Battery Issue!

[theptyboy]

Hi, I'm new to this forum & a recent owner of a clean 2nd hand E-1 from the Bay. I bought the camera primarily to use my old Minolta lenses on as I move away from film.
I recently charged the battery, and neglected fitting it for a couple of weeks - until today! On putting the battery in, the display was dead & there were several 'beeps' from the body. I take it that the internal clock battery has drained? There is no functionality from the camera, regardless of what I press.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Do I need to replace the internal cell, or just keep the main battery fitted for a few hours to 'recharge' the internal cell. Or, is the camera dead after a few weeks of ownership!? (there were only a couple of hundred shutter actuations and the whole outfit is spotlessly unused)

Any help appreciated!
Pete

[IainMacD]

Re: Battery Issue!

Hi Pete
If the battery is as old as the camera then maybe it didn't hold the charge? Try charging it up again and using it straight away to see if there is a difference.
I am not aware of an internal cell, but if there is one someone on here will let you know very soon.
Good luck!

[theptyboy]

Re: Battery Issue!

Cheers Iain,
I've checked the battery voltage, which is measuring 8V across the terminals (I know it should be 7.2V, but the 8V will likely collapse slightly under load) so I suspect that the battery is okay. And being a lithium ion, it should be less susceptible than NiMH and Nicads to age.
I have tried to recharge, but no LED lights suggesting that the battery is fully charged. I may buy a replacement aftermarket battery to eliminate any battery doubts.

Does anyone know what the several 'beeps' mean? (I can't see any refernce to it in the manual) It happens about 8 seconds after putting the battery in, and if the ON/OFF is toggled to either position. The beeping stops if the switch is toggled mid beep. There is NO information displayed on the LCD or internal viewfinder.

It most likely is down to leaving the camera without the battery. I will attempt to revive it by leaving it in the powered ON position for now....

Cheers
Pete

[snaarman]

Re: Battery Issue!

I think your approach is wise. Try to restart the camera somehow, maybe it has been powered down for years...

Does anyone know if there is a factory full reset sequence for the E-1??

Pete

[IainMacD]

Re: Battery Issue!

Something here?

[Guest]

Re: Battery Issue!

First of all, congratulations on your choice of camera!
Secondly, I was going to try to add something helpful but I think Iain's link says it all.
Since you mentioned voltages... a 7.2 volt battery at 8.0 volts is a bit above half-charged. As far as the camera is concerned, 7.4 or lower is empty, i.e., that's about when the camera will shut down. 8.3-8.4 or so if a full charge. (Voltage is not an true test of capacity, but close enough in a battery that is otherwise okay.)
If you buy a new battery, know that the higher capacity BLM-5 batteries are fine in an E-1, though using a dedicated BLM-5 charger is recommended.

[peak4]

Re: Battery Issue!

I've had a look at the exploded diagram for the E-1 and can't immediately see any internal battery.

Given that the normal advice for doing a factory re-set is to leave the battery out for a couple of days, I can't imagine that it would have done any harm.

Sorry, can't say much more now as off out.

[theptyboy]

Re: Battery Issue!

Thanks for all your input! I have made an attempt at the 'hard reset' but as yet no joy. I'll leave the battery out for a further 24hrs (its been in for the last 6), but I suspect that will not cure the issue given the length it was out for anyway (approx 2 weeks)

I'll just point out that the camera was working fine before this and working a treat with an old Vivitar 24mm/2.0

To recap, theres approximately 8 secs on battery install, and then 20 'beeps' - but nothing on the LCD/viewfinder.

I'll pick up a new battery & keep you informed of progress.....

Thanks again for everyones input!
Pete

[The Saint]

Re: Battery Issue!

Pete

All I could suggest is you count the number of beeps accurately as it sounds like the beeps are some type of error code (well that is how it works on PC's). Then give Olympus a call/email as if it is an error code they should be able to tell you what it means. Every time I've had to contact Olympus they have been more than helpful.

Regards

Simon

[theptyboy]

Re: Battery Issue!

Tried the reset procedure last night to no avail! I was nearly going to try discharging the battery to try recharging it, but left it out overnight to think it all over.

Thankfully, I've just reinstalled it & to my surprise no 'beeps'!

Even better, toggled to ON, and there to my surprise was an LCD full of information & full functionality returned! Hopefully this was just a blip, and I'll certainly not leave the battery out for any length of time again. I've ordered up a spare 1800mAH from PQQ on the Bay to be sure ...!

Thanks to everyone who contributed information and guidance - much appreciated. I think I may look at firmware upgrading next (I'm not even which version the body is running!) as my biggest gripe so far is how painfully slow the write speed to the CF is (coming from the Nikon D90) despite a fast card installed. However the major plus is being able to fit my Rokkor lenses......

Cheers everyone
Pete

[peak4]

Re: Battery Issue!

my biggest gripe so far is how painfully slow the write speed to the CF
Pete

Pete, glad it's now performing. I suspect the software just scrambled itself when you inserted the battery the first time. Maybe the contacts were a bit dirty in the camera and you got an intermittent power feed whilst it was booting up.
Leaving the battery out again for a day or two would then do a factory re-set allowing things to calm down again.

Regarding the slow write speed, yes it is a lot slower than modern cameras, but acceptable from my point of view, provided you set "Shading Compensation" to "off" in the first menu, otherwise it seems to sit there processing the file for quite a while.

[Guest]

Re: Battery Issue!

I try to ignore the write-to-card speed, in the sense that the buffer allows me to continue shooting while the file is being written. A single raw takes my E-1 about a second and a half to write with a 200x card. Not great, certainly, but fast enough, at least for my glacial shooting pace. As well, the LCD screen is almost impossible for me to see outdoors, so I do my series of shots then wander off to deep shade and examine the screen with a 3x magnifying loupe. It probably seems like lazy man's excuse, but the slow write speed (or lack of fast write speed) makes me a more careful shooter. And though I love the big screen and faster write times of my e-620, I've developed with it the habit of checking every shot right after capture, a sort of reactive shooting style rather than an intuitive one. I like the way the E-1 keeps you grounded in the basics.

[mjones32]

Re: Battery Issue!

Hi, new boy here I bought a used E-1 on ebay and have been delighted for several weeks. But now I suddenly experienced this exact same issue. Every time I insert the battery regardless of whether camera is on or off, it waits about 5 seconds and then beeps 20 times, no functionality at all.

I have tried recharging the battery, factory reset procedure, removing lenses, memory cards and connecting to laptop.....all no go. Right now I have the battery removed hoping it will reset itself if I leave it for a couple of days.

Has anyone else experienced this since this was posted back in 2012 ?

Thanks for any suggestions !

[Guest]

Re: Battery Issue!

Gosh, wish I could help...I've been mulling this over...and the only thing I can think of is that when an electronic device makes a lot of beeps it's often a warning of something serious, like a battery short. You didn't mention swapping batteries; did you try a different one??? It would seem (and I'm just grasping at straws here) that it's more likely an old battery would fail after several weeks of use rather than an old camera. Hope you sort this out...

[Zuiko]

Re: Battery Issue!

I'm afraid I can't offer any suggestions other than what Stewart said, try a different battery. I do hope you manage to resolve this.