thanks for all the info fellas, i'll be checking everything tomorrow. all fuses are good, checked em. tomorrow i should have some free time after work, so i'll check everything out. the head unit was poorly wired up back when it stopped working, so im hoping its good, cuz i dont have money to fork out. and im not sure on the model number for it. its a basic alpine w/ the flip down screen, cd player behind it, outlet for the ipod output (older ones didnt have).

and no kidding on the maybe its broken, hahaha. just trying to make sure i wired everything up before i call it broken. we'll see tomorrow