[Zafar Iqbal]

My K-3 II died. Screen doesn't turn on. Pressing Info, Menu or any of the 4-way buttons wont show the respective screens. Pressing play button will show captured photo. Pressing record does nothing. Video switch enables LV, auto focus doesn't work and I can take photos and adjust exposure with the dials.

This is the third K-3 II dying exactly like this. Had the first one repaired. Can't remember how much it cost me. I didn't have the second one repaired and bought this third one instead, purchased as secondhand.

Do you recognize this issue? Is it worth sending it in for repairs or should I just get another secondhand? Secondhand will probably be K-3 because K-3 II are hard to find. I can't remember the name of who repairs Pentax. ts someone located in Sweden if that helps.

I think shutter count was at 30-35k when I got it and obviously, I can't check it now. I'm guestimating it's around 60-70k

Update: camera came back to life - see post #7

---

Last edited by Zafar Iqbal; 05-25-2022 at 05:23 PM.

[Unregistered User 8]

Not good news that you are having problems. The link below is for the recognized Pentax repairers. Good luck.

Pentax Repair Facilities (Wordwide listing) - PentaxForums.com

[mlag]

Before sending repairs , I would check with no or another lens, with (other) freshly charged batteries and with only one & other sd card ( or re-format), just to exclude external causes...one never knows.
And without battery grip, if you have one...

Ricoh states that camera settings are retained if you remove/replace battery within 48 hours after a battery was present for 24 hours. This info can be used in two ways:
- You could attempt to erase all settings by leaving it without power for at least 48 hours (with decent margin, because if manufacturer predicts 48h it is probably more like 3 days...).
- if your camera was stored longtime with low/empty battery, you might try to keep charged battery in it for some hours .. up to 24 h, to beef up the internal memory retaining battery before testing camera.

Above can help for a sw glitch, for instance caused by too low battery, an accesoiry like lens draining too much current, a malfunction on memory card, ....but not for a hw failure.

[Mikesul]

Early K-3iis had a recall for a problem turning off and some other issues Is your serial number listed in the attached link? if it is that may be the issue. Ricoh offers fix for Pentax K3 II power-off problem

[Zafar Iqbal]

Before sending repairs , I would check with no or another lens, with (other) freshly charged batteries and with only one & other sd card ( or re-format), just to exclude external causes...one never knows.
And without battery grip, if you have one...

Ricoh states that camera settings are retained if you remove/replace battery within 48 hours after a battery was present for 24 hours. This info can be used in two ways:
- You could attempt to erase all settings by leaving it without power for at least 48 hours (with decent margin, because if manufacturer predicts 48h it is probably more like 3 days...).
- if your camera was stored longtime with low/empty battery, you might try to keep charged battery in it for some hours .. up to 24 h, to beef up the internal memory retaining battery before testing camera.

Above can help for a sw glitch, for instance caused by too low battery, an accesoiry like lens draining too much current, a malfunction on memory card, ....but not for a hw failure.

Thank you for the suggestions. I feel like I tried different things, but will give it a go again.

I'll also try to leave it without battery, but I'm doubtful it will help. I still have my 2 first K-3 II's. They've been shelved a couple of years and I used one last night for some 800 shots. I didn't notice anything odd, which might be caused my low juice on internal battery.

The other however, suffered from same or very similar looking issues and still won't work. I've now left it with a fully charged and original battery to see if that will do anything, but I'm skeptical.

Early K-3iis had a recall for a problem turning off and some other issues Is your serial number listed in the attached link? if it is that may be the issue. Ricoh offers fix for Pentax K3 II power-off problem

Serial is not within the range. It's 60207833.

The first ones I bought, were bought about 2-4 week apart and are both within the serial range. One suffered after 224k exposures and I see now, it does not turn off. I never noticed this before with any camera, except for a camera freezing. IIRC, K-30 suffered more from that.

The other one is currently at 216k, working and turns off fine, but was previously repaired for same or very similar issue (black screen). I don't remember what shutter count was at that time and it was after 2 years of use.

[photogem]

The first ones I bought, were bought about 2-4 week apart and are both within the serial range. One suffered after 224k exposures and I see now, it does not turn off. I never noticed this before with any camera, except for a camera freezing. IIRC, K-30 suffered more from that.

The other one is currently at 216k, working and turns off fine, but was previously repaired for same or very similar issue (black screen). I don't remember what shutter count was at that time and it was after 2 years of use.

Well, 224k and 216k are a respectable shuttercount and just above the 200k which Ricoh gave as their shutterlife.
So it might well be wear/worn-out.

What you could do is to open them and disconnect and reconnect all the contacts on the mainboard.

Not too difficult really.

[Zafar Iqbal]

Good news! The camera came back from the dead!

I had left it without battery and just gave it at try (internal battery wasn't fully drained yet) - and it turned on. Everything works!

I'll use it at a photoshoot tomorrow (will bring backup, of cause), to see if it will act up again.

I already bought another camera body but that's fine. Can't have enough backups

[Zafar Iqbal]

Old thread but I feel like writing an update.

I've since writing had 2 more cameras fail. 2 K-3 and the K-3 II which this thread was originally about. Every single camera suffered the exact same failure