My car stereo (specifically the CD player) has developed a problem. In the past, when I started the car, the CD player has always begun playing the CD from the point it was at when I shut the car off. But yesterday it stopped doing that. Now every time I start my car, it restarts the CD at its beginning. This is annoying because I use my CD to listen to audio books and I don’t want to re-listen to the parts of the book I’ve already heard.
Is this something where the settings of the CD player got changed accidentally? Is it something I can reset? Or is my CD player genuinely malfunctioning?
Unlikely you have an option to switch it under settings but if settings exist I assume you have already looked. I suspect a memory storage issue. It’s possible that inside your head unit that there will be a 3 v round battery, like a CR 25 or something. If it’s 10 years old then it outlasted it’s lifespan anyway. The memory may rely on the battery to hold power for storage. So when you shut your car off, it’s not trying to trickle juice from your car battery but anyway these kinds of older and cheaper storage solutions would be ideal for holding the last known position of your CD.
You could take it apart and see for certain but I suspect that’s a good possibility. But ya know a CD player these days can be had pretty cheap. I know on some sites like Crutchfield they will give you an installation kit for free. I think Sonicelectronix might do that as well but it’s something to look into
A poor connection to the battery for the “always on” power line is my guess. Get in there and take apart the stereo’s connectors, clean them, put them back.
Another possibility is that the fuse for that connection has blown. But then you’d notice several other things not working. Check your owner’s manual for which fuse it is and what else it covers.
If it never worked, then some idjit connected it wrong. There’s two power connectors for a car stereo: switched and unswitched (always on). But that’s not the case here. OTOH, perhaps some idjit wired the unswitched connector to something that tested on but really wasn’t. But basically anything I can think of would cause other symptoms. E.g. wiring it to the “lights on” signal. But it wouldn’t hurt to double check the wiring is properly done.
My thanks for everyone’s help. I’ll admit the idea that the battery or power connection broke down so the player no longer stores information seems all too plausible.
Does anything else change on your radio like the presets, volume or clock? Either way one less obvious thing to get checked would be your battery. It’s possible it’s getting weak and while your engine is cranking the voltage drops low enough to mess with the radio.
An update for anybody who cares: my problems with the CD player were harbingers of problems with my battery. Over the course of a couple of days, my battery stopped working. I replaced it and this has cleared up all of the problems.
Thanks for the update. It is actually very interesting that your players memory was the first noticeable indication of bad car battery. Must have had low voltage, but still enough current to start the car. The player memory more sensitive to correct voltage.