K-200d reading battery dead after a few shots.

bobore · 12-06-2020, 03:18 AM - **1 Like**

Update: The last couple of days, I've run the K-200d through a series of test shots, both with & without flash. All functions have operated properly, and the battery icon has consistently shown a full charge.

It therefore appears that the camera's normal functions have been revived by the steps noted above. Hopefully this information will prove helpful to someone else down the road!

Jonathan Mac · 12-07-2020, 09:03 AM

For the weekend I've been charging a set of Eneloops, leaving them in the camera for a few hours and then charging them again and putting them back in the camera, in the hope that the capacitor will charge up again and allow it to work. So far no luck. It will allow a few shots with fresh batteries, and shows them as full, but then refuses to switch on again, blinking the battery icon on the display.

bobore · 12-08-2020, 12:18 AM

Originally posted by Jonathan Mac

For the weekend I've been charging a set of Eneloops, leaving them in the camera for a few hours and then charging them again and putting them back in the camera, in the hope that the capacitor will charge up again and allow it to work. So far no luck. It will allow a few shots with fresh batteries, and shows them as full, but then refuses to switch on again, blinking the battery icon on the display.

Jonathan, I started with a fully charged set of Eneloops as well, and had the camera’s meter shut-off set to one minute. Every time the meter display in the top LCD shut off, I immediately switched the camera off & back on (even if only the dead battery icon was being displayed), and did this over & over again - probably fifty times or more, with no stopping to recharge the batteries. Eventually during this process, the battery icon started reading half full, and then full the majority of the time, but the readings still did shift around a bit. At that point I fired off a few test shots & it held well, so I then switched the batteries out for a brand new set of Energizer Lithiums & continued to fire off many more shots, including with flash. The camera had now returned to normal functioning & consistently gave a fully-charged battery reading. If I were to do it again, I’d probably just start with the Lithiums rather than the Eneloops, as I believe they’re more reliable in their output.

Edit: Of course this is all armchair guesswork, but I'm thinking the key point of the process is to hit the capacitor over & over again (in one minute intervals) with a fresh jolt of power - in essence, to shock it out of it’s dormant condition.

Edit #2: This probably didn't really make a difference, but I'll mention it just in case: In the menu settings, there's an option to direct the camera to prioritize batteries either in the body or grip, or to auto-select (default). I set the camera to prioritize the batteries in the body (in order to perhaps help facilitate the camera more directly linking with the batteries).

Hoping this will help & your camera begins working properly again..... Bob

Jonathan Mac · 12-08-2020, 04:48 AM

Originally posted by bobore

Jonathan, I started with a fully charged set of Eneloops as well, and had the camera’s meter shut-off set to one minute. Every time the meter display in the top LCD shut off, I immediately switched the camera off & back on (even if only the dead battery icon was being displayed), and did this over & over again - probably fifty times or more, with no stopping to recharge the batteries. Eventually during this process, the battery icon started reading half full, and then full the majority of the time, but the readings still did shift around a bit. At that point I fired off a few test shots & it held well, so I then switched the batteries out for a brand new set of Energizer Lithiums & continued to fire off many more shots, including with flash. The camera had now returned to normal functioning & consistently gave a fully-charged battery reading. If I were to do it again, I’d probably just start with the Lithiums rather than the Eneloops, as I believe they’re more reliable in their output.

Edit: Of course this is all armchair guesswork, but I'm thinking the key point of the process is to hit the capacitor over & over again (in one minute intervals) with a fresh jolt of power - in essence, to shock it out of it’s dormant condition.

Edit #2: This probably didn't really make a difference, but I'll mention it just in case: In the menu settings, there's an option to direct the camera to prioritize batteries either in the body or grip, or to auto-select (default). I set the camera to prioritize the batteries in the body (in order to perhaps help facilitate the camera more directly linking with the batteries).

Hoping this will help & your camera begins working properly again..... Bob

I'll give that a go. Perhaps the camera needs to be on to draw power even for that capacitor.

**photogem** · 12-08-2020, 11:40 AM

Originally posted by Jonathan Mac

I'll give that a go. Perhaps the camera needs to be on to draw power even for that capacitor.

As said before, it is not a capacitor but a Lithium battery!

One has to be very precise with this particular within a forum as this one because all the sudden people believe nonsense like this one:
K-30 internal battery / capacitor replacement for clock - PentaxForums.com

I have opened many many K30/K50/K500 and others.

I have disassembled quite a few K100D/K200D/*ist etc.

NONE EVER had a supercap.
And I don't believe for a minute that Pentax changed the circuit for a few bodies because this would mean a complete different mainboard!

I made the stupid mistake once to order this recommended wrong part:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/DCK-3R3E204T614-E/604-1078-ND/1658299
because I thought this guy knows what he is talking about.

Well, after installing this "super-cap"
I had exactly the very problem written about in this thread:
Super-quickly the battery was drained!

So if anybody replaces the MS414 Lithium battery with a ELNA supercap, you will achieve THIS

bobore · 12-08-2020, 01:16 PM

Photogem - Thanks for clarifying again. Please take everything I mentioned & apply it to reviving the date/clock’s lithium battery. I won’t pretend to be an electronics wizard, but can only share what occurred with my camera & what has brought it back from the dead. The reason my focus has been on the date/clock power source is because of what was shared earlier in this thread, and then I noticed that the date/clock on my camera had gone dead, reverting to it’s initial setting - even though the Eneloops were still good & all other settings had been maintained. As I started my interval charging process, part way into it, the camera began prompting me to set the date & time - this seemed to indicate that power was returning to the date/clock power source. I ignored the prompt for a while (hitting “menu” to shut it off) & kept the interval charging going until the camera was more consistently showing the batteries as fully charged - Then I set the date & time, but still kept the interval charging going for a while longer. At that point I ran my first few test shots, and then switched from Eneloops to Energizer Lithiums.

Now of course I could be off base about all of this. Perhaps none of it is related to the date/clock power source - but from what has occurred first-hand with this particular camera, that’s my best guess. The good news is that the only experimentation costs involved are some personal time & perhaps a new set of Energizer Lithiums.

Jonathan Mac · 12-10-2020, 05:15 AM

Originally posted by photogem

As said before, it is not a capacitor but a Lithium battery!

One has to be very precise with this particular within a forum as this one because all the sudden people believe nonsense like this one:
K-30 internal battery / capacitor replacement for clock - PentaxForums.com

I have opened many many K30/K50/K500 and others.

I have disassembled quite a few K100D/K200D/*ist etc.

NONE EVER had a supercap.
And I don't believe for a minute that Pentax changed the circuit for a few bodies because this would mean a complete different mainboard!

I made the stupid mistake once to order this recommended wrong part:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/DCK-3R3E204T614-E/604-1078-ND/1658299
because I thought this guy knows what he is talking about.

Well, after installing this "super-cap"
I had exactly the very problem written about in this thread:
Super-quickly the battery was drained!

So if anybody replaces the MS414 Lithium battery with a ELNA supercap, you will achieve THIS

Well I must have mis-read something as I thought it was a super-capacitor. Regardless, trying to charge up whatever is holding that charge seems to be the problem according to the posts.

stevejo · 12-11-2020, 10:33 AM

Interesting. I have just got an AC power supply for my KP which also fits the K10d. Mine has been locked up for a couple of months (hence the purchase of a KP), showing a flashing battery symbol even with a brand new charged battery. When it died it did so mid shot leaving the mirror up.
When I plugged in the power supply the mirror returned to its normal position. Nothing else though. Will still not power up. Have left the external power connected for now.

I hope it comes back to life thought it has now lost its position of my favourite camera now.

Belcik · 12-11-2020, 11:27 AM

I think I have to grab my all K200d and check how it feels.

stevejo · 12-11-2020, 01:24 PM

no pulse from my K10d unfortunately.

**yucatanPentax** · 12-14-2020, 02:13 PM

Originally posted by photogem

As said before, it is not a capacitor but a Lithium battery!

One has to be very precise with this particular within a forum as this one because all the sudden people believe nonsense like this one:
K-30 internal battery / capacitor replacement for clock - PentaxForums.com

I have opened many many K30/K50/K500 and others.

I have disassembled quite a few K100D/K200D/*ist etc.

NONE EVER had a supercap.
And I don't believe for a minute that Pentax changed the circuit for a few bodies because this would mean a complete different mainboard!

I made the stupid mistake once to order this recommended wrong part:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/DCK-3R3E204T614-E/604-1078-ND/1658299
because I thought this guy knows what he is talking about.

Well, after installing this "super-cap"
I had exactly the very problem written about in this thread:
Super-quickly the battery was drained!

So if anybody replaces the MS414 Lithium battery with a ELNA supercap, you will achieve THIS

I'm a bit puzzled: is there a battery which can be replaced, restoring functionality if all else fails? What's "the perfect" repair, in this case?
Thanks!

bobore · 12-14-2020, 02:47 PM - **1 Like**

Photogem provided links that show the battery being replaced. One would think that this would be the ideal solution.

As for my K-200d experiment, I’ve been checking the camera every other day & running some test shots, both with & without flash. It continues to show a full-charge reading without dropping off (with Energizer Lithiums). This seems to indicate that the battery was brought back to life via the repetitive interval charging, but perhaps some of these batteries are too far gone to be revived.

Again, I say all of this without honesty knowing whether or not these batteries are theoretically even revivable, and I don’t want to steer anyone down an invalid path. This simply is what appears to have happened with my K-200d coming back to it’s fully functional status - after being a hair’s breath away from relegating it to the parts drawer!

**yucatanPentax** · 12-14-2020, 03:41 PM

Originally posted by bobore

Photogem provided links that show the battery being replaced. One would think that this would be the ideal solution.

I'm glad your camera is revived. And I do appreciate the links. However without exploring what various people have to say and follow yet more links, I just thought it could be stated, "There's a battery (I now see that appears to be the solution). The battery is an MS612T. Here's an earlier discussion."

I'm not trying to say how anyone else needs to post, just offering up some thoughts.

So... long story short, I suppose anyone who doesn't want to open up their camera could check with any local camera shop about replacing the battery (and hope that's the only problem, not circuit problems)?

$200 at Precision with all their issues seems sorta high for an under $10 battery, but my fear of burning up the board with a soldering iron (I'm better at plumbing than electronics) would likely lead me to a hopefully competent repair source.

12-08-2020, 12:18 AM	#18
bobore Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: North Oregon Coast Posts: 162 Original Poster	Originally posted by Jonathan Mac For the weekend I've been charging a set of Eneloops, leaving them in the camera for a few hours and then charging them again and putting them back in the camera, in the hope that the capacitor will charge up again and allow it to work. So far no luck. It will allow a few shots with fresh batteries, and shows them as full, but then refuses to switch on again, blinking the battery icon on the display. Jonathan, I started with a fully charged set of Eneloops as well, and had the camera’s meter shut-off set to one minute. Every time the meter display in the top LCD shut off, I immediately switched the camera off & back on (even if only the dead battery icon was being displayed), and did this over & over again - probably fifty times or more, with no stopping to recharge the batteries. Eventually during this process, the battery icon started reading half full, and then full the majority of the time, but the readings still did shift around a bit. At that point I fired off a few test shots & it held well, so I then switched the batteries out for a brand new set of Energizer Lithiums & continued to fire off many more shots, including with flash. The camera had now returned to normal functioning & consistently gave a fully-charged battery reading. If I were to do it again, I’d probably just start with the Lithiums rather than the Eneloops, as I believe they’re more reliable in their output. Edit: Of course this is all armchair guesswork, but I'm thinking the key point of the process is to hit the capacitor over & over again (in one minute intervals) with a fresh jolt of power - in essence, to shock it out of it’s dormant condition. Edit #2: This probably didn't really make a difference, but I'll mention it just in case: In the menu settings, there's an option to direct the camera to prioritize batteries either in the body or grip, or to auto-select (default). I set the camera to prioritize the batteries in the body (in order to perhaps help facilitate the camera more directly linking with the batteries). Hoping this will help & your camera begins working properly again..... Bob Last edited by bobore; 12-08-2020 at 03:28 AM.

12-08-2020, 01:16 PM	#21
bobore Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: North Oregon Coast Posts: 162 Original Poster	Photogem - Thanks for clarifying again. Please take everything I mentioned & apply it to reviving the date/clock’s lithium battery. I won’t pretend to be an electronics wizard, but can only share what occurred with my camera & what has brought it back from the dead. The reason my focus has been on the date/clock power source is because of what was shared earlier in this thread, and then I noticed that the date/clock on my camera had gone dead, reverting to it’s initial setting - even though the Eneloops were still good & all other settings had been maintained. As I started my interval charging process, part way into it, the camera began prompting me to set the date & time - this seemed to indicate that power was returning to the date/clock power source. I ignored the prompt for a while (hitting “menu” to shut it off) & kept the interval charging going until the camera was more consistently showing the batteries as fully charged - Then I set the date & time, but still kept the interval charging going for a while longer. At that point I ran my first few test shots, and then switched from Eneloops to Energizer Lithiums. Now of course I could be off base about all of this. Perhaps none of it is related to the date/clock power source - but from what has occurred first-hand with this particular camera, that’s my best guess. The good news is that the only experimentation costs involved are some personal time & perhaps a new set of Energizer Lithiums. Last edited by bobore; 12-08-2020 at 02:41 PM.

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12-06-2020, 03:18 AM - 1 Like	#16
bobore Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: North Oregon Coast Posts: 162 Original Poster	Update: The last couple of days, I've run the K-200d through a series of test shots, both with & without flash. All functions have operated properly, and the battery icon has consistently shown a full charge. It therefore appears that the camera's normal functions have been revived by the steps noted above. Hopefully this information will prove helpful to someone else down the road!

12-07-2020, 09:03 AM	#17
Jonathan Mac Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,911	For the weekend I've been charging a set of Eneloops, leaving them in the camera for a few hours and then charging them again and putting them back in the camera, in the hope that the capacitor will charge up again and allow it to work. So far no luck. It will allow a few shots with fresh batteries, and shows them as full, but then refuses to switch on again, blinking the battery icon on the display.

12-08-2020, 04:48 AM	#19
Jonathan Mac Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,911	Originally posted by bobore Jonathan, I started with a fully charged set of Eneloops as well, and had the camera’s meter shut-off set to one minute. Every time the meter display in the top LCD shut off, I immediately switched the camera off & back on (even if only the dead battery icon was being displayed), and did this over & over again - probably fifty times or more, with no stopping to recharge the batteries. Eventually during this process, the battery icon started reading half full, and then full the majority of the time, but the readings still did shift around a bit. At that point I fired off a few test shots & it held well, so I then switched the batteries out for a brand new set of Energizer Lithiums & continued to fire off many more shots, including with flash. The camera had now returned to normal functioning & consistently gave a fully-charged battery reading. If I were to do it again, I’d probably just start with the Lithiums rather than the Eneloops, as I believe they’re more reliable in their output. Edit: Of course this is all armchair guesswork, but I'm thinking the key point of the process is to hit the capacitor over & over again (in one minute intervals) with a fresh jolt of power - in essence, to shock it out of it’s dormant condition. Edit #2: This probably didn't really make a difference, but I'll mention it just in case: In the menu settings, there's an option to direct the camera to prioritize batteries either in the body or grip, or to auto-select (default). I set the camera to prioritize the batteries in the body (in order to perhaps help facilitate the camera more directly linking with the batteries). Hoping this will help & your camera begins working properly again..... Bob I'll give that a go. Perhaps the camera needs to be on to draw power even for that capacitor.

12-08-2020, 11:40 AM	#20
photogem Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 3,522	Originally posted by Jonathan Mac I'll give that a go. Perhaps the camera needs to be on to draw power even for that capacitor. As said before, it is not a capacitor but a Lithium battery! One has to be very precise with this particular within a forum as this one because all the sudden people believe nonsense like this one: K-30 internal battery / capacitor replacement for clock - PentaxForums.com I have opened many many K30/K50/K500 and others. I have disassembled quite a few K100D/K200D/ist etc. NONE EVER had a supercap. And I don't believe for a minute that Pentax changed the circuit for a few bodies because this would mean a complete different mainboard! I made the stupid mistake once to order this recommended wrong part: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/DCK-3R3E204T614-E/604-1078-ND/1658299 because I thought this guy knows what he is talking about. Well, after installing this "super-cap" I had exactly the very problem written about in this thread: Super-quickly the battery was drained!* So if anybody replaces the MS414 Lithium battery with a ELNA supercap, you will achieve THIS

12-10-2020, 05:15 AM	#22
Jonathan Mac Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,911	Originally posted by photogem As said before, it is not a capacitor but a Lithium battery! One has to be very precise with this particular within a forum as this one because all the sudden people believe nonsense like this one: K-30 internal battery / capacitor replacement for clock - PentaxForums.com I have opened many many K30/K50/K500 and others. I have disassembled quite a few K100D/K200D/ist etc. NONE EVER had a supercap. And I don't believe for a minute that Pentax changed the circuit for a few bodies because this would mean a complete different mainboard! I made the stupid mistake once to order this recommended wrong part: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/DCK-3R3E204T614-E/604-1078-ND/1658299 because I thought this guy knows what he is talking about. Well, after installing this "super-cap" I had exactly the very problem written about in this thread: Super-quickly the battery was drained!* So if anybody replaces the MS414 Lithium battery with a ELNA supercap, you will achieve THIS Well I must have mis-read something as I thought it was a super-capacitor. Regardless, trying to charge up whatever is holding that charge seems to be the problem according to the posts.

12-11-2020, 10:33 AM	#23
stevejo Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2020 Location: Worcestershire, UK Photos: Albums Posts: 527	Interesting. I have just got an AC power supply for my KP which also fits the K10d. Mine has been locked up for a couple of months (hence the purchase of a KP), showing a flashing battery symbol even with a brand new charged battery. When it died it did so mid shot leaving the mirror up. When I plugged in the power supply the mirror returned to its normal position. Nothing else though. Will still not power up. Have left the external power connected for now. I hope it comes back to life thought it has now lost its position of my favourite camera now.

12-11-2020, 11:27 AM	#24
Belcik Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Russia,Moscow Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 377	I think I have to grab my all K200d and check how it feels.

12-11-2020, 01:24 PM	#25
stevejo Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2020 Location: Worcestershire, UK Photos: Albums Posts: 527	no pulse from my K10d unfortunately.

12-14-2020, 02:13 PM	#26
yucatanPentax Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Dallas / Yucatan Posts: 1,841	Originally posted by photogem As said before, it is not a capacitor but a Lithium battery! One has to be very precise with this particular within a forum as this one because all the sudden people believe nonsense like this one: K-30 internal battery / capacitor replacement for clock - PentaxForums.com I have opened many many K30/K50/K500 and others. I have disassembled quite a few K100D/K200D/ist etc. NONE EVER had a supercap. And I don't believe for a minute that Pentax changed the circuit for a few bodies because this would mean a complete different mainboard! I made the stupid mistake once to order this recommended wrong part: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/DCK-3R3E204T614-E/604-1078-ND/1658299 because I thought this guy knows what he is talking about. Well, after installing this "super-cap" I had exactly the very problem written about in this thread: Super-quickly the battery was drained!* So if anybody replaces the MS414 Lithium battery with a ELNA supercap, you will achieve THIS I'm a bit puzzled: is there a battery which can be replaced, restoring functionality if all else fails? What's "the perfect" repair, in this case? Thanks!

12-14-2020, 02:47 PM - 1 Like	#27
bobore Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: North Oregon Coast Posts: 162 Original Poster	Photogem provided links that show the battery being replaced. One would think that this would be the ideal solution. As for my K-200d experiment, I’ve been checking the camera every other day & running some test shots, both with & without flash. It continues to show a full-charge reading without dropping off (with Energizer Lithiums). This seems to indicate that the battery was brought back to life via the repetitive interval charging, but perhaps some of these batteries are too far gone to be revived. Again, I say all of this without honesty knowing whether or not these batteries are theoretically even revivable, and I don’t want to steer anyone down an invalid path. This simply is what appears to have happened with my K-200d coming back to it’s fully functional status - after being a hair’s breath away from relegating it to the parts drawer!

12-14-2020, 03:41 PM	#28
yucatanPentax Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Dallas / Yucatan Posts: 1,841	Originally posted by bobore Photogem provided links that show the battery being replaced. One would think that this would be the ideal solution. I'm glad your camera is revived. And I do appreciate the links. However without exploring what various people have to say and follow yet more links, I just thought it could be stated, "There's a battery (I now see that appears to be the solution). The battery is an MS612T. Here's an earlier discussion." I'm not trying to say how anyone else needs to post, just offering up some thoughts. So... long story short, I suppose anyone who doesn't want to open up their camera could check with any local camera shop about replacing the battery (and hope that's the only problem, not circuit problems)? $200 at Precision with all their issues seems sorta high for an under $10 battery, but my fear of burning up the board with a soldering iron (I'm better at plumbing than electronics) would likely lead me to a hopefully competent repair source.