1997 850 wagon radio problems

The biggest drawback of my 1997 Volvo wagon has always been the
electronics. I bought this car new and I expected all of the
mechanical wear and tear. But form day ones the electronics have been
a horror. First week I got the car the alternator failed.

But getting to my radio. This is the second radio I have had in this
car. It is the Volvo Premium unit. I had to replace the first one
because the second preset button - the one marked 2 ceased to work. I
would have lived with that but that key was used as one of the key
codes to reset my radio. That was about 7 years ago. Now the current
radio for no apparent reason will not work. The Lights that
illuminate the buttons and dials are working but the radio will not
power on. In fact I usually keep the radio on so when I turn on the
car the LED screen will not illuminate and the Power button or the
Pause button will cause the radio to turn on. What eventually
happens is that it will just start one day; usually it will be the next
time I start the car but this last time it did not work until about the
8th time I restarted the car.

Does any have similar experiences? If so can they tell me what is the
cause of this and how can it be fixed outside of getting a new unit,
which cost 442.00 from the dealer. Thanks.

 

For that sort of money, I'd get an after market one fitted from Alpine or
someone similar.