I have a 1999 Chevy Venture that I kinda inherited from a friend who had a heart attack and stroke and doesnt want to drive any more. he just put a transmission in it and it runs perfect, and fairly clean for being an illinois car. the only issue is no matter how many times i set the clock on the radio, or radio presets.... every time i shut off the van the clock resets to 12:00 and radio memory is gone. wondering if it is a fuse somewhere or if the radio forgot how to hold memory?

 

Welcome from Florida. There are 2 power lines going to the radio. One has power all the time to keep the memory. The other is switched on/off with the key. You probably have a blown fuse. Check them all.

 

It does sound like the "Keep alive power" wire to the radio is in the wrong place .Since we don't know the full history , this could have been like this for a long time.

 

there was one blown fuse, beut that didn't solve it. sometimes the radio looks for a tape when there is no cassette in the unit. thinking the radio has issue

 

Can you access the rear of the radio? If you get to the wiring, you should see a yellow wire which is switched - giving power to turn on the radio when the key is turned. And an orange wire which is live all the time, providing power to keep the memory. A multi-meter will let you check if this wire is live.

Don't mix up with the rear left speaker wire which should also be yellow...