The best laid plans.... So....the plan was for my 10yo grandson to graduate from a teeny point n'shoot to my old P520 which was handed down to his mom. I brought it home to get to know...

SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

So....the plan was for my 10yo grandson to graduate from a teeny point n'shoot to my old P520 which was handed down to his mom. I brought it home to get to know it again only to find that it won't turn on! I've recharged all its batteries and not one will power it up! I'm thinking it possibly might have a dirty connection and will have Husband take a look at it, but there's no way it's worth having it professionally serviced. Liam is really going to be disappointed - I certainly am!

BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

Try going to a battery store and have them throw one in to see if it's just the batteries, I have had several die on me.

jmvaugh Loc: Albuquerque

Do you have some way to check the charge on batteries other than in the camera?
Maybe the charger’s bad.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

SueScott wrote:

So....the plan was for my 10yo grandson to graduate from a teeny point n'shoot to my old P520 which was handed down to his mom. I brought it home to get to know it again only to find that it won't turn on! I've recharged all its batteries and not one will power it up! I'm thinking it possibly might have a dirty connection and will have Husband take a look at it, but there's no way it's worth having it professionally serviced. Liam is really going to be disappointed - I certainly am!

use a red colored pencil eraser to clean the contacts.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Don't cameras have a ROM battery?
If they die, will the camera fire up?
Anyone out there know?
SS

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

SueScott wrote:

So....the plan was for my 10yo grandson to graduate from a teeny point n'shoot to my old P520 which was handed down to his mom. I brought it home to get to know it again only to find that it won't turn on! I've recharged all its batteries and not one will power it up! I'm thinking it possibly might have a dirty connection and will have Husband take a look at it, but there's no way it's worth having it professionally serviced. Liam is really going to be disappointed - I certainly am!

You can always get him the new Nikon D850...

SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

jmvaugh wrote:

Do you have some way to check the charge on batteries other than in the camera?
Maybe the charger’s bad.

I have two plug-in chargers - when first plugged in with the battery they each have a red light then when the battery is charged that light turns green (it takes several hours). I'll have Husband check out the batteries with his volt meter. My daughter said that the camera worked fine the last time she used it which was in April.

blackest Loc: Ireland

SharpShooter wrote:

Don't cameras have a ROM battery?
If they die, will the camera fire up?
Anyone out there know?
SS

Usually it's just settings which are lost. Little fuji I have with no battery just needs the clock setting i run it on a usb power pack for now. its got a small power jack on the side.

most likely the battery is defective, might be worth putting on charge again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY6Z-r0IQ_w might be of interest
apparently sometimes removing and replacing the battery gets it working again.

SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

rjaywallace wrote:

You can always get him the new Nikon D850...

Verrry funny!!! He'd have to load that monster in a wagon to carry it around!!

SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

blackest wrote:

Usually it's just settings which are lost. Little fuji I have with no battery just needs the clock setting i run it on a usb power pack for now. its got a small power jack on the side.

most likely the battery is defective, might be worth putting on charge again.

I have five batteries and none of them have worked - they're all several years old and the camera has hardly been used since my daughter's had it (last time was this past April), so maybe they're just dead. I can only hope that's the problem.

blackest Loc: Ireland

SueScott wrote:

I have five batteries and none of them have worked - they're all several years old and the camera has hardly been used since my daughter's had it (last time was this past April), so maybe they're just dead. I can only hope that's the problem.

just reading in the manual with charging lead connected press and hold the c button to get it to start in playback mode. see if that brings it to life. There seems to be a lot of people with the same problem.My camera has no power, I can't update the Firmware!
If your camera will not charge the battery, try the following workarounds which may recover the situation enough to allow the battery to continue charging.

Remove the memory card from the camera and then reconnect the AC adapter to the cameras USB connector. In some cases the battery will now charge correctly.
A Nikon battery charger is available as an optional sales item for most COOLPIX cameras. If you have access to an external Nikon battery charger, remove the battery from the camera and charge it in the battery charger. In some cases this may start to charge the battery correctly. Click here for battery charger compatibility list.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

SharpShooter wrote:

Don't cameras have a ROM battery?
If they die, will the camera fire up?
Anyone out there know?
SS

My bet (a cup of coffee) would be no ROM battery.
Some may have a clock keep-alive battery.

SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

blackest wrote:

just reading in the manual with charging lead conn... (show quote)

I have two external chargers which seem to be working properly - they're what I used when I still owned this camera and there was never a problem.

SueScott Loc: Hammondsville, Ohio

Update - we're charging the battery using the USB cable plugged into a wall outlet and will see what the situation is tomorrow morning. We also did some searching on Google and this seems to be a fairly common problem with the P520 but we haven't seen much in the way of how to correct it. I bought the camera in 2013 and used it fairly heavily until I upgraded to the D7200. Daughter has had it for two years and hardly ever used it.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

PixelStan77 wrote:

use a red colored pencil eraser to clean the contacts.

Please don’t ever do this. Such erasers contain abrasives that can scratch contacts, cause early corrosion. If you must use an eraser, use the flat side of an art gum eraser and then check very carefully for residue. Also, retire the eraser when it starts leaving an excessive amount of residue. Puffs of air will usually remove such residue. Thank you.