Hey, I tried to search but couldn't come up with anything that seemed like the weird situation I've got going on. It started with the factory radio (97 1500) and it would get dimmer/softer over a couple days until it would just sit there with one of the lights on (Can't remember which one) but unresponsive. Pulling the fuse out and putting it back in seemed to reset it instantly. Over time it happened on a shorter cycle until the radio was only staying on for a couple minutes before going to it's weird "Deep Sleep" thing. I figured it was the head unit so I bought a new one and put it in. It's worked great for about a year and a half and now it's starting the same exact behavior. I thought maybe my power line was bad so I cut it and wired a new one to the distro box (With an inline fuse) and still doing the same thing. All the other electronics are acting fine and AutoZone tells me my alternator is working fine...thoughts?

 

Just a shot in the dark - may be a ground gremlin, but it usually works or doesn't work. The drifting off into a deep sleep, and then starting again a year later with a different radio makes no sense.....

Measure voltage at the radio. Make sure it is constant and not weak.

 

i'd go with gd's ground call. find/clean the radio ground. maybe leave radio wiring sort of exposed for a couple of days. when it goes to sleep, probe the hot and ground to see if you can notice anything wrong.

there's a number of grounds on these trucks. behind (or above?) drivers side kick panel. firewall. other?

 

I've been probing the circuits but hadn't thought about leaving them exposed to check during the problem. I'll give that a shot and double check the ground connections too. I'll report back if I come up with anything. Thanks!

 

So...

It was the ground. I checked all the ground points I knew of and they all seemed fine. So I thought, heck I'll just run a hard ground for the radio so I know that it's good. I looked and looked and couldn't figure out which wire was the ground wire and even weirder on my aftermarket harness it seemed like the ground wire didn't go anywhere to the car interface side. So I switched back to the stock radio and evidently it grounds through the antenna (Via the radio chassis)...who knew (not me).

I ended up putting a wire under one of the chassis screws on the radio and grounded that directly to the frame. Works like a champ now. Thanks again!