H/K DSP Amp......Part 2!

Evening all, I have been having snags for a while now with H/K audio DSP amp,ie, no sound! a couple weeks back battery went flat, jump started car, wife drove off tried stereo and it worked............lasted 5 minutes!! this weekend had to jump start car again, same scenario, turned on stereo and it worked, and has worked for the past 36 hours with the exception of volume control both on head unit and s/wheel controls.

In the meantime i picked up a second hand BMW E46/2 H/K amp, same fittings etc, seems to be same as Disco 2 amps. Plugged it in and it worked, front speakers only, no sat nav volume, no cd control etc.

I thought i would live with the original P38 amp without being able to turn it up/down, better than nothing. I put it back in, rebuilt all the trim etc and now nothing...................what the hell is going on!! Why does it work after the battery has lost some of its charge, jump start car= stereo works.

From all this at least i can confirm a BMW E46/2 H/K amp has the same fitting as the highline P38 system, and they seem a bit cheaper than the Disco2 amps, but still only give you front speakers etc same as Disco2.

Can anyone shed some light please........................

TBH it sounds as though your amp is screwed (yeah, no sh*t!) - they are more complicated than they appear to be and can go wrong in all kinds of funny ways... for example, with a DSP amp plugged in, the HU doesn't control volume! - it outputs a fixed-level signal and the volume knob on the HU simply commands the DSP amp to raise or lower its gain level. Not many people know that...

I now have a potential solution to replace them with any aftermarket amp, including a parts list and circuit diagrams... but unfortunately, no way to test my 'invention'. At present it would involve cutting into your current harness at the DSP amp plug, since these plugs are proprietory and nobody seems to make them seperately... The parts-only cost is also in the region of £60...