S7000 won't turn on under battery power

[Jim Doodle]

Hi there, i have an Fujifilm S7000 which has been great for the last 4 or so years, both under battery on the road and under auxiliary at home/studio, however this week it won't turn on with battery power, although it will still turn on via auxiliary power. Has anyone experienced this before, and can anyone help at all?

Cheers

Jim

[nesbitt_bub1]

The s7000 is a power hungry beast :)

chances are your wither using alkaline batteries that arn't providing enough current.

Or you have rechargable Nickel metal hydryde batteries that have begun degrading. The best option here is to go out and get a spare set of batteries, and test them. Having a spare set of batteries is never a bad thing anyways!

It may be a loose connection on the battery housing.

Or it may be a discharging batteries issue. However if the batteries were slowly discharging due to a short circuit you camera would still power up with fresh rechargables.

[Jim Doodle]

Thanks Nesbitt, the batteries were my first port of call i figured it might be low voltage 1.2v from the rechargeable AA, so i got a new pack of Duracell ultra M3, but to no avail. My thinking is a loose wire, but i wasnt sure if the housing for these cameras was overly complicated? And since it powers up on auxilariary power i thought it must be a loose wire?

[nesbitt_bub1]

I had an old fuji 40i and that wouldn't power up on alkaline batteries at all. They had to be rechargable higher current ones!

I still think you should at least borrow a set of metal hydride batteries to test the camera before you start to open it up! the batteries should be pushing 1.5V not 1.2v. And the duracells don't have the build to supply a high current! The metals are all wrong to supply anything like the current of a 1700nimh battery never mind a 2600!

have you tried jump starting the camera!!!! slapping in some batteries then turning it on with the aux, then removing the aux....it may just give you a few seconds of power after you remove the cable... therefore no loose connection.

[Jim Doodle]

I tried both the Duracell 1.5v, and the uniross 1.2v MH 2500 mAh, to no avail and i also tried the jump start; it’s got me baffled but not disillusioned. If it powers up on the aux surely it can only be a loose connection, does anyone know if there is different circuitry for the aux and the battery power?

What is the current for Duracell batteries anyway, although it has started on these many times before so it shouldn't be the problem, unless the camera can somehow change the required volt/ampage?

Cheers

Jim

[nesbitt_bub1]

the aux and batteries can be attached anywhere to the pcb, often the manufacturer will run wires from the aux to the barrery attachment points. However the fuji is a complicated piece of kit so those wires are probably incorporated into the pcb.

There should only be 2 points where the batteries connect to the main pcb for the camera. These should be directly soldered into place. hopefully these joints have become dry... personally tho if i suspected dry joints i'd be sending the camera back to fuji and having them fix it for me! One slip with a soldering iron could render the camera useless!