I've got a four string stingray that i bought in 6 or seven years ago, and the other day the active electronics just stopped working. i replaced the battery, but still nothing. barely any volume and the treble/mid/bass knobs don't work at all. i did a quick check of the wiring and it doesn't look like anything is disconnected. but i'm not real knowledable about wiring and pickups or anything, so if anyone knows anything about this any advice would be helpful.

Maybe the other battery you put in was a dud? (just a possibility)

nah, i've tried like six batteries straight out of the box and they work on my pedals and other basses.

There must be something loose but it's really hard to tell without seeing the bass.

Do you have a bad patch cable? A similar thing happened to me and I was suprised to find that it was just a bad cable.

Just to eliminate all possibilities, try the simplest fix first. Cables...

Then have a peek inside the bass and see if there are any loose wires. While you're in there check the input jack to make sure that it's contacting the ring & tip correctly. It's possible that it isn't turning on the preamp.

Again...very hard to tell without looking, but just some options to try out.

When you open it up, look to see if the solder joints that connect the volume and eq pots to the circuit board have cracked. Happened to my SR5...very annoying problem to track.

I had a similar problem about 5 years ago and it turned out that the battery connector and connector wires were dud. I took it to the Bass Centre in London and they whipped out the old one and put a new one in in the space of about 15 minutes!
Problem solved and no hassles since.
The thing with battery connectors is that they are often overlooked as a potential problem in the active circuit.

+1 on the battery compartment.

'Rays are well built instruments, but if they had a weak point, it would be the battery compartment. I've had a situation where if I even touched that area with any part of my body, the signal would go out or make funny squealing noises.

Regardless of whether or not this is the problem, I suggest you call EB customer service. They are friendly people more than willing to help in situations like this. I'm sure the number is on the EB website somewhere, www.ernieball.com.