why won't my player boot

I finally started installing it in my car. I got the right harnesses, and I hooked up MEMORY, IGNITION SENSE, GROUND, and ILLUMINATION. But the player won't boot. All fuses are intact. I don't have to hook the amp up before the player will boot, do I? THis is frustrating. I am about to stomp on my player and then drive off of a cliff.

No, you dont have to have the amp hooked up. All you should really need is MEMORY, IGNITION, and GROUND. I dont suppose you have a meter or test light to check if you have power on the MEMORY wire. Do you have an old factory deck to plug back into the old harness to ensure that you are getting power?

Yeah, I plugged the old tape deck in and it works fine. The only thing I can think of is the company that made the harness labeled the wires wrong. Either that or there is something wrong with my empeg. I need to find my meter. Has anyone ever had an empeg that worked fine in the house but not in the car?

well, I'm sure it's probably something simple and I'll figure it out. I didn't have much time to work on it this morning, so maybe I overlooked something.

Greetings!

I assume you checked all of your wiring, went by the labels and not the color code, etc. What kind of car do you have? There have been some known problems with VW type harnesses.

Yes, I went by the labels. I just checked the wires with a tester. I'm not getting the right readings with the ignition on or off. Memory is getting like 3-5 volts and the ignition sense is getting like 8 with the ignition off. But why is my tape deck working fine? Can I try connecting the empeg directly to the battery by connecting memory and ignition sense to the +pole and the ground to the -pole, just to see that the empeg is working?

EDIT: I have a 91 Nissan Maxima

Yes, you can connect directly to the battery poles as you suggested. From the readings you specified though my guess is you have a bad (non-existant) earth, you could temporarily run a flying earth lead to battery -ve to check this out

Alright thanks. I'll try that.

Yes! It works. problem solved - bad ground. I'm a retard. I'm glad I didn't stomp on my empeg now. Thanks Rue, thanks everyone.

Greetings!

I am glad it worked out, but it still sounds like there is something going on there. From your posts, it sounds like you have a minimal wiring configuration set up. (i.e., no illumination sense, ignition sense or anything like that) Please list exactly what you have connected to where. I am not an installation expert (far from it!!!), but someone else here can give a few pointers. Are you going through only the empeg, or do you have a factory or aftermarket head involved as well?

I just got through installing everything. It all sounds fine except sometimes when it boots up there's a little static in the speakers, but that's no big deal. Anyways I have MEMORY, IGN SENSE, & ILLUMINATION into the car wire harness. Then I have REMOTE, GROUND, and front RCA cables going to the 760 watt amp. Amp is grounded and connected to the battery and speaker wires go into the car wire harness, and it all comes out on the factory speakers (yes, factory. I have to keep the amp gain all the way down and the empeg at like -30db.) No other head unit. No tuner......yet.