Audio Systems: No power going to my Kenwood CD MP3 Player, metra wire harness, mercury sable

Question
Whats going people. I recently purchased a Kenwood MP225 CD/MP3/WMA Player for my 96 Mercury Sable. I also purchased the Metra wire harness and CD installation kit as well. It took me awhile but I got everything installed and everything seemed to work fine. I actually thought that I would need to replace my factory speakers but my new stereo made everything sound 10 times better. That all came to an end about 2 Saturdays ago. I'm driving in my car listening to my new radio, I turn the sound up the sound just a little bit more to enjoy the base of the system. The next thing I notice, the power goes out. I check my wires to see if they were touching, which they weren't. Then I check my CD player. Everything seemed fine. I figured it was the fuse to the CD player. So then I went to hope depot to buy some fuses. I replaced the fuse and nothing happened. I replaced the audio fuse from the fusebox in my car and still no power. I even reinstalled the factory radio and still no power. I removed the wireharness to check to see if there were any split wires and nothing. A friend of mine told me that my power was grounded out. If thats the case, how do I go about fixing this problem. Riding about in complete silence is not fun at all.  

Answer
Hello Chuka,
Most likely something in the power wiring is at fault. Every stereo needs two power sources to function. 1-hot at all times.  2-12volt switched with key on. use either a volt meter or a test lamp to test the two 12 volt sources. On after market stereos you will find 1 yellow, hot at all times and a 1 red lead switched on with the key. Turn on the key and test these two power leads. If the power was grounded out as your friend mentioned you would find a blown fuse/s. Please contact me anytime for Tech Help.

TOM,
T&D ELECTRONICS
tdeser@zoominternet.net