Stereo is frozen

[gti_speed]

I had my L400 in the shop getting some work done. I assume they unhooked the battery during the inspection/repairs. Now the Alpine stereo screen is frozen. The head unit will turn on but only shows 87.7 on the tuner. No buttons will work although they do beep. No sound from the radio either. Any ideas??

Thanks!

[mararmeisto]

North American unit or original Japanese frequencies?

Also, what did they 'inspect' or 'repair'?

Were they into the dash?

Did they hook up test equipment? If so what? Not many shops on this side of the Pacific are going to have any diagnostic equipment for these vehicles, so I would question them just-hooking-it-up-to-read-the-fault-codes.

[gti_speed]

It's a North American unit only a couple years old. It was working fine before the van went into the shop. They only completed an insurance inspection and replaced the ball joints - they shouldn't have been into the dash. I've read online various people who have had the same situation occur with Alpine radios when they have lost power from the battery (battery died or was disconnected) but haven't seen any solutions yet. It's really odd. I have tried to reset it as well but that hasn't done anything either. Maybe I'll have to call the garage on Monday...

[mararmeisto]

...only completed an insurance inspection and replaced the ball joints...

Isn't it kinda difficult to complete a vehicle inspection of, oh I don't know, the lights, when the battery's been disconnected?

And why disconnect the battery when you're doing ball joints?

I ain't no mechanic, but I'm failing to understand what this shop was doing.

A common answer on HelpOwl for Alpine stereo seems to be to disconnect the battery for 20 minutes or more, to allow the memory to reset, and then system should work. The time is to allow the capacitors inside the unit to fully drain down. If the unit was only temporarily disconnected from power, it's like flicking the power switch off/on - it can scramble the bits inside sometimes, and full reset is required.

[gti_speed]

That worked perfectly Paul! Thanks so much! I don't want to give the impression the garage was doing anything odd. I'm not sure if they disconnected it or not. The battery may have just died. It sat there for two weeks because I was away. That may have done it. Either way, its working now! Thanks again.

Craig