i got my self a Pioneer AVH-P5950 DVD . When i installed it i had problems.
when i turn the volume up and down via the volume knob or even the remote
i get a clicking noise and also an electrical noise, kinda sounds like draging a plastic table across the floor.

i called pioneer australia and they said the unit is faulty,( a matrix fault ???) so i took it back to the shop and got a new one. Guess what the new replacement unit does the same thing,
i re did earth wires and also disconnected the amp and the RCAs and ran speaker cable on its own to see if it were an amp problem, i got the same result. Both with the engine on and off, i dont know what to do. the shop does not believe that the second unit is faulty now and im out of ideas.

please help

You're blowing the RCA fuse in the unit when installing it... Get a pro to install or do it properly.

The way to check is to ground the RCA's. This means touching a wire from the outer ring of the RCA to ground. The outer ring is the metal part that is still exposed when the RCA's are plugged in to the head unit.

"Matrix fault"? Tell them they're f***ed in the head. They don't know what they're on about.

Thanks Stone
I just took the unit out of the car and bench tested it, using the speaker cable only,
and i have the same result, i also found out that when i press the volume knob to change modes the same noise comes up.

Take it into the shop and ask if they can test it there. Try to go in on a day that they wont be busy - so they can spend more time trying to help you out (a week day if u can). Get them to plug it into a hole in theyr display board that they have RCA plugs AND Speaker plugs. If it still does the same thing then the second unit is faulty, or you havnt installed it properly. If it doesnt do what your saying then its something to do with ur grounding/install etc. Just some ideas. Hope you can figure it out .

Unfortunately, sound boards don't have engines and therefore don't cause engine noise

You can still hear pops when changing source or going from volume 0 to 1 or vice versa.

Hey Stone

I called Pioneer 4 days ago and i am still waiting for them. I tested the unit again, in the car via RCAs and speaker cables and i also bench tested it again with the same results.

I now have a 3rd unit yer a 3rd unit and im going to get the pros to install it.

I have also spoken to a mate who has been a pro for 20 years, who now lives in another state. He said that pioneer units blow an internal fuse if you plug power in before the RCAs.

Im sure i did not plug the RCAs in hot, but lets say i fu..ed up and did, should i assume that if the fuse had been blown then i should not have any sound including music because i did.

my car goes in on friday and i hope all goes well. If it does and later on i want to upgrade amps can i then disconect the RCAS without blowing the unit.

nick

Usually if the fuse blows it will cause a whining noise over the top of the sound... But also, sometimes the fuse blows because people haven't earthed their amplifier properly, so it tries to earth via the RCA through the head unit... When the fuse blows, then there is NO ground for the amp and no sound.

The fuses are very sensitive... You'd probably be better off getting the damaged one "fixed", with a higher rated fuse, rather than a new unit as the fuse is just likely to go again if you're not careful. Even pro installers blow the fuses.

haha yes that would be a problem i thought u said it happened with the engine off though. My mistake . all pioneer head units can have that problem because they fuse their earth tracks. how much are they charging for installation out of interest? did you get a discount or anything because you've had to go through all this? just wondering

I got the 3rd unit installed last friday, it took 2 tecks a full day to sort out my car.
They charged $170 they said they normally charge $97 but it was a prick of an install and i had 2 new RCAs put in. The unit still makes a strange noise,not as bad as the other 2 units but still a noise,( sounds electrical) (with or without engine running) the tecks reckon thats pioneer for you. i like the units functions and display but it seems to me that the units have a design fault. I havent had a chance to call pioneer again and try to find out whats with the noise, so untill then i got to live with it. after all the crap ive had i wouldnt go pioneer again.

thanks for all your info, it has helped heaps

The Pioneer doesn't make noise unless it's broken, it only gets broken by whoever installs it. If you have noise, they've either broken it or their install is causing noise. Don't blame the unit for the installer's incompetence.

Did they install it originally? Why are they charging you extra for a faulty install? Also, who is installing it? If they're a Pioneer retailer, the Pioneer rep needs to know they're talking crap about Pioneer products.

i've got the same screen, works fine

Hey Stone

I installed the first 2 units, and i got a pioneer approved dealer/ installation place to do the 3rd unit, the owner and the head tec did the install. i purchased the unit from JB hifi, and got the first 2 units replaced with JB. And it still has the noise,even when bench testing.
One other question
The unit has an ipod connection, the music files work and i can controll the ipod via the pioneer display, but when i select video the pioneer unit does not allow picture but gives me sound. The instructions for the pioneer states to play ipod video, change settings in the ipod to tv out. When i do, the ipod then tells me to plug in a AV device and will not play video files.
So i had another idea instead of pluging the ipod in to the ipod connector, i connected the ipod in to the pioneer AV input ACAs , i got sound and picture but the picture was scrambled.
I have spoken to Pioneer support, and they dont know, they think it should work

Any ideas?

If it makes noise on the bench, it means it's been damaged. The people installing it are most likely damaging it. What store are you taking it to? Maybe you need to take it somewhere else. Changing over the unit each time is not the answer... It either needs to be installed without damaging it or getting one of the damaged ones fixed so it doesn't happen again.

No idea on the iPod issue. I haven't tried to play iPod video on one.

Those internal RCA fuses are a pain, though I've only had to deal with one blowing once in my own cars (DEH-6850MP that got plugged in before my TA was told to plug it in). As mentioned earlier, earthing the shield of the rca cable to the chassis works every time. I've had nothing but Pioneer head units ever since I got into car audio back in the day, can't say I've ever had a reason to complain about them, they do pump out a minor amount of audible noise, but what do you expect with all that crap going on on the front panel? (plus I can buy Pioneer locally so I might as well help out the local guys with at least one of my components).

On the other hand the old up to 2006ish disc loading mechanism that wouldn't eject without help after about 6 months on certain 'slippery' discs was a bit of a pain in the backside...

We've had the same issue with the ipod video thru a sony Home theatre system with the proper ipod adaptor... I spent nearly a hour on the phone with their tech support, and still couldn't get it to work... Thats apple for you...