K-5 Locked up! Help!!

[GeorgeInGeorgia]

My K 5 has locked up. The train of events: Saturday night I checked the charge state of the battery in the body and in the hand grip. Both good. The memory card had 91 RAW images remaining. Sunday morning I went to a water fowl rookery in Port Royal, SC to shoot the birds. Mounted my Sigma 135 - 400 zoom to my tripod, mounted the K 5 to the lens, plugged in a wired remote release, and turned the camera on.

The top screen showed no response to changing shutter or aperture, no change in ISO. I turned the camera off, then back on. Still no response to the wheels. I tried an exposure, and the camera locked up. Mirror locked up, top screen blank. Nothing.

Back at our son's house I removed both batteries, and reinserted them. The mirror returned, I tried a shot. Mirror lockup, no top screen, nothing happening. Home here in Georgia I've done the battery thing again, but no luck.

Looking at the pdf of the manual the index mentions "Reset," but that of course requires access to the Menu. Anyone have any ideas, or do I now have a paperweight. I suspect that a repair would cost more than the cost of a second hand K 5.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I do not have that camera, but there haven't been any other responses, so I'll give a couple of suggestions:

The contacts on the Pentax mount are in the lens mount so it seems to me that any dirt accumulation between any of the contacts and the mount could cause a short circuit. So you might want to try cleaning that area, perhaps with a cotton swab and a very small amount of a liquid dish washing detergent followed by a cotton swab with only a bit of water. Then let it dry.

Other than that, if you have another lens, try the body with the other lens.

 

[GeorgeInGeorgia]

Thanks for the suggestion! A post on another forum suggested using the K - 5 grips auxiliary battery tray, which uses 6 AA cells. The camera works perfectly with that power source, so the 2 Wasabi Li batteries, purchased in August 2012, had both failed. Using another pair of batteries verified that. I've received a new pair of Wasabis; six years is an acceptable life span.

 

[smoke665]

Glad you found the source of your problem. Surprised the battery indicator didn't show a discharge?

 

[GeorgeInGeorgia]

The battery indicator showed minimal capacity even though the chargers showed full charge. Despite a charge indication which should have permitted a few shots the camera went "wonky." Mirror locked up, etc. I was considering a K 3ii when I tried the 6 AA cells

 

[smoke665]

I had a K30 that I had to keep extra batteries, on hand because a charge wouldn't last. I was going to get the extra battery pack when I got the K3ii, but the battery it uses has a fantastic life. Saving my pennies for the K1 Mark II.

 

[GeorgeInGeorgia]

Before they failed the Wasabis had been satisfactory, and inexpensive. While I don't have any record of charge/discharge cycles, 6 years seems a reasonable life. I'd love to have a K - 1, but not for a while.

 

[pez]

When something like this happens, the first suspect in a Pentax is a battery issue. I've had two or three 3rd party batteries as well as an OEM battery fail a lot like this. 6 years is indeed a pretty good life though.