Radio plays sometimes, won't others. is getting power, fm stereo indicator lights up when tuned in to a station, but no sound from the speakers, not even static

Due to the age of the North America/Canada model, I would check the power supply for stability.

FM radio settings
Note: You can only see the FM radio settings when you have selected ‘FM’ as the radio source.
FM stereo option
You can choose between stereo or mono reception when listening to FM radio. Mono may improve
clarity where stereo signals are weak.
To change between Stereo or Mono reception:
1. Press the Menu button.
2. Turn and press the Select dial to choose ‘Audio Setting’.
3. Select between ‘Stereo Allowed’ or ‘Forced Mono’.
FM scan
You can choose whether your Elan E3 automatically stops at the next available FM station or the next
available FM station with a strong signal when scanning for an FM station. To change the FM scan
setting:
1. Press the Menu button.
2. Turn and press the Select dial to choose ‘Scan Setting’.
3. Select between ‘Strong Stations Only’ or ‘All Stations’.

DAB settings
Note: You can only see the DAB settings when you have selected ‘DAB’ as the radio source.
Full scan
You can use the ‘Full Scan’ (autotune) function to automatically scan for new digital radio stations and
remove inactive ones.
To carry out an autotune:
1. Press the Menu button.
2. Turn and press the Select dial to choose ‘Full Scan’.The number of stations found will be
displayed during the autotune.
When the autotune has finished, your Elan E3 will tune to the last station that you were listening to. If the
last station you were listening to is no longer available, your Elan E3 will tune into the first station in the
alphabetical list.
Manual tuning
To manually check the signal strength of a known channel:
1. Press the Menu button.
2. Turn and press the Select dial to choose ‘Manual tune’.
3. Turn and press the Select dial to choose the channels.

Tuning to radio stations

1. 1 Select TUNER source. ? TUNER is displayed briefly.
2. 2 Press BAND once or more to select your
   waveband.

1. 3 Press down on TUNING a? or a? and release button.
   ? The radio automatically tunes to a station with sufficient reception. Display indication during automatic tuning: SEARCH.? If a FM station is received in stereo, STEREO is shown.
2. 4 Repeat step 3 if necessary until you find the desired station.

To tune to a weak station, press TUNING briefly and repeatedly until you have found optimal reception.


Programming radio stations
You can store up to a total of 40 radio stations in the memory.
Automatic programming
Automatic programming will start with a chosen preset number. From this preset number upwards, former programmed radio stations will be overridden.The system will only programme stations which are not in the memory already.
Press PRESET 3 or 4 (on the remote control ¡ or TM ) to select the preset number where programming should start.
Note:
- If no preset number is selected, default is preset (1) and all your presets will be overridden.
Press PROGRAM for more than 2 seconds to activate programming.? AUTO is displayed and available stations are programmed in order of waveband reception strength: FM followed by MW and LW.The last preset automatically stored will then be played.
Manual programming
Tune to your desired station (see "Tuning to radio stations").
Press PROGRAM to activate programming. ? PROGRAM flashes in the display.
Press PRESET 3 or 4 (on the remote control ¡ or TM ) to allocate a number from 1 to 40 to this station.
Press PROGRAM again to confirm the setting. ? PROGRAM disappears, the preset number and the frequency of the preset station are shown.
Repeat the above four steps to store other stations.

Pull up the menu screen and scroll through until you come to FM transmitter. Select FM transmitter and scroll through to select a radio station(88.1, 89.1, etc). Select the station. Now, tune your vehicle stereo to said station. Enjoy.

Hello
Press RADIO BAND.AUTO PRESET until the band you want appears in the display (direct power on). Each time you press this button, the indication changes as "FM" --> "AM". Hold down TUNE + or --, until the frequency digit begins to change in the display. The player automatically scans the radio frequencies and stops when it finds a clear station. If you can't tuned in a station, press the button repeatedly to change the frequency step by step. If FM broadcast is noisy, press "MODE" until "Mono" appears on the display and the radio will play in monatural without any noise. Only strong FM signals can be decoded to stereo. OK.

Not very specific. Do you have the manual?

The following is from a VSX-03TXH manual. It ain't pretty but it may help.

I'm posting it in multiple parts due to space contraints.

37

Chapter 6:

Using the tuner

Listening to the radio

The following steps show you how to tune in to FM and

AM radio broadcasts using the automatic (search) and

manual (step) tuning functions. If you already know the

frequency of the station you want, see Tuning directly to a

station below. Once you are tuned to a station you can

memorize the frequency for recall later-see Saving

station presets below for more on how to do this.

1 Press the FM/AM button to select the tuner.

2 Use the FM/AM button to change the band (FM or

AM), if necessary.

Each press switches the band between FM and AM.

3 Tune to a station.

There are three ways to do this:

Automatic tuning

To search for stations in the currently selected band,

press and hold TUNE ?©/?? for about a second. The

receiver will start searching for the next station,

stopping when it has found one. Repeat to search for

other stations.

Manual tuning

To change the frequency one step at a time, press

TUNE ?©/??.

High speed tuning

Press and hold TUNE ?©/?? for high speed tuning.

Release the button at the frequency you want.

Improving FM stereo sound

If the TUNED or STEREO indicators don't light when

tuning to an FM station because the signal is weak, press

the MPX button to switch the receiver into mono

reception mode. This should improve the sound quality

and allow you to enjoy the broadcast.

Using Neural THX

This feature uses Neural Surround™, THX® technology to

achieve optimal surround sound from FM radio.

• While listening to FM radio, press AUTO/DIRECT for
Neural THX listening.

instead of pressing the left/right scanning buttons hold them and then let go when you want to stop

If its not a micro-p glitch, sounds like the radio was subject to a spike or surge wile plugged into the AC adapter. If the "power" light stays on all the time, thats what happened. Believe me, I was Sangean America's tech from 1990-1995.
Rob
The fix is to replace a transistor, or fet in the main pwr supply. (Close to where the adaptor plugs in.)
I wish I could give more details, but its been 14 long, long years.

Here is how to manually tune your radio.
1 Press the SOURCE button until a radio
frequency appears in the display.
2 Press the BAND button repeatedly until the
desired radio band is displayed.
Each press changes the band:
→ F1(FM1) → F2(FM2) → AM
3 Press the TUNE button repeatedly until "DX
SEEK" and "SEEK" disappear from the display.
NOTE
The initial mode is DX SEEK.
4 Press the g DN or f UP button to move
downward or upward one step respectively until
the desired station frequency is displayed.
NOTE
The ST indicator or STEREO indicator appears on the
display when a Stereo FM station is tuned in


You can also look at your manual here for any other ? you might have
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/Manuals/500/500CDM7874.PDF

FM stereo will need a good aerial to work properly, but AM doesn't. If you have not got a good aerial, stereo will stay off. Though you might still here the station. It needs a lot of signal to make the stereo light activate. If was to come on in the weak state the sound would be full of interference. So the set keeps it switched off.