What happened to my radio?

Can't really see the fuse from here, but you said the fuses "look fine". Unfortunately, in an effort to reap all of the radio repair business for their two grossly over-priced repair centers, GM decided to stop selling radio service manuals and parts to us independent shops in 1994. Ford copied them in 1997. They don't care about customers after the sale except for how much money they can bleed from them. Sorry to say you're stuck returning to the dealer for radio repairs. If it needs to be sent out for repair, plan on a $450.00 repair bill. If your car has an external amp and it is the cause of the problem, repairs should be considerably less but it's still a dealer-only item.

Just to add to this one I have seen this before pull the radio fuses for like 10 mins then put them back in. If it works your radii was expernicing whats called logic lock. Like when your cell phone starts acting up and you have to turn the phone off and on to reset it. Same thing happens on the onstar modules etc. Let me know what you find.

Very happy to hear it's solved, but that doesn't address the cause. If it doesn't act up again for another five years, I'd put up with it and remember the fix. When the problem is common enough that saturntech9 is aware of it, that means it is not due to something that broke down in your radio. It's due to a design issue. There is some other cause of the locking up that is due to something outside the radio. They weren't aware of the cause when they designed the radio so they didn't include protection against it.

Chrysler had a similar problem with Body Computers locking up on '92 Caravans. That caused a dead instrument cluster, interior lights, and door locks. (All those things cars have had for decades and didn't need to have a computer involved). The cheap fix was to disconnect the battery for a few seconds. The proper fix was to replace the computer with an improved one that was not susceptible to locking up, AND to replace up to a dozen relays with improved ones that did not develop the voltage spikes that caused the computer to lock up.

The insane engineers are adding all kinds of unnecessary electronics and as a result, we have the typical problems that go with that technology. If you ever have to send your radio out to be repaired, in addition to that repair, it will likely have a modification installed to prevent locking up in the future. This is the type of problem that many people will experience and complain about, and there will be a fix developed for it. The improved, or modified radio will have either a different model number or an "AA" or "AB" added to the existing model number to denote something was changed in the design.

Thanks saturntech9. Always happy to learn of an inexpensive alternative to the costly repair centers.

Your both welcome but there is no cure that iam aware of the problem exists all thru the years. Especially the onstar modules there is tons of bulletins I have seen for this. The way it was explained to me from gm was too much going on in too small of a package. They made the cell phone comparsion where your cell phone starts locking up or stops doing certain functions etc. You then turn the phone off remove battery sim card etc and it works again.I have had to do that on my smart cell phones and non smart cell phones. They call it logic lock thats the proper name they give it. Seeing how there craming more and more into a smaller and smaller package I see no end to it in sight lol. Even my tech 1 and tech 2 scan tools I used at the dealer would get logic lock.