[outsidenote]

My well used *istD has a problem with suddenly powering down. Sometimes repeatedly every few seconds. I can power it back up by partly pushing down the shutter button or by powering on and off. I put in new firmware - didnt fix it. I have also turned off the auto power off. I dont get a low backup battery warning but I haven't changed that. My memory card is also quite old. Anyone have experience with this or know a quick fix? At this point I am not sure whether a repair will be economical vs a new K100D. The *istD is still usable, but it is a nuisance.

[falconeye]

I dont get a low backup battery warning but I haven't changed that.

I had a similiar phenomenon with my *istDS and AA rechargeables. The display showed "full capacity" and all of a sudden the camera was off. It happened even with freshly charged batteries. I thought that the camera is breaking or would leak power or something.

As it then turned out, ordinary NiMH rechargeables age very quickly and become unusable with my *istDS.

Since then I use non rechargeable Lithium batteries or the new Eneloop rechargeable AA and power seems to last forever :-)

P.S.
Why aren't :-) or ;-) recognized smileys? LBNL, these two are the two original internet smileys...

[Lowell Goudge]

There are a couple of things you may need to look at.

First, the batteries may have aquired a memory, where they do not properly charge, but become highly resistive, so they can't properly charge but also show fully charged until you try and draw power, then they show up dead.

you can try to recover this by deep cycling the batteruies a few times.

SOme people use a flash light to do this. run the batteries down, then charge them, run them down again. things may get better.

Also check the contacts in the battery compartment and the top and bottom of the batteries. maybe they are oxidized. Use a pensil eracer to clean them, but not an abrasive one on the camera.

try new batteries also. after a time, rechargeables just can't deliver power

[DSgaijin]

I had a similiar phenomenon with my *istDS and AA rechargeables. The display showed "full capacity" and all of a sudden the camera was off. It happened even with freshly charged batteries. I thought that the camera is breaking or would leak power or something.

As it then turned out, ordinary NiMH rechargeables age very quickly and become unusable with my *istDS.

Since then I use non rechargeable Lithium batteries or the new Eneloop rechargeable AA and power seems to last forever :-)

My experience also. My rechargeable batteries didn't seem that old. I'd recharge them as necessary and what I thought were good batteries weren't. It seemed to happen all of a sudden. In less than a week of no use they would allow me to (when I turned the camera on with what I thought were freshly charged batteries inserted only a week before) shoot a half dozen shots and then the camera would shut off. That went on for several weeks (me thinking my expensive rechargeable batteries can't be the problem) before I decided to try brand new rechargeable batteries in hopes it wasn't some sort of short in my precious istDS (sorry, old as it may seem, I love that camera!). Thankfully that cured the problem. I am back to going weeks, in some cases months on a set of rechargeable batteries.

Don

[outsidenote]

Thanks very much guys. It also happens with non - rechargeable lithiums. However I tried the contact cleaning with the eraser and for now it seems fine - thanks Lowell! I hope thats the answer.