# Quick Help Please! Alpine Amp shutting off...



## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

I have an Alpine MRV-F545 that is bi-amping my Alpine SPX Pros, and I turned it on for the first time, and it played for a minute or so, then shut off, and the display screen is flashing on and off with the error code "CUR." I looked it up in the owner's manual, and it says the error is "amp shutting off due to excess current. Please find the source of the excess current and fix." I am not an electrical genius, but I know there is a difference between current and voltage. Right before it shuts off, the voltage goes from 12.6 to 11.xx then shuts off. The sub amp, however, stays on and hovers around 12.3V. This is with the truck running or not. It was at a pretty low volume, so I don't know if the amp still draws full load at low volume or not. The way it is wired (for now) is:

1/0 12" from battery to 200A circuit breaker
1/0 ~12' from circuit breaker to un-fused distribution block
4ga ~6" from distribution block to MRV-F545
4ga ~16" from distribution block to MRD-M1005
4ga ground ~12" from sanded chassis to each amp
Big 3 NOT DONE yet
Stock 2003 Chevy S10 Alt/Battery; 200A DB Electrical Alt coming Thurs, along with Kinetik 1400

The circuit breaker was not thrown, as the sub amp stayed on the whole time. Any idea what my problem could be besides the battery/alternator? I mean A/C was off, truck was parked and I was holding the RPMs at about 2k, and it shut off. Does my dist block need to be individually fused? Does the power wire from the dist block to the F545 need to be a little longer for some reason? ANY input is appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Mike


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## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

check on the amp to see if any loose strands on the wires are touching the other wires (example - strand of copper from power wire is touching the ground.) Also double check your gain. is the amps ground properly grounded and secured?


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Yeah, everything is bolted down and secure. I can check the strand suggestion... although I think the wires went in pretty clean. Other than that, is there anything else it could be? I've done about 10 different personal installs with this amp combo (models), including 3 with these exact amps, and this is the first issue I've ever had. Weird... I'm sure it's either a lack of power, or a simple wiring mistake, but what gets me is that one amp works while the other one doesn't...


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Any of the speakers blown? Mine did that when it was driving a blown sub.


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Nope... brand new SPX-17PROs right out of the box, and the SWX-1043D is running off the other amp that stays on. They played for about a minute too, so I know they are fine... I guess I will double check a few more things. Any other suggestions would be appreciated!

Mike


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

I guess I'm retarded. Been doing my own installs for 10 years now and I still make mistakes!  I found two issues:

1) The ground wire for the F545 had come a little loose where it was screwed to the chassis.
2) I forgot to remove the link bars to make my SPX PRO xovers 'bi-amp'... so I had it wired for bi-amp, but the xover was trying to drive all the power from the two inputs into 4 speakers. I'm lucky everything is still okay...   

These xovers are incredible though... Not sure if anyone has checked them out, but in addition to standard stuff like flexible tweeter attenuation, and the little bulb that absorbs power in the event that the tweeter sees excess, and being bi-amp capable, they come with all these little connectors that you can plug in based on the location of your speakers, and you can make them different for each side. I think there are 7 options... all a mixture of On/Off Axis, Polarity, and location of tweeter in relation to mid. Pretty sweet! Just gotta get it tuned now, but so far everything sounds great, and my amps are both steadily reading 13.9-14.0V!


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## rsvchad (May 28, 2007)

Glad you found the source of the problem. Why did you keep the passives installed when you have seperate amp channels to run mids and highs? Utilizing bi-amping has some advantages in level control etc, but you still have something to gain by not running through the power absorbing components within the passive networks.


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

good looking out. i had that issue once b/c of loose connections on a cap i had (don't ask, long time ago).

anyways, go figure, the CUR error is the only one not covered in the alpine manual.


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

rsvchad said:


> Glad you found the source of the problem. Why did you keep the passives installed when you have seperate amp channels to run mids and highs? Utilizing bi-amping has some advantages in level control etc, but you still have something to gain by not running through the power absorbing components within the passive networks.


well I bought the entire component set, so I figured I'd use them and see how they sounded. So far I am super happy. Also, I bought this amp for a previous install before I ditched rear fill, so I didn't necessarily plan this amp for this particular install... just had it already  Either way, I may try passive for a week or two, then try active and see which I like better. Still trying to get the imaging right on my tweeters, but I think with the gains a bit higher, I've settled in on the stock 4x6 dash locations, slightly angled toward the windshield rather than straight up. It's a toss up between that and about 6" above the mid on the door panel... decisions, decisions...


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Cur = high current [ lower resistance ] 4 speakers in parallel .


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

the voltage goes from 12.6 to 11.xx then shuts off. 

as voltage drops , current rises [ excess current ].

If your amp is stable into 1 ohm or a 1/2 ohm , etc.., generally not a problem.


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Hic said:


> the voltage goes from 12.6 to 11.xx then shuts off.
> 
> as voltage drops , current rises [ excess current ].
> 
> If your amp is stable into 1 ohm or a 1/2 ohm , etc.., generally not a problem.



Kinda what I figured was happening, just needed to figure out WHERE...  Glad I checked the ground though, because it had come a bit loose.


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## AR0USD (May 31, 2008)

Im a bit of a novice with audio compared to most on here... Im having the same problem with my Alpine MRV-F345 amp (using 8 gauge power wire), it is wired to a pair of soundstream RF60c components (180w rms) it turns on and runs for a very short period before briefly flashing the 'CUR' (too high current) error and shutting off. Sometimes it seems to shut off faster if I turn the volume up. I replaced the 8 gauge ground wire with a 25mm2 wire and made sure it was getting a good ground, this seemed to fix the problem. Started the car and it still went fine. Turned the car off and went inside, 15 minutes later went for a drive, turned stereo on and amp went back to cutting out again. While it was on it showed 13.9V.

I have tried disconnecting both speakers and turning volume right up, amp operated ok. Connected one speaker and when I turned it up it cut off again. All equalizers are off, have tried varying levels of gain on the amp between 0.2V-1V but makes no difference. Could the speakers/crossovers have a fault that would cause this? When they run they sound great though... Any help much appreciated, cheers


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## 96dak (Jan 28, 2008)

AR0USD said:


> Im a bit of a novice with audio compared to most on here... Im having the same problem with my Alpine MRV-F345 amp (using 8 gauge power wire), it is wired to a pair of soundstream RF60c components (180w rms) it turns on and runs for a very short period before briefly flashing the 'CUR' (too high current) error and shutting off. Sometimes it seems to shut off faster if I turn the volume up. I replaced the 8 gauge ground wire with a 25mm2 wire and made sure it was getting a good ground, this seemed to fix the problem. Started the car and it still went fine. Turned the car off and went inside, 15 minutes later went for a drive, turned stereo on and amp went back to cutting out again. While it was on it showed 13.9V.
> 
> I have tried disconnecting both speakers and turning volume right up, amp operated ok. Connected one speaker and when I turned it up it cut off again. All equalizers are off, have tried varying levels of gain on the amp between 0.2V-1V but makes no difference. Could the speakers/crossovers have a fault that would cause this? When they run they sound great though... Any help much appreciated, cheers


first thing to come to mind is bad ground. disconnecting the amp and cranking it does nothing as there is no load on it. if the ground is not 100% then the amp will pull more current to make up for it. double check that you grounded the ground wire to a clean peice of *bare* metal securely


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## AR0USD (May 31, 2008)

Solved  Turns out when I put the rear seat in it pushes the parcel tray back a bit and the speakers were shorting out on the chassis...


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