Bricked Pioneer x920?

[tvmaster]

Had this puppy up and running as tests - VSS working - bypass working.
The only thing odd was audio pops when turning on headlights. hmmm
Also, rear speakers and subwoofer didn't seem to be working.
Shut car down, checked leads - swapped front and rear audio cables to try and trace lack of rear speakers - shut down car.
Brought it back up and screen / unit seems dead.
Fuse looks OK.
The only thing that concerns me is the blue/white cable on the Metra harness. There is also a blue/white cable on the Pioneer - which says in the manual "to system control terminal of the power amp"
It worked the first time.
Hmmm.... if theres a reset button, I can't find it.

[WeatherB]

Did you check both fuses? There is one in the car's fuse box and one behind the Pioneer.

[sas]

Don’t look at colors even if you have a wiring diagram.
There is a description of every pin.
http://www.miata.net/garage/nbaudio/index.html (http://www.miata.net/garage/nbaudio/index.html)
At this moment I suspect you have connected the dimmer from TNS relay as power wire,
now dimmer fuse is blown .
Blue wire ,most like it’s pin “J” , is remote control for bose amplifier and have to be connected to cigar lighter or to the blue-white pioneer’s wire.

[sas]

I forget that you have a full access to head unit harness. The blue wire (if it’s really pin J) you can connect to pin ” R “ instead of lighter. I’m wondering, how the amp was working if this wire was disconnected. There is messed something else. Also , you have to keep the polarity of outputs, in other way you are risking by head unit.

[tvmaster]

Look up "Pico Fuses", as I believe mine have blown. I did hook up blue/white to blue/white, and orange Metra harness wire to Orange/White Pioneer wire.
The problem, apparently, is that Pioneer's don't like RCA cables being unplugged or plugged in while the unit is on. Kinda defeats the whole purpose of "grounds", doesn't it?
So, if you own a Pioneer deck, best everyone reads up on Pico fuses - it may just save your unit.
I'll check for internal car fuses today - the Pioneers external fuse is fine. Which is even more stupid on the part of their design team: two internal fuses (one for front speaker output/one for rear) are allowed to blow BEFORE the external fuse is.
Brilliant.
Thanks for the replies

[TheMaterial]

to be honest, you probably could have had this installed by a pro like a site sponsor or even fshop for a little more money and half the head ache.

Also a blown Pico Fuse would not cause your deck to not work. It would basically give you a loud humming noise like a bad ground. So there is something else wrong with your installation job.

Also that fuse on the outside of the unit is made to protect from to much power frying your deck, so its not a design fault. Hot swapping RCAs is not a good idea, and should never be done regardless of the unit you are working on.

[tvmaster]

to be honest, you probably could have had this installed by a pro like a site sponsor or even fshop for a little more money and half the head ache.
Also a blown Pico Fuse would not cause your deck to not work. It would basically give you a loud humming noise like a bad ground. So there is something else wrong with your installation job.
Also that fuse on the outside of the unit is made to protect from to much power frying your deck, so its not a design fault. Hot swapping RCAs is not a good idea, and should never be done regardless of the unit you are working on.

Never heard a humming - did hear faint accelerator whine, and then it went away. Also heard "pops" initially, and when turning on the headlights. Is the Bose amp a 5volt turn-on, or 12volt like the Pioneer? And I've installed 6 or 7 decks in my life -never had a problem hot swapping RCA cables, AFTER the system is grounded. Pioneer reacts differently, in my opinion. The last "pro" who worked on one of my cars trashed a $90 Infiniti harness.
If you have an idea on what may be "wrong" to cause no power getting through (it worked fine for an hour), I'd be appreciative to hear some suggestions. thanks

[tvmaster]

Update: Tried new fuse, nothing there. Put OEM Mazda radio back in car, everything powers up fine.
Tried Pioneer with a computer power supply (done it before) no power.
The fan on the Pioneer isn't running, but the exterior fuse is good.
Are there more fuses, other than the Pico Fuses, which "TheMaterial" says isn't the problem.
Stumped, unless for some reason the harness isn't letting power to the unit - how would I test for that?

[sas]

I don’t know the exact set you have.We were speaking that you will be using a LOC. That loc, you referred to, has the bose configuration where are used speaker level inputs. I don’t see why you are using an RCA.RCA signal from Pioneer is too strong for amplifier with 2v rms input, plus, from wiring diagram , I can suppose that the bose amp has a differential input whereas RCA is the input with common ground.Disconnect all wires from Pioneer , leave only ground, + battery, + ignition. If these voltages are present and HU doesn’t turn on then you have a problem.

[tvmaster]

I don’t know the exact set you have.We were speaking that you will be using a LOC. That loc, you referred to, has the bose configuration where are used speaker level inputs. I don’t see why you are using an RCA.RCA signal from Pioneer is too strong for amplifier with 2v rms input, plus, from wiring diagram , I can suppose that the bose amp has a differential input whereas RCA is the input with common ground.Disconnect all wires from Pioneer , leave only ground, + battery, + ignition. If these voltages are present and HU doesn’t turn on then you have a problem.

then i have a BIG problem . . . not using LOC after many people on many forums said it isn't necessary, including PAC tech support (gave the guy some specs on the phone).
The Pioneer RCA outputs are line-level - no amplification. Are you saying the Bose amplifier has a 2v rms input? If that's the case, why are som many people using this combination successfully?

[sas]

Most modern HUs have 4,6,8 rms output.
Theoretically, the high output is more dangerous for amp and speakers then for HU.
No one knows exactly what is inside of the bose amp.
There is one hidden danger. The wiring is drawn as a differential input ,but possible every pair of wires has one wire grounded inside of the amplifier. With wrong polarity you can blow the rca output from head unit, that is why I recommended to use the LOC.
More disturbing fact is that you had a correlation with light system ,what impossible with right connection.
As you looking the fuses, I suppose you have opened the HU. Trace the most wide tracks on the board from +Battery wire, there have to be an electronic switch. Look if main voltage is missing there.
As a last instance. Manual is very categorical with this blue-white wire. I think this wire is used for HU too. Apply 5volt through 6-8 kilo Ohm resistor to this wire. 8 kohm is small enough to open a transistor and big to not blow something.

[tvmaster]

Most modern HUs have 4,6,8 rms output.
Theoretically, the high output is more dangerous for amp and speakers then for HU.
No one knows exactly what is inside of the bose amp.
There is one hidden danger. The wiring is drawn as a differential input ,but possible every pair of wires has one wire grounded inside of the amplifier. With wrong polarity you can blow the rca output from head unit, that is why I recommended to use the LOC.
More disturbing fact is that you had a correlation with light system ,what impossible with right connection.
As you looking the fuses, I suppose you have opened the HU. Trace the most wide tracks on the board from +Battery wire, there have to be an electronic switch. Look if main voltage is missing there.
As a last instance. Manual is very categorical with this blue-white wire. I think this wire is used for HU too. Apply 5volt through 6-8 kilo Ohm resistor to this wire. 8 kohm is small enough to open a transistor and big to not blow something.

I appreciate all of your help and comments, but now you are talking over my level of confidence with simple car-stereo replacement. I have no intention of opening a 3 day old unit. Either I will have it replaced or send it to Pioneer for warranty work. I can't find a single Mazda 3 bose owner who did anything differently than installing the deck, as is. I don't see why my MZ3 is any different. The blue-white wire seems to be the amplifier turn on.

[TheMaterial]

Did you do as Sas said only running ground, ignition and power? That would be first step to trouble shooting. I'm sure you've already set up your harness properly and all that so do some cutting and essentially start from stage 1 again, and do the bare essentials. If it doesn't power up from that, get a hold of pioneer and send out your unit for warranty.

My biggest concern was reading about a pop when your headlights were turned on, that right there may be your biggest issue, since when the factory is put back in everything works.

Side Note: I'm not sure how Pioneers warranty works but be careful in what you say with them, I know with some companies it will void warranty if you don't have a professional install the unit, or it shortens it from 1yr to 90days or something like that.

[sas]

Oh ,ok, of course you should exchange it by warranty, you are so quick that I thought you already took it apart .
As for bose owners, most of them are changing the amplifier too.
It’s possible to connect the RCA to differential input, but it’s a wrong way where is suffering the sound quality, is a risk for head unit, and you can’t to adjust the proper gain for amplifier.

[tvmaster]

thanks - I had set up the harness following what a zillion posters on these forums have done. Right off the bat, two things were odd: the rear speakers didn't work, and yes, there was a popping sound when the lights were turned off and on. Called Metra and Pioneer regarding wiring of steering wheel controller and blue/white remote amp on wire. There was some confusion with Pioneer about that wire. My concern came when reading a Pioneer forum (avic411) from a Ford owner who had to install a voltage regulator between the Pioneer and the amp he was using, since the amp took 5volts turn-on, and the Pioneer 12volts. The regulator cured his popping.
Weirdly, no one on any of these forums has had to use any kind of interface kit between the headunit and the Mazda factory Bose amp.
I'm stumped

[sas]

I hadn’t seen an installation aftermarket HU- Bose amp for Mazda 3, but rx7 and Miata all of them are using a kit in most cases it’s PAC.
Orange Pioneer wire have to be connected to the terminal E of metra harness, I think it was done correctly. Blue-white wire was connected correctly too, if only this connection was insulated and didn’t touch a metal parts. As this wire is weak it would be better to leave it isolated and to take the remote control for amplifier from ignition.
There was a wrong offset on the input of the amp because of the ground applied to the differential. In result there was a small current leak between HU and amplifier, popping sound can be explained as amplified changes of this leak. Most dangerous thing it’s if there was a negative pulse from amplifier when the head unit was switched off.
Till now your installation sounds correctly except that the head unit wasn’t isolated from amp by a loc.

[sas]

look this thread there is mentioned that metra has the blue wire inserted incorrectly. http://www.ozmpsclub.com/forum/how-tos/7460-how-install-headunit-steering-wheel-controls.html