My cubicle neighbor brought in a challenge for me today. Fresh from my success of fixing his home PC with my used (and slightly noisy) power supply, both he and I felt I could tackle his digital camera problem.
He has a several year old Kodak LS420 that won’t turn on. When you flip the power switch the ready light flashes 3 times and stops with the camera never turning on. I searched the web for other mentions of this issue and couldn’t find any. I downloaded the user manual which told me that symptom meant that the battery was not fully charged. He has the Kodak charger and 2 batteries. The charger reports that both batteries are fully charged, but either one acts the same way, three flashes and nothing. Let the camera sit for a while and try again, same results. The camera has no DC-In jack, so we can’t try that option, plus the camera dock is no longer available to see if the camera might turn on with that.
I think the thing is broke, but there is still an outside chance that the both batteries are either bad or not really getting charged meaning the charger is bad. So should Jim spent $25 bucks for a new charger and battery to try and save a 5 year-old 2.1 Mega-pixel camera or use that twenty-five bucks for seed money on a new camera?
Even though I didn’t fix the camera Jim rewarded me by giving me the camera’s cool semi-rigid polyester zippered case. Fits my Kodak V570 real nice and offers a lot more protection than the little cloth bag that came with it.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 224
Jim should go to a camera shop and try a known good battery. If it works, buy it. If it doesn’t work, put the money towards a new camera.
I had a Kodak digital in the past that died on me. I sent it in to Kodak to look at. They offered me a good deal on a refurbished camera that I have used since with no issues (until my daughter dropped it and now it won’t turn on any more). If a good battery does not fix the problem, have Jim contact Kodak to see what they suggest.
We have a Kodak DC280 Zoom that has similar problems. Our camera takes fresh A batteries and does not turn on. I would like to buy a digital slr but I cannot help but wonder if it will become another dead camera on the shelf.
Mike C – Jim has called Kodak and was offered something along the same lines, a refurbished camera at a good price, but he is afraid that he’ll get another dud ala, Michael’s camera.