Nikon D7100 heating and draining battery

C

centaur

Senior Member
Hello everyone.
I have D7100 for about six months.
I am not turning off my camera when I finish taking photos since standby isn't discharging battery (previously I used D5000 for about 4 years and did the same).
Everything was fine until few days ago I made some pictures from tripod in M mode. Since then I've noticed that if I left camera ON, camera is heating and the battery drains fast (for about 10hours battery drops from 100% to zero :( )
Does anybody know what this is about?
I am thinking to do the reset to factory defaults but I am not sure will it help?!?

Thank you for your advices.
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
You could certainly try to reset your camera to see if that works. I assume that your camera was new and that you have manufacturers warranty? If yes, then i would contact Nikon with the problem and see what they say. In the end, it could be just a faulty battery. But, i would inquire with Nikon first and tell them exactly what has been happening. Good luck.

PS: including your location helps us help you ;)
 
S

SteveH

Senior Member
Firstly, welcome to the forum!
I can't help with you specific problem, but do I understand rightly that your camera is basically on all the time? I leave mine on all the time I am out and about using it, but it gets switched off when I put it back in my bag. I believe there is a menu option to show the battery health & condition - I'd start there as it may be a battery that doesn't fully charge, or is loosing charge quicker than it used to rather than a camera setting.
 
C

centaur

Senior Member
Thank you for quick replies.
I joined from mobile phone so I wasn't able to complete my registration :)
I am from Serbia and the gear was bought in the USA (at B&H) so I am not sure that I can make warranty in Europe since I have warranty card for USA&Canada. Anyway I will try to find out about this at my local Nikon representative.

I am sure that problem isn't in the battery because I have two batteries, on original Nikon and spare Watson. Plus I've tested them both in the professional charger Ansmann XC3000 and they both still have about 110% of declared capacity.
I've also checked the status of both batteries in the menu - battery age is zero.

SteveH, you understood well: my camera was ON all the time. Now, if I leave power switch on, my battery drains very fast although I don't shoot :(
Currently I am turning off my camera when I finish shooting but anyway the battery lasts much shorter then before.

I've never did the RESET on DSLR so I am little afraid. :upset:
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Is that problem happening with the grip on the camera? I've read about third party grips that caused that problem...
 
C

centaur

Senior Member
I reset camera but unfortunately something is still draining battery.
It dropped from 95% to 0% for less than 7 hours :mad:

Since Murphy never sleeps, this is happening to me 2 days before my friend's wedding :miserable:
 
J

J-see

Senior Member
If it heats up and drains the battery, odds are something causes short-circuiting. Does it drain both batteries and are you able to check the battery connectors inside to see if something is stuck there?

A tiny part of metal that got in while inserting the battery could be the cause.
 
C

centaur

Senior Member
Here are the photos of battery container.
J-see, you remind me that I had a little "situation" which might affected on my problem:
During photosession on tripod, battery came to end so I tried to remove and put spare one. Head of the tripod didn't allow me to take the battery although I tried just a little harder. When I realized that it won't work like that I separated camera from tripod and finished battery replacement.

As you can see from the pictures, contacts are solid and they are not damaged but still there is little suspicion that contacts inside electric circuit board are damaged although I didn't use big force :)


As I expected, at Nikon official service told me that USA and Europe warranty cards do not match so I can't make my warranty :(

What should I do?
I can take camera to the analysis in the service but I still have hope in solving problem without service
 

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J

J-see

Senior Member
If the problem started after that tripod issue, it might be more than a coincidence. It's all just speculation but usually nothing breaks without a cause. The contacts look fine although the first looks slightly different but it could be the angle of the shot or simply a biased idea because I know there's a problem but when I enlarge it in PS, it doesn't seem to be aligned identical.

I don't know how the other side looks but they usually try to stuff as much as they can in as little room as possible; one millimeter might make the one touch the other but again, it's just speculation. If there is a short-circuit it isn't at this side but the fact it heats up seems way more problematic than the battery draining.

If it's a short-circuit, you can be sure it will fix itself in time. But not in a good way.

Maybe it is best to send it in for repairs. Now it might be cheap.
 
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N

nickt

Senior Member
Just some thoughts (but no answers)...
Does the info display inside the viewfinder turn off after the usual timeout? Any possibility a button is stuck?
Does your lens have VR? Is it disengaging shortly after you stop pressing the shutter? Maybe turn VR off or better yet, try it without a lens installed.
Also try it without a memory card.
 
C

centaur

Senior Member
nickt said:
Just some thoughts (but no answers)...
Does the info display inside the viewfinder turn off after the usual timeout? Any possibility a button is stuck?
Does your lens have VR? Is it disengaging shortly after you stop pressing the shutter? Maybe turn VR off or better yet, try it without a lens installed.
Also try it without a memory card.
Click to expand...

Info display shows focus point as long as I am holding button half-pressed.
One of my lenses does have VR and I already tried turning it off and also I tried with non VR lens - it is the same.
Now I tried without memory cards but something is still draining battery.
Body of the camera is slightly warm (for someone who never hold it it would be normal temperature but I feel it),

I think J-see is absolutely right about cheap repair at this moment so I will send it for repair in monday.
Tomorrow on the wedding I will try to take as little photos as I can (since there will be a pro photographer) :)
 
C

centaur

Senior Member
I've picked up today my camera from the service.
Bad news is that I am total jerk. :triumphant:
But good news is that camera is working perfectly :p

Standby timer was set to 'no limit' so light meter discharge battery after couple of hours.
One thing I am not sure about is who put this setting since I don't remember I did it.
Other thing is that why this setting doesn't reset with "reset to factory defaults".

Anyway, I was so distressed that and overlooked that camera isn't going to standby although nickt asked me if camera's viewfinder display turns off.

Thank you all for assistance. ;)
 
J

J-see

Senior Member
Did you have it in video mode? I'll have to check mine to see how long the standby modes are set but I always assumed it doesn't meter light as long you haven't "woken" it up.

My D750 consumes a lot more energy than my D3300. Not sure if that's supposed to be like that but I better check my timers too.
 
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