hlp with 91 dodge spirit head unit installation

Hey what's up new to the forum.......joined because i need a little help with a problem.......anyways my buddy's got a 91 dodge spirit and he was havin some trouble installin his new deck....he went and bought the adapter that surprise.....didn't even come close to fitting....so he came over to see if i could help.....because he was at the point that he just wanted to put the origanal tape deck back in just to have a radio to hold him over untill he could get the money to have it installed......the radio has 2 spots for the multi wire plug in ( can't think of the name for it the thing with all the wires grouped together that goes into the back of the radio.....you know what i mean) anyways there are 2 spots and 2 of the adapters to plug in.....also there is a silver band and another wire that screw into the back of the radio...(i've never seen that little silver strip that has to be screwed in before)......anyways once it's all hokked up......no radio.......i know it's getting power to it, all the backlight display lights work......but the radio won't turn on, checked the fuses there good......although i noticed when i was testing to see if the multi wire adapter was getting power, it was getting power but it was touchy with it's connection...so i thought maybe it has something to do with the ground but the buttons wouldn't light up if the ground was bad would they???..any ideas would be a great help......or just some tips on things to try.....i'm not a professional by any means, but i've always installed all my systems by myself........thanx for the help in advance
later