Pelican Parts Forums - Buick/GM radio on the fritz

My MIL has a Buick Lacrosse that she's had for several years bought used.

Today MIL came home from the hair salon and other errands complaining the car radio stopped working and was "beeping." She said she went to put her phone in the plastic holder that fastens to the CD player slot (since she doesn't own a CD that's no issue) and the display flashed "phone" and a beep occurs every ten seconds or so.

I was working from home as was the wife - and later this afternoon my wife tells me the story. Sure enough, I go and the radio is still "on" even though the car is not running and the key is out of the ignition. "phone" shows on the display and a rather annoying beep blasts over the speakers every ten seconds or so. No buttons on the radio work - can't even turn it off. I think - no problem, I'll just pull the radio fuse and reinstall! Get the owner's manual and find the location of the fuse, pull it, wait a few seconds and reinsert. Wife turns ignition on, radio shows "phone" and beep returns. Frustrated, I say I'm pulling the fuse and waiting several hours. Several hours later - same thing - reinsert fuse, turn car ignition on, "phone" and beep still occurs. I pull the fuse again to prevent battery drain.

After dinner, I do web searching without much luck - but do find one post on a 2001 Impala with a "phone on" displayed but make no mention of a beep. It's on that justanswer dot com site and someone states it could be caused by OnStar. The suggest disconnect 2 wiring harnesses that are in the back driver side of the trunk. Well, car is equipped with OnStar but it's never been used. I don't want to work on this all night and try to locate those harnesses as I've got zero faith that is the cause but I get an idea for a simpler fix.

I look and find there is a single fuse for OnStar only. I pull it and reinstall the radio fuse. Turn on car ignition. Radio displays an FM station - I can select other stations! Radio is fixed! I score brownie points with the wife and MIL!

I've no clue why this issue started but the MIL does have issues pushing buttons on the tv remote and pulling up the tv system menu when all she's trying to do is change the channel or the volume. She probably hit 2 or 3 buttons simultaneously on the radio and it went into some strange mode.