# What's wrong with my Kicker ZX700.5



## elmatth1

I'm new here, so i'll start by saying that i've been out of the car audio scene for a while now. A few years ago I bought a Kicker ZX700.5 for my boat and it ran great for the first year it was hooked up. It was mounted under the front dash and the boat always had a cover on it when not in use, so no water would have gotten to the amp. Anyway, after the first winter, I went back to the boat to fire up the sound system and the amp would not work. No power lights on the amp, no sound, nothing. I pulled the cover off to see if I could see anything apparently wrong with the guts, but i'm not a tech, so i can't tell just by looking what's wrong. Here's some pictures of the insides of the amp. Take a look and see if any of you can tell what i'm missing.

Left side of amp:







[/IMG]

Right side of amp:









Another right side shot with top board removed:









Thanks for looking. I really was just hoping to get the amp fixed and sell it, because it won't work for the install that i'm going to be putting in my truck soon. So I don't want to spend a bunch of money on it. 

Eric


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## tinctorus

This may sound silly but did you check to see if it was actually getting power?


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## elmatth1

Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned that. My boat had two batteries in it, so I checked both. Both were fine. I checked the fuses, and even swapped them out with new ones. Still nothing.


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## RongGe

-voltmeter set for DC
with the amplifier wired up, did you take a voltmeter and measure voltage on Vbsupply & gnd? Remote turn on (REM) & gnd? After doing this initial test.

do verify the voltmeter by putting both probes of voltmeter to gnd, it should read zero after wards.

Since you have it opened and it passes the supply power test
if it still doesn't turn-on,

the switch that actually turn on the amplifier can be broken if no other parts is getting power.
you can check if the LED are busted. - which can be cause of why no lights on

If your amp is fried, you will probably see toasted components & funny smell.


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## elmatth1

I did check the power and ground at the amp, but I didn't check the remote turn on. I'll have to check that now. I don't see any obvious signs that anything is burned on the board or anyplace else, and I didn't smell any burnt odors inside. 

Would I be able to tell just by looking if the switch that turns on the amp is no good? I don't think it's the LED because i wasn't getting any power from the amp when it was hooked up.

I'll grab my volt meter and re-check the power, ground, and rem turn on.


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## ellocojorge

fuses? as dumb as it seems, but sometimes the fuses( inline fuse) looks intact


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## RongGe

i understand LED is not likely to burn out, but can't rule out the possibilities.

check the REM then check back with us. BTW if you are not getting a REM signal, then you will know its the H/U .. or whatever that wire came from.
-- if this is the case and you still want to see if the amp is working you can just run a jumper from +12v battery to REM, that should switch on the amp.

If its neither the above cases, then you would have to check the amplifier by "stages" and find out where the signal terminates and locate which part is faulty.


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## ellocojorge

ellocojorge said:


> fuses? as dumb as it seems, but sometimes the fuses( inline fuse) looks intact


shoot sorry, didnt see someone ad asked this already


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## RongGe

ellocojorge said:


> fuses? as dumb as it seems, but sometimes the fuses( inline fuse) looks intact


he already stated he was able to measure voltage on the amplifier power terminals.


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## elmatth1

alright guys, it seems that the rem turn on from the HU was the problem... the head unit that i was using in the boat (which the boat is now sold, and everything was being stored in my garage) now does not turn on. I did hook up a battery to the power, ground, and rem turn on at the amp and i'm getting power to the amp, including the rem turn on, and now the LED power light is on. Must have been the head unit.

Is there a way to check to see if the amplifier is putting out power to the speakers without a head unit to hook it up to? I don't have an extra HU lying around to verify the amp is working.


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## elmatth1

I pulled out the head unit from my truck and hooked the RCA's from that head unit and a speaker up to the Kicker amp today. I'm not getting any sound from the amp at all. The power light is still on, but no sound from the speakers. Any thoughts on what to check next?


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## freemind

All those SMD's!!!


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## elmatth1

SMD? Sorry, i don't follow you.


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## RongGe

elmatth1 said:


> I pulled out the head unit from my truck and hooked the RCA's from that head unit and a speaker up to the Kicker amp today. I'm not getting any sound from the amp at all. The power light is still on, but no sound from the speakers. Any thoughts on what to check next?


If the amp is not in protect mode...

first try testing out the RCA signal from H/U.
with everything off unplug the RCA. Set the Voltmeter to VAC, then turn on H/U and play a test tone or anything. Test the RCA at the male terminal right before the AMP. So if RCA cables are good then you should get something.

If RCA is good, next we can test the Amp. With everythign off again plug the RCA back to the amp. set your filters to Full Pass, All pass. Turn everything on and run a signal again. Now measure the VAC on the speaker terminal of amp. is there any VAC reading here? **(set range of VAC to 100-200) Since you have a 5 channel, test all the channels.

turn the gain up from 0 to 1/4. does the voltage on the speaker terminal change?


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## freemind

elmatth1 said:


> SMD? Sorry, i don't follow you.


Surface Mounted Devices. My I learned about them with my Xtant.


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## elmatth1

I'll have to check the RCA's in a few days, i've been working long hours lately and haven't had any time to look at it. Thanks for the fast replies. I'll post back in here with the results of the check on the RCA's.


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