[peetucket]

Hello all,

I've got a roughly 3 year old *istDS which has worked fine up until now. Recently it has developed a strange problem where the aperture control lever goes into an endless loop of opening and closing, just like if I were to slide the power switch over to the preview "check-depth-of-field" position and back again, over and over. This (noisy) problem renders the camera useless, as it locks up the processor and prevents you from accessing menus, viewing images, or taking pictures. If it is switched off for a few minutes and then back on again, it'll work (temporarily) for a couple pictures and then back into the loop.

I've tried resetting the settings back to default via the menu, changing and even removing the lens entirely, re-zapping the firmware, switching memory cards, changing the main batteries, etc. but nothing seems to work. The only thing I changed recently was to using rechargeable CR-V3 batteries instead of AA, but that was a couple months ago. Any ideas? Is there some other secondary battery that might need changing?

Thanks,
Peter

[GerryL]

From what I have read and heard, the rechargeable CR-V3 batteries are bad for the camera since the voltage is not stable (I think it spikes).
This might have messed-up your camera.
I know that you said that you have re-zapped the firmware but which firmware..was it the original or the updated firmware?
Try to re-install the original version 1.0 rather than the updated firmware.
Anyway, I actually don't know if this will work but it's worth a try since you already did it anyway with the firmware.
Avoid the rechargeable CR-V3 and just throw it in the garbage so you won't accidentally use it again.
If nothing else works..send it to Pemtax for repair.

[GerryL]

Oh yeah, and welcome to the forums!
There are others here who would chime in to give you suggestions for sure so, hang in there.
For all you know, there might be an easy solution to this.
Welcome again!

[peetucket]

Thanks! I had a bad feeling that the batteries may have had something to do with it I swapped them out for other batteries almost immediately, but things are still wonky.

Do you know where I can download older versions of the firmware? The only version I see on the Pentax site is the latest (2.02)/

[wlachan]

From what I have read and heard, the rechargeable CR-V3 batteries are bad for the camera since the voltage is not stable (I think it spikes). This might have messed-up your camera.

Yes & no. There are regulated RCR-V3 (I had some myself), and unregulated RCR-V3 which can pump out 4V+ (I also had a pair). After using those regulated RCR-V3 for countless months, my DS is still working fine. I didn't try those unregulated RCR-V3 in my DS to find out what might happen however. But there is no reason using any RCR-V3 since the appearance of Sanyo Eneloop which is not only stable, but will outlast RCR-V3 by a wide margin on a single charge.

[jeffkrol]

Yes & no. There are regulated RCR-V3 (I had some myself), and unregulated RCR-V3 which can pump out 4V+ (I also had a pair). After using those regulated RCR-V3 for countless months, my DS is still working fine. I didn't try those unregulated RCR-V3 in my DS to find out what might happen however. But there is no reason using any RCR-V3 since the appearance of Sanyo Eneloop which is not only stable, but will outlast RCR-V3 by a wide margin on a single charge.

Eneloope's are just amazing in a D in my opinion. Actually any of eneloop types..

[jct us101]

It must have OCD.

[GerryL]

Thanks! I had a bad feeling that the batteries may have had something to do with it I swapped them out for other batteries almost immediately, but things are still wonky.

Do you know where I can download older versions of the firmware? The only version I see on the Pentax site is the latest (2.02)/

You can probably post another thread looking for original firmware if anybody misses your post here.
Good luck. I hope you get a fix to that soon!

[peetucket]

I've just put in some alkaline AAs and all is fine so far (several days now) -- it just seems to be very pissed off at any kind CR-3V battery right now. Next up is the eneloop...