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D90 Green Light of Death

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Waimak Stud

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or GLOD as I heard it called online. I had this problem a while ago, and it turns out I'm not the only one, so if you have the issue and bear with my story then I may be able to help you out.

The symptoms (i had) were;

When the D90 is turned off the memory card access lamp on the back continues to flash. The only way to stop this flashing is to take out the battery. If you leave the battery in overnight, by the next day it will be totally flat, even if it was full previously and the camera was turned off. The reset and format combo buttons don't do that job anymore, however they still do their original jobs. The owner of the camera is flustered and troubled.

When this happened to me it was on a D90 that was only a couple of months old, and I didn't want to have to send it back, so I googled it. Turns out it's a fairly common issue, and most of the people said they had to send it back to Nikon to get it fixed, although some people said it happened for a while then went away by itself. One of the people who sent it away helpfully mentioned that when it returned, the repair quote said that the on/off switch unit had been fixed and some parts had been replaced.

While my camera was still being naughty I thought it must be a problem with the power switch, which kinda made sense because the day the problem started I had been photographing a school sports event and had been turning it on and off in a very dusty environment. So here was my answer. I turned the power on and pulled the power switch all the way over to the 'lightbulb' and held it with my fingernail, and then let it flick back to off with all the power the spring could muster. Problem solved. I couldn't believe it, such camera issues very rarely have such a happy ending and easy solution. I may have had to do the same thing one more time, I can't remember, but that was a good 4 months ago and haven't had any problems since then. I'm not saying it would be as easy to fix for anyone else, but if you have the same problem, it's worth a try.
--
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Stop looking so closely guys!
 
Thanks for posting your quick-and-easy fix for the GLOD. If only other issues were fixed so easily. Let's hope your fix is a permanent one. Cheers.
--
Charles.
http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn253/charita21/

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
  • Sir Winston Churchill
 
Thanks for posting, I have a D90 with those problems, I am traveling but will try this as soon. As I am back.
--

 
Well, like I said, I don't know if it will be as easy for someone else as it was for me, but I really hope it works for you too! It's possible that, because mine was a new D90, maybe when it was assembled something wasn't tightened properly or was slightly off centre or something, and me doing that just clicked it back to where it should be.
--
http://dailybento.webs.com/
Stop looking so closely guys!
 
I never have that problem with my D90 which I have it for little over 2 years and I use it pretty much every where I go including beaches and indoor water park. But thank for the tip anyway :)
 
nope, trick did not work for me, bummer.
I hope nikon repairs free of charge.

--

 
Had the same issue last year, around 2 mos after purchase; camera replaced under warranty.
 
Thanks for posting this info! I haven't encountered any trouble (I'm knocking on wood as I type this) yet, but if I do I will give this a try before contacting Nikon.

Bob
 
I have a D90 and just recently got the green light of death. I walked my camera into the Nikon repair facility in El Segundo, ca. When I received my original assessment they also indicated that i had moisture/fog damage although my camera did not. After couple of phone calls, and request for re-eval, Nikon sent me note that the original assessment fee would stay the same yet they indicated that they had made an error in regards to the statement for "moisture/fog damage". I ended up paying 200.48 for the repair (btw, they charged additional 1 for service fee). What was i to do. My camera had been working fine until this happened; 2yrs. I consider this a "latent" defect which should be covered under warranty terms although my warranty period had ended. It seems this is prevalent w/ owners of d90 and d70 and possibly others yet Nikon is not fessing up to their Quality problem. I am thoroughly disappointed. I did not cause the camera to fail. This is a component/quality problem with these cameras. I have been taking care of the camera w/ sincere care. It has angered me off to seriously consider changing brand loyalty, which i do not take lightly. If anyone would like to or is considering taking some further action with this I am all for it.

Unsatisfied Nikon d90 owner Tony

Btw, i submitted a complaint letter to Nikon and will follow up with other website that has addressed this same problem.
 
Wait, it gets better.....

They will charge your credit card immediately . Then send it back "fixed" but it will not be fixed.

Then you will have to send it back to them.

However, after going through all that trouble, what they did, at least in my case, was send me another camera, a refurbished one.

--
http://www.photoexpedition.net

 
Wow, I just discovered the problem on my D90 (about 3 years old I would guess). It killed one battery just like you said and the green light was flashing when I put a new one in with the power off. Did the flick switch trick and it was instantly fixed. Saved me a bunch of money and lost time in the repair shop. Thanks a lot. Glad to tell you that your advice was a big help. I found your post in a google search and registered on this forum just to say thanks.
 
I cannot even begin to say how happy I am I stumbled on this thread- I held back power button let it fling back and the green light o death- after a few months of drained batteries and fretting over how I was going to get another camera- IT'S GONE!!!! Wooo hoooo!!!!
 
You, sir, are a legend.

Couldn't understand how my D90 battery had drained completely for the first time in 5 years. I knew something had to be wrong for such uncharacteristic behaviour!

Next time I used my camera I noticed it was lagging and behaving strangely and then when I switched it off I saw the GLOD!

Your fix is the business! Thanks so much, I also only registered to show my appreciation to you.

You should get a payout due to your viewer/subscriber conversion ratio!
 
hi everybody, i've been facing this issue since 2009/10 probably i was the first one who got this issue in my D90. I visited various shops and searched online but got no help from anywhere. On my visit to London, i got it checked at a local camera person and he was surprised, told me he never saw such a problem in any D90s even he had 1 but never witnessed such a thing.

Well, its 2014 and i have the same camera with the same problem. After coming across this thread i tried the Power Flick maneuver but it didnt work. Now i come back to you guys for some advise as to what i should do. I'm getting the firmware flashed again just to check if that'll work and if i can avoid getting any hardware replaced.

Any advice please help??
 
I had this problem about one year ago with my D90. I did the on/off switch flick and it fixed the problem for one year. It started again this past week and I have been unable to fix it again, so far. I am reluctant to send the camera in for a costly repair, as it will probably cost more than the camera is worth. I do have a D7100, but like having the D90 as my backup camera. Does anyone else have any easy solutions? Thank you.
 
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I did the trick with flicking the power switch you suggested....after trying cleaning the SD card etc etc, and the flick trick worked great!!! Just had to, as you said, flick it quite hard, softly didn't do it... Thanks Loads...Amazingly finicky...Glad I didn't have to send it back...way over warranty now too.
 
Waimak Stud said:
or GLOD as I heard it called online. I had this problem a while ago, and it turns out I'm not the only one, so if you have the issue and bear with my story then I may be able to help you out.

The symptoms (i had) were;

When the D90 is turned off the memory card access lamp on the back continues to flash. The only way to stop this flashing is to take out the battery. If you leave the battery in overnight, by the next day it will be totally flat, even if it was full previously and the camera was turned off. The reset and format combo buttons don't do that job anymore, however they still do their original jobs. The owner of the camera is flustered and troubled.

When this happened to me it was on a D90 that was only a couple of months old, and I didn't want to have to send it back, so I googled it. Turns out it's a fairly common issue, and most of the people said they had to send it back to Nikon to get it fixed, although some people said it happened for a while then went away by itself. One of the people who sent it away helpfully mentioned that when it returned, the repair quote said that the on/off switch unit had been fixed and some parts had been replaced.

While my camera was still being naughty I thought it must be a problem with the power switch, which kinda made sense because the day the problem started I had been photographing a school sports event and had been turning it on and off in a very dusty environment. So here was my answer. I turned the power on and pulled the power switch all the way over to the 'lightbulb' and held it with my fingernail, and then let it flick back to off with all the power the spring could muster. Problem solved. I couldn't believe it, such camera issues very rarely have such a happy ending and easy solution. I may have had to do the same thing one more time, I can't remember, but that was a good 4 months ago and haven't had any problems since then. I'm not saying it would be as easy to fix for anyone else, but if you have the same problem, it's worth a try.
--
http://dailybento.webs.com/
Stop looking so closely guys!
Click to expand...
I absolutely can't believe it.
I work for a police department and they have had a problem with this camera for a very long time. I moved back to the division that has this camera and the battery was dead everyone we took it out. I asked what was wrong an they said it had an update but no one ever did it and so it hasn't been fixed.

Well I just did all the updates to firmware and nothing worked. I even updated and downloaded all the Nikon D90 software, just in case. I was excited but when I was done it still blinked as if to say "bugger off" (in my best British accent)!

Then I read your post... I did it and started laughing. You sir, are a genius.
It worked. I don't know for how long, but for now I'm happy. Thanks man!
 
Thanks so much... after trying other steps elsewhere with no luck... just holding the on/off switch all the way over, and letting it ping back (shutting itself off in the process) worked !!

I was amazed it was that simple. !
 
Pulling the power switch all the way over to the 'lightbulb', holding it and letting it flick back turned off the green light of death. Thanks so much for the easy fix to a frustrating problem.
 
mceweng said:
Pulling the power switch all the way over to the 'lightbulb', holding it and letting it flick back turned off the green light of death. Thanks so much for the easy fix to a frustrating problem.
Click to expand...
It works for a time but, eventually, you'll need to send the body in for repair to fully resolve the problem.
 
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