[Ex Finn.]

So, after sending my K7 to CRIS in march, UPS was here today attempting delivery at 3:58 pm. Of course nobody is home at that time to sign for the package. They will attempt it again tomorrow, between 10:30-2:00 pm, when there is even less of a chance for someone to be home.
I swear they do this on purpose, just to piss me off.
I know I can make arrangements but everything else delivered by Men In Brown always gets to my house after 5:00 pm, why not this.

[VoiceOfReason]

I know what you mean. I missed a lens, a power supply for a computer, and a turbocharger from them yesterday because they wouldn't leave it at the apartment office.

[Raffwal]

...UPS was here today attempting delivery at 3:58 pm. Of course nobody is home at that time to sign for the package. They will attempt it again tomorrow, between 10:30-2:00 pm, when there is even less of a chance for someone to be home.

I know exactly what you mean. UPS sucks big time over here too. They come by during office hours when nobody is at home. They never call beforehand. They don't have a pickup site in town either. They could deliver at work, but I'm not always able to receive when they could come. And actually receiving packages like that is isn't even allowed at my work. So in practice the only way is to sign some papers, leave them at the door and tell them where to leave the package. Like at the backdoor, hoping it's there when I come home from work. I will definitely NOT order anything with UPS anymore.

BTW, do you think it's reasonable to repair an aging DSLR at such a price? What do 100% working ones go for 2nd hand today?

[Ex Finn.]

BTW, do you think it's reasonable to repair an aging DSLR at such a price? What do 100% working ones go for 2nd hand today?

I looked into buying a used replacement, to the tune of about $600.00 with a unknown past. My conclusion was that it was money better spent in getting my old faithful repaired, $225.00 parts, $75.00 labor and $16.00 shipping.
As far as my UPS rant goes, they came through with superb service, adjusting their delivery time to match known "occupancy trend". (I just came up with that).
As for my experience with CRIS, I will not hesitate to send my stuff to them again if needed. That opinion of course is subject to chance if something fails, like the weather-seals. (mode selector feels almost like it is missing an O-ring), hope I am wrong.

[vonBaloney]

I am reasonably sure pulling the battery did not help. The update firmware will always attempt show an update failed screen whenever possible, From my understanding even when the battery has more than one percent of its power left. It could be possible that your battery was failing and unfortunately you did not wait the process out.. It can take almost an hour in some cases.. Patience is a virtue

What are you saying here? That having low power in the battery will make the firmware update go slower? I've never had it take more than 30 seconds or so, and can't think of a reason why it would ever take longer (and still work).

All firmware updates for a particular camera model all do exactly the same thing copying the same amount of data, so they should all take exactly the same amount of time except maybe variance for card reading speed. Have you actually had a firmware update get stuck for 15 minutes or more and then complete successfully? Taking the battery out was not a good idea, but is it reasonable to expect it would have completed or at least "failed gracefully" after that time? Only other option is just to leave it and have the battery die eventually -- wouldn't the result have been the same? Seems like it just broke, and that was that. Maybe the MB was already busted before the update, as others have suggested.

In any case, I've talked to a few techs at CRIS -- very accommodating answering my questions, so I'd definitely try to talk to someone over there...

[Ex Finn.]

Seems like it just broke, and that was that.

My exact thought, after waiting for eeevvveeerrr to proceed to step two.

[twitch]

In hindsight it might of been better to use the power switch, or to press buttons on the camera to try and provoke an error message. But hindsight is wonderful, I think it's not a ridiculous thing to pull a battery, just wouldn't hav been my first choice.

I hope it works out for you, it's unfortaunte about the $300 though Incidently, I just got a $300 quote to fix my MZ-S and have been tossing up whether to go ahead or not (I already have another one). I hate it when cameras go bad.

[Ex Finn.]

In hindsight it might of been better to use the power switch, or to press buttons on the camera to try and provoke an error message. But hindsight is wonderful, I think it's not a ridiculous thing to pull a battery, just wouldn't hav been my first choice.

I hope it works out for you, it's unfortaunte about the $300 though Incidently, I just got a $300 quote to fix my MZ-S and have been tossing up whether to go ahead or not (I already have another one). I hate it when cameras go bad.

I tried everything, none of the switches or buttons had any effect, pulling the battery was like pulling a pin on a hand-grenade, something was going to happen and it was not going to be pretty.

Here nor there, my K7 is back and working good so far.

[twitch]

I tried everything, none of the switches or buttons had any effect, pulling the battery was like pulling a pin on a hand-grenade, something was going to happen and it was not going to be pretty.

Well you did everything possible then, I don't know what else you could have done.

Here nor there, my K7 is back and working good so far.

[Ex Finn.]

And here is the failed component. The bonus with the new main board is the pristine tight connectors for USB, remote etc. And a shutter count of 47 instead of 20k plus

[Ex Finn.]

After messing with the camera some, it is going back to CRIS for horizon indicator calibration. It used to be right on but now it leans almost 4 bars, also the auto-focus assist light is now stuck on continuously, at about 1/3 of the brightness. The joy.

[Ex Finn.]

Update:
Things are going downhill real fast.

Following the initial loose mode selector knob, horizon indicator miss calibration, and continuous focus assist light issues, I decided to check SR in live view mode, what do you know, at 300 mm in live view and tipping the lens up and down, the displayed video would go purple with intermittent white streaks or just blank out with exposure warning flashing. Only way to get the display to act right was to cycle LV off and back on again.
That might have been caused by a poor connection because after moving the camera around, it seems to have fixed itself. However, now the mode selector knob is jammed and will not move out of P-mode. So, off to CRIS and wait and see what the diagnoses is.

[vonBaloney]

Somewhere there is a voodoo priestess with a miniature K-5 doll and stack of needles...

[Ex Finn.]

Somewhere there is a voodoo priestess

I hope she is hot, it will make it easier to take.

[Ex Finn.]

Dropped off the K7 this evening at a UPS pickup-place for shipment to Arizona. Mainly posting this for my own benefit to have a time-line.