"Is she dead, Jim?"

I turned my D5500 on this afternoon, attached a 55-200mm lens, and...it wouldn't autofocus.

I tried another lens, then two more. Same thing. I put in a fresh battery. Same thing. I cleaned the contacts, took it off BBF, checked for a firmware update, prayed to Ba'al...same thing. No autofocus. Then I tried those same lenses on my wife's D3300, and they all worked.

Gahh! It was just working yesterday! I didn't change any settings, I didn't drop it, nothing was spilled on it, I didn't even speak harshly to it. But something happened from this time yesterday to this time today to make it stop auto focusing.

Here's the kicker. I got a hundred dollar "Thank you for working during COVID!" gift from my work, and used it to buy a used 55-200mm lens from KEH. The lens arrived this morning (which is what I was checking when I discovered the camera was wonky). The plan was to sell the D3300 with this essentially free 55-200 and a few other accessories I don't use, and put the money towards my D500 fund. I'll get more money for the D3300 with a lens than for body only.

Now with the D5500 not working, I have to use the D3300...and I have two 55-200 lenses now. I got an online estimate from Nikon's NY repair center, but the quote they gave me is close to what I paid for the body. And that would really set back my plans for a D500. I did request a quote online from my local shop and am waiting for them to get back to me, but I can't say as I'm very optimistic.

Anybody have any thoughts on what it might be? Or barring that, the name of a god other than Ba'al who might be helpful? Thanks!

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Well if you are praying to a god named Ba'al, you might need to sacrifice the D5500 to the next thunderstorm that rolls through. You could try Santa, but that might be a while- I'm still waiting on that Nash skateboard I asked for more than 30 years ago.

Have you done the green dot reset? When you cleaned the contacts, did you check for any bent pins or anything abnormal? Did you just rub the contacts off with microfiber or did you use something like deoxit to improve conductivity? Did you double check both menus for BBF? The one to disable the shutter for focus and also the one to assign the back button? Did you try manual, aperture priority, shutter priority and auto? When manually focusing, do you still get the green, (or white) focus assistant in the view finder? Does it matter if its in live view or not? You could always try dropping it from really high up, but I've never heard of this working for anyone. Ever. I think that's all I got. If you do the last one, take pics

Is there a nuclear full-reset in the menu? It will just reset everything to factory defaults, but nothing to loose at this point. Also try removing the SD card, and I would even escalate to flashing the firmware, even if you are up to date.

I had my D80 die of the aperture error code last fall. This just half a year after it was converted to an infrared-only camera. I've had the body for 13 years, it was time to bury it. But that $250 I put into the conversion back in March made it painful.

Originally Posted by TwistedThrottle

Well if you are praying to a god named Ba'al, you might need to sacrifice the D5500 to the next thunderstorm that rolls through. You could try Santa, but that might be a while- I'm still waiting on that Nash skateboard I asked for more than 30 years ago.

Have you done the green dot reset? When you cleaned the contacts, did you check for any bent pins or anything abnormal? Did you just rub the contacts off with microfiber or did you use something like deoxit to improve conductivity? Did you double check both menus for BBF? The one to disable the shutter for focus and also the one to assign the back button? Did you try manual, aperture priority, shutter priority and auto? When manually focusing, do you still get the green, (or white) focus assistant in the view finder? Does it matter if its in live view or not? You could always try dropping it from really high up, but I've never heard of this working for anyone. Ever. I think that's all I got. If you do the last one, take pics

Dammit. The first thing I tried was the high drop test. I should have waited to read your reply first.

I did try almost everything else you put on your list there, with one exception: I'm not familiar with the "green dot reset". What is said reset, pray tell? (Never mind, I'll Google it. Tomorrow - I'm off to bed in a few minutes here.)

And yeah, I went through all the modes and tried both live view and eye piece. And both menus for BFF. If I figure out what that green dot reset is and does the trick though, I'm sending you a new throttle. One that isn't twisted.

Thanks for your thoughts, man. Really.

Originally Posted by BF Hammer

Is there a nuclear full-reset in the menu? It will just reset everything to factory defaults, but nothing to loose at this point. Also try removing the SD card, and I would even escalate to flashing the firmware, even if you are up to date.

I had my D80 die of the aperture error code last fall. This just half a year after it was converted to an infrared-only camera. I've had the body for 13 years, it was time to bury it. But that $250 I put into the conversion back in March made it painful.

Thanks very much! I'll give a look to see if I can do that full reset tomorrow after I get off work. I'm not sure I know how, but that's what YouTube is for, right?

Oh man, that was a sad, sad D80 tale. That must indeed have been painful!

Did you have the new-to-you lens on the camera when you turned on the D5500? I'm wondering if there was some type of electrical short from the lens that might have caused it. Bummer though.

Originally Posted by hark

Did you have the new-to-you lens on the camera when you turned on the D5500? I'm wondering if there was some type of electrical short from the lens that might have caused it. Bummer though.

Huh, I hadn't thought of that, Cindy. I don't think that's the case, as I put that lens on the D3300 and it worked just fine. But maybe there was an initial electrical discharge...? I have to admit I don't know that much about the technical end of things to know if that's even possible though, so who knows.

Thanks

Did you try removing the battery?

Originally Posted by Needa

Hopefully you get it resolved.

Two button reset



Just a comment on cleaning contacts. Don't forget to clean the lens mounts and camera mount, plus the contacts inside the camera. As always hold upside down so any contaminates fall down and not in to camera.

Thanks very much for that! I'll give that a shot when I get off the air later. Much appreciated