I Successfully Repaired My D3200!

Last December, as I was taking some pictures out my front door, with my ancient Vivitar 85-205 mounted on my D3200, and intending to make an adjustment to the tripod, I hit the quick-release lever by mistake, sending my camera and lens crashing to the hard floor below.

Aside from some cosmetic damage to the case, the camera was mostly still functional. The only functional issue I could discern was that some of the focus point lights in the finder no longer worked.

A few days ago, however, exposure metering stopped working. It appeared that regardless of the actual light level, the camera was only sensing a fixed light level.

I've been unemployed for some time, now, and cannot even think of affording to replace this camera, or to have it professionally repaired.

I had resigned myself with having to live with only being able to use this camera in manual exposure mode—not as big a handicap for me as for most; I used an F2 as my main camera for many years, and it's totally manual; and even now, using my ancient non-CPU, non-AI lenses (including the lens that I was using when this incident occurred), as I do quite often, on the D3200, it could only ever use them in totally-manual mode.

Two nights ago, I had a dream, about opening my camera, and repairing it myself. Yesterday, I dared to attempt this. I found a teardown on the Internet for this camera, which turns out to have a few important omissions*, but I was able to get the camera apart far enough to expose the motherboard. I couldn't see anything wrong, but I made a point of disconnecting and reconnecting every connector that I could access inside, and when I reassembled the camera, not only was metering working correctly again, but so are all the focus point lights.

While I had it apart, I also took the time to do a better job of repairing damage to the case itself. After the fall, part of the case seemed to be warped, and no longer fit correctly. At the time, I just used some Shoe Goo to seal the resulting gaps, to keep dust and debris from getting in. With the back off, I was able to pop it back into proper shape, and I used a combination of fiberglass, epoxy, and cyanoacrylate to repair and reinforce it.

I'm feeling very pleased with myself over the results.


Later last night, I turned my attention to the lens. Since the fall, it had been just a little bit out of whack itself. Still usable, but something was loose, and it wouldn't quite focus all the way to infinity. I was able to get a section of it apart, where I found some screwed that needed to be adjusted and tightened, and now this lens seems to be as good as new.



———

* There are two screws that are well-hidden, which I had to find and remove before I could remove the back; which this guide did not mention. One of them is in the viewfinder focus knob, and you have to peel the sticker off of that knob to get at that screw. I find it puzzling that the pictures in this guide show the disassembled D3200 with that sticker still on the knob. The other is under a rubber trim piece between the “Command Dial” and the “Multi-Selector”.

Also, also, although this was supposed to be a guide for replacing the motherboard, it makes no mention of what to do about four wires that are soldered to the motherboard, and run up off into some part of the camera not exposed by this disassembly. If I were determined to remove and replace the motherboard, I could unsolder those wires, and then resolder them when I was reassembling it, but that involves equipment and skills that I do not think the author of that guide was assuming the reader to have. If you're not already well-skilled with a soldering iron, this would not be the place to start learning.

I wonder if it's possible that not all D3200s are built exactly the same. I think this must be the case. His pictures show the viewfinder focus adjustment knob still in place, with the back removed. On mine, it's part of the back; and the back doesn't come off without that knob coming off with it.

You have much bigger goonards than me my friend. Well done indeed

Lawrence said:

You have much bigger goonards than me my friend. Well done indeed

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At that same time he has nothing to lose as the camera did take the drop. But kudos to you for attempting the repair in the first place.

Congratulations on the successful repair. Glad you were able to get it going again.

Good for you Bob! I enjoy stories like that.

skene said:

At that same time he has nothing to lose as the camera did take the drop. But kudos to you for attempting the repair in the first place.

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I was taking some risk. My D3200 was still working just fine in manual mode, which I use quite a bit anyway. There was always the risk that in messing this deeply with it, I might ruin it to the point that I'd lose even that.

Wow, I'm impressed, now I know where to send one if mine if I have any issues!

Paging @D200freak or anyone else who might have the knowledge to help me here…

Some time after the previous conclusion of this thread, a new issue has arisen. It's a minor annoyance, with which I can live, but if there's any chance of an easy fix, I'd sure like to know about it.

This affects my D3200, combined with the stock 18-55mm lens that came with it. I do not have any other bodies that are modern enough to be compatible with this lens, nor do I have any other AF-S lenses, so I cannot definitely establish whether it is the lens or the camera that is at fault; but I suspect the lens.

If the camera has been unused for more than a few hours, autofocus doesn't work. I push the shutter release, and the lens makes no apparent effort to focus.

At that point, if I grasp the focus ring on the lens, and apply the slightest bit of counterclockwise (as seen from the direction of one using the camera) force, while pressing the button, then the autofocus begins to work, and after that point, it will continue to work reliably until the next time the camera goes for very long without being used.

It makes me think of an issue that can arise with more primitive types of electric motors, where a dirty or worn spot on a commutator can create a “dead spot”, where, if the motor stops on that spot, it will not restart unless some external effort is applied to turn it away from that spot. I'm pretty sure that the type of motor that is involved here does not have commutators or brushes, or anything corresponding thereto, and should not be subject to that particular type of issue. Given what little understanding I can glean about how the Silentwave motor works, it is not clear to me what could cause this sort of issue with it. I'm assuming that the fact that applying a slight amount of the right force gets it working again, indicates that the issue is occurring in the motor itself, and not in any of the supporting electronics.

Some things that may be relevant.

• I was careful when I engraved a set of infinity focusing marks on this lens, but I wonder, nevertheless, whether some plastic and/or metal filings from that engraving process might have found their way into the motor, and be causing this issue.
• When the camera is being carried in its bag, it is face-down, and the weight of the camera would likely rest mostly on the front of the lens. I should think that a camera lens—especially a stock “kit lens” that is likely to be left on the camera most of the time—should be engineered with the expectation that the front of it will often be supporting the weight of itself and the camera; and should be designed to withstand this without being damaged. But then, if the lens was not engineered with this being taken into account, it is not at all difficult for me to imagine how the focusing mechanism might be damaged from this.
• This lens was not on my camera, when my camera fell as described at the start of this thread; so assuming the issue is with the lens rather than with the camera body, this fall is not a factor.

I can't say what's the issue with your camera and lens but I'd ask this:

Does your camera give any error messages when it won't focus?

Does it focus the second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever time you press the shutter release button to the first detent, if you don't tweak the lens by hand first?

Or do you HAVE to touch the lens before it starts working?

I will tell you from my own experiences with an AF-S 14-24mm F/2.8 lens, which has an SWM, and which I repaired myself, that sometimes the SWM will tend to "go to sleep" and I have to wake it up by twisting the manual focus ring back and forth a time or two and then it works like it should.

I can tell you that the SWM is a great system when it works right, but in my admittedly limited experience, it seems to be somewhat problematic.

I have an 18-70 (DX) SWM lens that I attempted to repair, and put a second control board into, and it was whacko before I attempted to repair it and it's still whacko with a known good control board in it. It just goes back and forth from minimum range to infinity and never locks on

If the SWM was so totally awesome and foolproof, then the latest incarnation of the Nikon 18-55mm VR II lens would not use a stepper motor (P designation, it's an AF-P, the first of its type) but would use the "tried and (maybe not so) true" SWM motor. In my opinion.

My suggestion to you is for you to visit your local camera store and try out the new AF-P 18-55mm lens and if they have a good return/exchange policy, just go ahead and buy it. If it misbehaves during the return/exchange period, take it back. If it doesn't, consider your problem solved.

D200freak said:

I can't say what's the issue with your camera and lens but I'd ask this:

Does your camera give any error messages when it won't focus?

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No error message. It just doesn't focus, and because it doesn't focus, it doesn't shoot. I want to say that as far as the camera is concerned, the effect is pretty much the same as if autofocus is working, but it isn't able to get a good enough lock on the image to focus.

D200freak said:

Does it focus the second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever time you press the shutter release button to the first detent, if you don't tweak the lens by hand first?

Or do you HAVE to touch the lens before it starts working?

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When the issue first arose, I found that if I kept repeatedly hitting the shutter release, at least to the first detent, that eventually it would start focusing. Once I figured out that I could always get it to start focusing by manually tweaking the lens, I no longer tried just repeatedly pressing the shutter release.

D200freak said:

I will tell you from my own experiences with an AF-S 14-24mm F/2.8 lens, which has an SWM, and which I repaired myself, that sometimes the SWM will tend to "go to sleep" and I have to wake it up by twisting the manual focus ring back and forth a time or two and then it works like it should.

I can tell you that the SWM is a great system when it works right, but in my admittedly limited experience, it seems to be somewhat problematic.

I have an 18-70 (DX) SWM lens that I attempted to repair, and put a second control board into, and it was whacko before I attempted to repair it and it's still whacko with a known good control board in it. It just goes back and forth from minimum range to infinity and never locks on

If the SWM was so totally awesome and foolproof, then the latest incarnation of the Nikon 18-55mm VR II lens would not use a stepper motor (P designation, it's an AF-P, the first of its type) but would use the "tried and (maybe not so) true" SWM motor. In my opinion.

My suggestion to you is for you to visit your local camera store and try out the new AF-P 18-55mm lens and if they have a good return/exchange policy, just go ahead and buy it. If it misbehaves during the return/exchange period, take it back. If it doesn't, consider your problem solved.

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Alas, spending that kind of money, right now, just isn't in my budget. If I cannot find a cheap and reasonably easy way to fix it myself, I will have to live with it as it is.

Do you have a really small philips head screwdriver? You might want to use it to check and see if the screws holding the contact assembly in the lens mount are secured. Don't torque them down, they're only going into plastic and they're easily stripped out. But they should be snug, ensuring that the contacts on the lens should make a good connection to the contacts inside the lens mount. Check to see that those contacts are also firmly mounted, but if they are loose, see if the screws holding the contacts in place are accessible. Check them for tightness as well if you can.

It never hurts to give the contacts, on both the camera and the lens, a decent cleaning.

D200freak said:

Do you have a really small philips head screwdriver? You might want to use it to check and see if the screws holding the contact assembly in the lens mount are secured. Don't torque them down, they're only going into plastic and they're easily stripped out. But they should be snug, ensuring that the contacts on the lens should make a good connection to the contacts inside the lens mount. Check to see that those contacts are also firmly mounted, but if they are loose, see if the screws holding the contacts in place are accessible. Check them for tightness as well if you can.

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I just now did that. I checked all the screws that were visible on the mount end of the lens. Most of them did seem a it looser than I thought they ought to be, so I tightened them up to what seemed right to me.

D200freak said:

It never hurts to give the contacts, on both the camera and the lens, a decent cleaning.

Click to expand...

I applied a bit of contact cleaner to a bit of tissue, and then rubbed it on the contacts of the lens. I mounted the lens, and rotated it back and forth several times in the mount.

The tissue did come away looking a bit dirty, so perhaps the contacts on the lens were dirty.

I'll have to see if next time, after the camera has been unused for a few hours, if the focus issue remains.

One thing that might be a good omen—I bought a set of macro extension tubes several days ago; and found that the focus motor action seemed to get weaker and more intermittent as I put more of these rings between the lens and the camera. Just now, I put all three rings on, and the focus motor action now seems as strong as with no rings. I'm figuring each set of contacts between each ring, between the lens, between the camera, is a place where some power to the motor can be lost to poor contact.

I do note that the Auto/Manual focus and VR on/off stitches are located on a plate that has a screw holding it in place. What are the chances that there's anything behind that plate that is worth tinkering with? What are the chances of my simply ruining the lens of I mess with that?

There's nothing behind that plate that's going to affect the issue you've observed with this lens. The AF/MF switch controls a mechanical feature and the VR switch is a simple electrical switch for the VR circuit. They're not going to be part of your apparent lens connectivity problem.

The issue is still there. Any time the camera has been unused for a while, I have to manually tweak the lens to get it to focus.

What if you leave it turned on? Does it stop focusing after a while if you keep it turned on but don't touch it?

D200freak said:

What if you leave it turned on? Does it stop focusing after a while if you keep it turned on but don't touch it?

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I've never thought to try that. I always turn it off when I'm not using it.

Bob Blaylock said:

Paging @D200freak or anyone else who might have the knowledge to help me here…

Some time after the previous conclusion of this thread, a new issue has arisen. It's a minor annoyance, with which I can live, but if there's any chance of an easy fix, I'd sure like to know about it.

This affects my D3200, combined with the stock 18-55mm lens that came with it. I do not have any other bodies that are modern enough to be compatible with this lens, nor do I have any other AF-S lenses, so I cannot definitely establish whether it is the lens or the camera that is at fault; but I suspect the lens.

If the camera has been unused for more than a few hours, autofocus doesn't work. I push the shutter release, and the lens makes no apparent effort to focus.

At that point, if I grasp the focus ring on the lens, and apply the slightest bit of counterclockwise (as seen from the direction of one using the camera) force, while pressing the button, then the autofocus begins to work, and after that point, it will continue to work reliably until the next time the camera goes for very long without being used.

It makes me think of an issue that can arise with more primitive types of electric motors, where a dirty or worn spot on a commutator can create a “dead spot”, where, if the motor stops on that spot, it will not restart unless some external effort is applied to turn it away from that spot. I'm pretty sure that the type of motor that is involved here does not have commutators or brushes, or anything corresponding thereto, and should not be subject to that particular type of issue. Given what little understanding I can glean about how the Silentwave motor works, it is not clear to me what could cause this sort of issue with it. I'm assuming that the fact that applying a slight amount of the right force gets it working again, indicates that the issue is occurring in the motor itself, and not in any of the supporting electronics.

Some things that may be relevant.

• I was careful when I engraved a set of infinity focusing marks on this lens, but I wonder, nevertheless, whether some plastic and/or metal filings from that engraving process might have found their way into the motor, and be causing this issue.
• When the camera is being carried in its bag, it is face-down, and the weight of the camera would likely rest mostly on the front of the lens. I should think that a camera lens—especially a stock “kit lens” that is likely to be left on the camera most of the time—should be engineered with the expectation that the front of it will often be supporting the weight of itself and the camera; and should be designed to withstand this without being damaged. But then, if the lens was not engineered with this being taken into account, it is not at all difficult for me to imagine how the focusing mechanism might be damaged from this.
• This lens was not on my camera, when my camera fell as described at the start of this thread; so assuming the issue is with the lens rather than with the camera body, this fall is not a factor.

Click to expand...

Oddly, it appears that I fixed the problem by installing the latest Distortion Control Update. That shouldn't be possible, should it? As far as I know, all that that update affects is the camera's ability to compensate for known distortion characteristics of certain lenses, in postprocessing of pictures after they are taken. It shouldn't have any affect at all on the operation of the camera in the course of taking pictures, right?

But the above-described problem was still there just before I installed this update, and now it's gone. A few days have passed, and I have not experienced any sign of this issue since I installed that update, though it was quite consistent before.


I have to think that more likely, it's just a coincidence. One of my leading theories as to the cause of the issue was a tiny bit of foreign material, perhaps a filing from when I engraved an infinity mark on the lens, having got somewhere that it shouldn't be, and perhaps it has been dislodged to where it's no longer causing this issue, and just by coincidence, it happened about the same time I did this update.