit to DEI's warrenty department.
unfortunately this CC doesn't deal with DEI stuff. Hence why it took them 5+ hours to install it. I went to their website,
www.clifford.com, and i couldn't find anything except a way to find one of their authorized dealers, i.e. small shops.
I would try
www.directed.com. DEI owns Clifford, but unless your unit is one, it won't be much help. Try in the support or customer service sections.
yeah their website is telling me to go to a local dealer. These dealers want to make a quick buck and charge an arm and a leg. $200 for a brain?!!!
i dont think its the brain, unless the installer did something weird. even the 790, ihavent heard anything about the brain, only the remotes.
cehck out the antenna line see if anything wrong.
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Houston,TX
"The two most common elements in the universe are H+ and stupidity" (Ellison).
ok, now that you mention it, my antenna is a little messed up. One of the antenna things is bent at a 45degree angle. Only reason i don't think that that's the problem is because when i took it to the audio shop, they plugged everything back into the brain, and the alarm went off like expected. He tapped the valet switch a couple times and even messed with the pager itself, and no fix.
I'm now starting to think it's a loose wire not spliced or connected correctly.