norman1312 Loc: London, UK

I hooked up my SB-900 to my D90 for my daughter's birthday party and found out very quickly that I was getting no information from the camera on the flash's screen and the flash wouldn't fire either.
Moving the zoom ring on the 18-105 didn't show the flash adjusting it's zoom head.
I cleaned the contacts on both the flash and the camera but that didn't make any difference.
I put another lens on the camera and that made no difference either.
I still have my old (first Nikon) digital camera and the flash fired just fine on that.
So it has to be the camera!
The problem now is how and where I get it repaired. I suspect it needs a full service as well.
I am on the wrong side of the pond to take advantage of all the good places in the US of A.
So for all our readers in the UK, just what should I do next?
Phone Nikon UK and see what they say, or if I can find a suitable shop (not Currys/PC World, thank you) will they just send it to Nikon or 'repair' in house. At what cost? What would be an acceptable maximum amount to spend?
It should be obvious that it's well out of warranty, must be at least 8 years old, if not longer.
At what stage do I say, don't repair and just use it in daylight or with it's pop-up flash, or maybe upgrade to something newer (but my price range is strictly limited)???

norman1312 Loc: London, UK

For our US readers, Currys/PC World is the equivalent of Walmart for electronics. I have bought a laptop from them, but I wouldn't let them within miles of my photographic equipment.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Norman, on some cameras you may need to enable the flash on the hot-shoe in the camera menu settings before it will work.
Make sure the flash is enabled if you have that option! Good luck. ;-)
SS

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

You are on the right side of the pond to take advantage of all the good places in the UK.

http://www.fixationuk.com/
http://www.hlehmann.co.uk/
http://www.sendeancameras.co.uk
http://www.advancedcameraservices.co.uk
http://www.newtonellis.com/nikon/

There are more.

CO

I have a D90 and D7000. Check to see if the camera is in commander mode. It has the option to use the built-in flash to trigger an off-camera flash. It's on page 188 in the manual.

You can also do a reset. That's on pages 75, 172, 260 in the manual.

pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"

I agree. I would go through menu options before sending it to a repair center. It could be something very simple. Also take a close look at the hot shoe. On most cameras there is a tiny plastic pin that is pushed down when the flash is mounted. It might have been damaged slightly and sometimes it's possible to straighten it with some fine tweezers.

norman1312 Loc: London, UK

Well, I have good news and bad news.
The good: I found the two button reset and tried that. Immediately afterwards I heard the flash head moving as the zoom ring was turned, but only for a second. Turned it off and went and did something else. Came back after a hour, turned everything on and it was working perfectly. I even managed to take a few shots to prove the flash was behaving.
Then the bad news: Left it for a while and came back to try something else. Not working again.
So, It'll be going in to be checked this week. Somehow the idea of boxing it up and sending it to other parts of the country doesn't appeal, so I'll be visiting one of the London shops.
Thanks everyone.