Olympus E-20N Failure!?!

Greetings! First, I'd like to say that thanks to this forum deciding on a digital camera has been made quite painless...so thank you! I recently purchased a Olympus CAMEDIA E-20N, and the picture quality and ease of use has been quite impressive. However, 2 days ago as I was about to use the camera, the POWER ON would not respond. I added 4 new batteries and still NO POWER. I'd like to know if any of you have experienced any problem like this. I have called the Olympus Hotline and they say to ship it back to them. I just can't believe product failure like this so early in the camera life. Does anyone know why this might be. HELP!!!

did you change batteries before the power on failiure? - if you did, try the other set as some are picky about working in the battery carrier apparently though I've not encountered it myself..

--
Olympus E10 / WCON, E100RS, Nikon E950, E900.

Adam-T said:

did you change batteries before the power on failiure? - if you
did, try the other set as some are picky about working in the
battery carrier apparently though I've not encountered it myself..

--
Olympus E10 / WCON, E100RS, Nikon E950, E900.

Click to expand...

Adam,

Thanks for the info...the POWER ON Failure occured even before I changed batteries. Olympus advised that it could be the switch mechanism, but offered little else other than send it in.

I had a PowerBook that was dead out of the box...very maddening. However, after having it repaired, it never failed again and has worked perfectly for 2 years. My understanding is if an electronic part is going to fail, it will do so early.

BIGGERFOOT said:

I had a PowerBook that was dead out of the box...very maddening.
However, after having it repaired, it never failed again and has
worked perfectly for 2 years. My understanding is if an electronic
part is going to fail, it will do so early.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment...it's still quite aggravating; however. What you say does make sense...I just wish this would have happened later rather than sooner (that way the "newness" of the camera would have worn off).

Have you tried removing the batteries for a long period of time? Maybe over night...
Also, there is a small backup battery as well, remove it.

Basically, you want to allow enough time for all the electronics to fully discharge and thus reset. Just replacing the batteries doesn't allow for this. For example, the date/time and various settings are not lost during a simple battery change.

Also, you might search this forum or web to see if their is some way of doing a reset to the camera (likely some combination of buttons during power on).

My first E10 died this way after 2 months. As I purchased it at BestBuy (as a replacement for a Casio QV3000) and I had a 4-year warranty, I just exchanged it there.

This can be caused by a cold solder that breaks.

Take care,

Sonny Cabigas said:

Greetings! First, I'd like to say that thanks to this forum
deciding on a digital camera has been made quite painless...so
thank you! I recently purchased a Olympus CAMEDIA E-20N, and the
picture quality and ease of use has been quite impressive. However,
2 days ago as I was about to use the camera, the POWER ON would not
respond. I added 4 new batteries and still NO POWER. I'd like to
know if any of you have experienced any problem like this. I have
called the Olympus Hotline and they say to ship it back to them. I
just can't believe product failure like this so early in the camera
life. Does anyone know why this might be. HELP!!!

Click to expand...

--
TonyK

Glenn Anderson said:

Have you tried removing the batteries for a long period of time?
Maybe over night...
Also, there is a small backup battery as well, remove it.

Basically, you want to allow enough time for all the electronics to
fully discharge and thus reset. Just replacing the batteries
doesn't allow for this. For example, the date/time and various
settings are not lost during a simple battery change.

Also, you might search this forum or web to see if their is some
way of doing a reset to the camera (likely some combination of
buttons during power on).

Click to expand...

Glen,

Thanks for the advise...I'll definitely try that tonight.

TonyK_in_Texas said:

This can be caused by a cold solder that breaks.

Take care,

Sonny Cabigas said:

Greetings! First, I'd like to say that thanks to this forum
deciding on a digital camera has been made quite painless...so
thank you! I recently purchased a Olympus CAMEDIA E-20N, and the
picture quality and ease of use has been quite impressive. However,
2 days ago as I was about to use the camera, the POWER ON would not
respond. I added 4 new batteries and still NO POWER. I'd like to
know if any of you have experienced any problem like this. I have
called the Olympus Hotline and they say to ship it back to them. I
just can't believe product failure like this so early in the camera
life. Does anyone know why this might be. HELP!!!

Click to expand...

--
TonyK

Click to expand...

Tony,

What would it take to break a cold solder? The reason I ask, is because to my knowledge, my camera has never been dropped or mishandled. Is this solder something that can break even without being subject to extreme force. Thanks for the info!

Sonny

Sonny Cabigas said:

What would it take to break a cold solder?

Click to expand...

It's a manufacturing fault where a solder joint didn't take to well and has come loose even in transit , Olympus QC isn't good at the best of times, I looked at a TCON14 today in a shop which had bubbles between the lenses and my 100 dead/stuck/hot-pixel CCD afflicted E100-RS + 1 on the LCD is another matter entirely, I'm sure that people remember all the shutter failiures back in the OM10 days too

At least when you get a GOOD Oly or one which has been repaired / refurbished, it's likely to be a good hardworking reliable beast..

--
Olympus E10 / WCON, E100RS, Nikon E950, E900.

Sonny Cabigas said:

Greetings! First, I'd like to say that thanks to this forum
deciding on a digital camera has been made quite painless...so
thank you! I recently purchased a Olympus CAMEDIA E-20N, and the
picture quality and ease of use has been quite impressive. However,
2 days ago as I was about to use the camera, the POWER ON would not
respond. I added 4 new batteries and still NO POWER. I'd like to
know if any of you have experienced any problem like this. I have
called the Olympus Hotline and they say to ship it back to them. I
just can't believe product failure like this so early in the camera
life. Does anyone know why this might be. HELP!!!

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what consumer law is like in the rest of the world but if you bought it very recently in the UK you would have a good case for the retailer replacing the camera under the sale of goods act as it is "not fit for the purpose it was bought for".

Don't quote me. I'm not a lawyer, just a complainer when I think I've been done.

Brian T

Sonny,

My unit had not even been bumped. One day, after having it 2 months, I went to turn it on and it didn't. Changed batteries with freshly charged one and still no go. Ran a power check on the batteries and they were good. Camera would power up via DC connection. So I believe I had a bad solder in the battery compartment area.

Sonny Cabigas said:

Tony,

What would it take to break a cold solder? The reason I ask, is
because to my knowledge, my camera has never been dropped or
mishandled. Is this solder something that can break even without
being subject to extreme force. Thanks for the info!

Sonny

Click to expand...

--
TonyK

Sonny Cabigas said:

Greetings! First, I'd like to say that thanks to this forum
deciding on a digital camera has been made quite painless...so
thank you! I recently purchased a Olympus CAMEDIA E-20N, and the
picture quality and ease of use has been quite impressive. However,
2 days ago as I was about to use the camera, the POWER ON would not
respond. I added 4 new batteries and still NO POWER. I'd like to
know if any of you have experienced any problem like this. I have
called the Olympus Hotline and they say to ship it back to them. I
just can't believe product failure like this so early in the camera
life. Does anyone know why this might be. HELP!!!

Click to expand...

--

You didn't say when you purchased the camera. If it was very recently, my inclination would be to take it back to the store I got it from and ask them for a replacement. Any good camera store should be willing to do that, as long as you haven't had the camera for several months while hiking through the mountains.
- -
David Hankinson
Whitehorse YT Canada

Well, the obvious question is how long you've actually had it and if there is any possibility of returning it to the seller locally? Failing that, send it in. This situation makes the point why one should always remove an item from the box and power it up before taking it home if buying in a store.(well, sort of...)

Unfortunately, as others have said, electronic items can be funny critters... Component failure often occurs early in the product life, usually VERY early or not at all -unless components are somehow stressed beyond tolerances. Cold solder joints can and do happen, they've happened to me and I'm no stranger to the soldering iron. Mechanical failures in things like switches are probably more likely than either cold jonts or component failure -provided something was turned on at least once and checked for operation prior to sale.

Good luck and I hope you get it back quickly. If you need it fast, and don't mind an exchange they have an accelerated deal where they ship you a camera and give you 30 days to return yours. I'm pretty sure it's $50 for the special service.

Thanks for all the contributions...I ultimately sent the CAMEDIA to Olympus for repair, not the best scenario for me, but what else could I do. They did promise to have it back to me in a week. I do agree that once I get it back that camera should prove to be a reliable workhorse...but just in case, I'm in the market again looking for a back-up.

Thanks again you guys!

Sonny