Car Stereos: No sound from factory stereo in Chevy Lumina, chevy lumina, stock radio

Question
I bought a used 2000 Chevy Lumina recently and found out that the factory stereo/cd player doesn't put out any sound.  The Stereo comes on, I can change radio stations and when a CD is inserted I can see on the display that it's playing, but not a single sound comes from the speakers.  No crackles, pops, hisses, nothing.  I pulled the unit out and checked the connector in the back and everything seems to be OK back there.  I'm really stumped.  If it's a short, how would I find it?  The cable from the unit seems to go deep into the dash and it's very hard to get into there.

Thanks for your help.

Answer
Josh,  I would guess that your stock radio has a short inside it.  OEM stereos are usually built cheaply, and sometimes they just vibrate loose over time.  I would have the radio checked out, to see if it is putting out any power.  Just take it to an electronics repair shop and see if they can test it.  Or you can take it to a stereo installation shop, but they would probably need a donor wiring harness to plug into the radio to hook itup on their bench.  That would be my first guess.  The problem is that a short in a speaker wire could be causing the short inside the radio, so be sure and ask the repairman if he thinks the short was caused by an external short somewhere.  They should know.  If they say it was caused by an external short, the stereo shop should have a short tester that they can use on each wire, and it will tell them if there is a short and how far down the wire it is. Hope this helps, Scott