My camera wont turn on?

[snowy151]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, however I have recently suffered the exact same fault with my GRD ii and wondered if you ever found a fix for yours? mine does exactly the same thing with the flash of the AF assist light and no other response. This happens with either of my batteries, fully charged, and working fine in another camera, so I'm sure it's not the battery. Any ideas, or does his camera have to go the way of my old GR1-s that also became unrepairable...?

Thanks.
Simon

[odklizec]

Hi Simon and welcome here! I'm sorry to hear about your problem. Did you try to remove the SD card and turn the camera ON? There is always a chance it's caused by bad/corrupted memory card. Another thing you can try is to remove the battery and leave the camera without it for few days (let's say a week). When the internal battery runs out, the camera will reset the clock and maybe also some other things?

If neither helps, you can always contact the Ricoh service based of your location. Where did you buy the camera and how old it is?

[Wyrleyrob]

let me ask a really simple one - is it that the green light on the top comes on but you don't see anything on the screen, or does the lens not come out either? If the lens goes to the picture taking position, try pressing the DISP button on the back. One of the settings leaves you with a completely black screen.

[snowy151]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried without the card, and with the battery left out for several weeks and still no luck. The light that flashes briefly is not the one on the top plate, but the one on the front of the camera (I think it's the AF illuminator lamp), and I get nothing else from the camera at all - no lens movement and nothing on the screen. I think this is exactly the same symptoms as described in the first post, so I hoped he'd found a solution. I bought the camera used about 18 months ago so there'll be no warranty left. Looks like I'll either have to bin it, or take it apart myself...

[odklizec]

That sounds like a serious HW problem. Well, before you bin the camera, there are few more things you can try At first, I would definitely suggest to contact Ricoh support with detailed description of your problem and question how much (approximately) it would be to fix the camera. I think that blinking the illumination lamp (during the attempt to start the camera) is some sort of error code. So they may quickly realize what's wrong with your camera, even without examining it. The last thing you can try (before binning it or taking it apart) is Master Reset. There is a magic sequence of keys that would totally reset the camera. I doubt it would help, but if the quote for repair turns to be over your limit, there is nothing you can loose trying this magic sequence I don't remember the sequence so I will check it when I return home from work. Stay tuned.

[snowy151]

I googled the master reset and couldn't find anything, so if you do find it please let me know!
I don't know if the UK Ricoh importer will still repair these - I tried them with my GR1-s a while ago and they just sent it back with a note saying they no longer have parts. But I suppose it'd still be worth a try as the GRDii is somewhat newer.
Thanks.

[odklizec]

Sorry for not answering you sooner. The GRDII Master Reset can be initiated by pressing and holding the Delete and Play buttons for a sec or two. The camera mode dial must be switched to Scene mode! That's all.

The thing is that the Master Reset will reset really everything, including the camera error table! So if you then send the camera to Ricoh, there may be missing some important information related to your issue.

[snowy151]

Thanks for the info on this (and sorry for not updating sooner!). I decided I had nothing to lose by trying this, so gave it several goes to no avail unfortunately. Anything I do, including this reset, just gives a single short flash of the front AF-assist light and nothing else. I think all I can do is send it off for repair. I'll update this thread if I do finally get a resolution. Thanks for the help.

[Blow-in]

Simon,

A long shot but perhaps worth a try would be to plug the camera in to your PC with the USB cable....this should switch the camera on normally and attempt to transfer data (pictures) to the PC. The lens won't extend but if the LCD lights up it may be that there is a problem with the on/off switch. I've not tried this but it could be possible if the screen does work to try a master reset.

Richard

[snowy151]

Hi Richard
Thanks for the suggestion - I'm happy to try any longshot at this stage! Sadly this didn't work either, so it seems I have a truly dead Ricoh

Simon