Nikon Coolpix 880 System Error

Jose Canepa said:

OK so you bought your Coolpix 880 and just by the time you were
getting the hang of it out of nowhere one day you turn de camera on
and the lens does not come out. The monitor works, the camera
"works", hell, you can even take pictures, but everything is blurry
due to the fact that the lens just does not want to "get out".

So I took worthless pictures, moved the dial to setup, play and
poked the buttons every which way I could trying to get it back to
normal only to find that when moving the button for the zoom to
"zoom in", triggered the lens to come out, waaay out, stopped, and
come baaaack in, followed by the ominous SYSTEM ERROR on the
screen. Of course the system error freezes everything on the
camera turning the On/Off switch worthless, having to remove the
battery the only way to shut it down.

Have you been spooked by this or perhaps similar symptoms? Well, so
did I, just to find out through the search at http://www.google.com for
the words "nikon coolpix 880 system error" this wonderful forum,
where other frustrated guys just like me had gone through this trip
before!

So, after all this, here is my two cents!

Did I sent it back? NO

How did you FIX IT THEN, TELL US!!!

OK, following the excellent advice of several guys that went
through this before in this forum, I removed the battery from the
camera, got it back on its pouch, stored it in my closet one
saturday morning, forgetting all about it until tuesday night,
when, I got it out of the pouch, inserted the battery (which is the
rechargeable if you care to know), turned the dial to ON, aaaaand,
YEAH, the camera started to function normally again, shot pictures,
downloaded them, you know, the works.

What is wrong with it? This is only speculation of course, but
maybe it really has to do with something going haywire with the
internal firmware that only fixes itself up by "resetting" the
camera once the internal battery runs out of juice. Once this
battery dies out, everything resets and starts working normally.
Even the photo series counter resets.

I emailed Nikon, their recommendation: "ship it back". Well, before
you do that give this a try, of course I am writing this a couple
of hours after it started working again, but I have read the forum
where people state that nothing has gone wrong with theirs for a
month or so.

Final facts, my camera did not receive any minor nor heavy bumps,
drops or falls, had it for just three weeks, out of the box and
brand new, taken no more than 500 shots with it before the dreadful
system error.

Wish list?: For Nikon to release some kind of "firmware update"
that can be done by a "brainless human" not a NASA geek, to be
downloaded via de supplied cable to the camera that fixes this and
maybe other bugs which I am not aware of, and, of course, secondly,
the fact that I dont have to ship the cute thing to Nikon ever.

So relax, take the battery out, store it for a minumum of three
days (darn difficult to wait for some, yes...) and give it a try,
it worked for me. Of course, you can always ship it back if
uncomfortable .
--
Canepa

Click to expand...

Robert Niesen said:

I think I may be one of the guys you're referring to that had this
problem. I've not had the same problem since then after doing the
same thing you've stated below. One thing I always do now is to
always have a battery in it. I've got 3 batteries, so I've always
got a spare one to put in it while charging the one I just took out.

Hope yours will also continue to be trouble-free.

Regards,

Robert

Jose Canepa said:

OK so you bought your Coolpix 880 and just by the time you were
getting the hang of it out of nowhere one day you turn de camera on
and the lens does not come out. The monitor works, the camera
"works", hell, you can even take pictures, but everything is blurry
due to the fact that the lens just does not want to "get out".

So I took worthless pictures, moved the dial to setup, play and
poked the buttons every which way I could trying to get it back to
normal only to find that when moving the button for the zoom to
"zoom in", triggered the lens to come out, waaay out, stopped, and
come baaaack in, followed by the ominous SYSTEM ERROR on the
screen. Of course the system error freezes everything on the
camera turning the On/Off switch worthless, having to remove the
battery the only way to shut it down.

Have you been spooked by this or perhaps similar symptoms? Well, so
did I, just to find out through the search at http://www.google.com for
the words "nikon coolpix 880 system error" this wonderful forum,
where other frustrated guys just like me had gone through this trip
before!

So, after all this, here is my two cents!

Did I sent it back? NO

How did you FIX IT THEN, TELL US!!!

OK, following the excellent advice of several guys that went
through this before in this forum, I removed the battery from the
camera, got it back on its pouch, stored it in my closet one
saturday morning, forgetting all about it until tuesday night,
when, I got it out of the pouch, inserted the battery (which is the
rechargeable if you care to know), turned the dial to ON, aaaaand,
YEAH, the camera started to function normally again, shot pictures,
downloaded them, you know, the works.

What is wrong with it? This is only speculation of course, but
maybe it really has to do with something going haywire with the
internal firmware that only fixes itself up by "resetting" the
camera once the internal battery runs out of juice. Once this
battery dies out, everything resets and starts working normally.
Even the photo series counter resets.

I emailed Nikon, their recommendation: "ship it back". Well, before
you do that give this a try, of course I am writing this a couple
of hours after it started working again, but I have read the forum
where people state that nothing has gone wrong with theirs for a
month or so.

Final facts, my camera did not receive any minor nor heavy bumps,
drops or falls, had it for just three weeks, out of the box and
brand new, taken no more than 500 shots with it before the dreadful
system error.

Wish list?: For Nikon to release some kind of "firmware update"
that can be done by a "brainless human" not a NASA geek, to be
downloaded via de supplied cable to the camera that fixes this and
maybe other bugs which I am not aware of, and, of course, secondly,
the fact that I dont have to ship the cute thing to Nikon ever.

So relax, take the battery out, store it for a minumum of three
days (darn difficult to wait for some, yes...) and give it a try,
it worked for me. Of course, you can always ship it back if
uncomfortable .
--
Canepa

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Robert Niesen said:

I think I may be one of the guys you're referring to that had this
problem. I've not had the same problem since then after doing the
same thing you've stated below. One thing I always do now is to
always have a battery in it. I've got 3 batteries, so I've always
got a spare one to put in it while charging the one I just took out.

Hope yours will also continue to be trouble-free.

Regards,

Robert

Jose Canepa said:

OK so you bought your Coolpix 880 and just by the time you were
getting the hang of it out of nowhere one day you turn de camera on
and the lens does not come out. The monitor works, the camera
"works", hell, you can even take pictures, but everything is blurry
due to the fact that the lens just does not want to "get out".

So I took worthless pictures, moved the dial to setup, play and
poked the buttons every which way I could trying to get it back to
normal only to find that when moving the button for the zoom to
"zoom in", triggered the lens to come out, waaay out, stopped, and
come baaaack in, followed by the ominous SYSTEM ERROR on the
screen. Of course the system error freezes everything on the
camera turning the On/Off switch worthless, having to remove the
battery the only way to shut it down.

Have you been spooked by this or perhaps similar symptoms? Well, so
did I, just to find out through the search at http://www.google.com for
the words "nikon coolpix 880 system error" this wonderful forum,
where other frustrated guys just like me had gone through this trip
before!

So, after all this, here is my two cents!

Did I sent it back? NO

How did you FIX IT THEN, TELL US!!!

OK, following the excellent advice of several guys that went
through this before in this forum, I removed the battery from the
camera, got it back on its pouch, stored it in my closet one
saturday morning, forgetting all about it until tuesday night,
when, I got it out of the pouch, inserted the battery (which is the
rechargeable if you care to know), turned the dial to ON, aaaaand,
YEAH, the camera started to function normally again, shot pictures,
downloaded them, you know, the works.

What is wrong with it? This is only speculation of course, but
maybe it really has to do with something going haywire with the
internal firmware that only fixes itself up by "resetting" the
camera once the internal battery runs out of juice. Once this
battery dies out, everything resets and starts working normally.
Even the photo series counter resets.

I emailed Nikon, their recommendation: "ship it back". Well, before
you do that give this a try, of course I am writing this a couple
of hours after it started working again, but I have read the forum
where people state that nothing has gone wrong with theirs for a
month or so.

Final facts, my camera did not receive any minor nor heavy bumps,
drops or falls, had it for just three weeks, out of the box and
brand new, taken no more than 500 shots with it before the dreadful
system error.

Wish list?: For Nikon to release some kind of "firmware update"
that can be done by a "brainless human" not a NASA geek, to be
downloaded via de supplied cable to the camera that fixes this and
maybe other bugs which I am not aware of, and, of course, secondly,
the fact that I dont have to ship the cute thing to Nikon ever.

So relax, take the battery out, store it for a minumum of three
days (darn difficult to wait for some, yes...) and give it a try,
it worked for me. Of course, you can always ship it back if
uncomfortable .
--
Canepa

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Jose Canepa said:

OK so you bought your Coolpix 880 and just by the time you were
getting the hang of it out of nowhere one day you turn de camera on
and the lens does not come out. The monitor works, the camera
"works", hell, you can even take pictures, but everything is blurry
due to the fact that the lens just does not want to "get out".

So I took worthless pictures, moved the dial to setup, play and
poked the buttons every which way I could trying to get it back to
normal only to find that when moving the button for the zoom to
"zoom in", triggered the lens to come out, waaay out, stopped, and
come baaaack in, followed by the ominous SYSTEM ERROR on the
screen. Of course the system error freezes everything on the
camera turning the On/Off switch worthless, having to remove the
battery the only way to shut it down.

Have you been spooked by this or perhaps similar symptoms? Well, so
did I, just to find out through the search at http://www.google.com for
the words "nikon coolpix 880 system error" this wonderful forum,
where other frustrated guys just like me had gone through this trip
before!

So, after all this, here is my two cents!

Did I sent it back? NO

How did you FIX IT THEN, TELL US!!!

OK, following the excellent advice of several guys that went
through this before in this forum, I removed the battery from the
camera, got it back on its pouch, stored it in my closet one
saturday morning, forgetting all about it until tuesday night,
when, I got it out of the pouch, inserted the battery (which is the
rechargeable if you care to know), turned the dial to ON, aaaaand,
YEAH, the camera started to function normally again, shot pictures,
downloaded them, you know, the works.

What is wrong with it? This is only speculation of course, but
maybe it really has to do with something going haywire with the
internal firmware that only fixes itself up by "resetting" the
camera once the internal battery runs out of juice. Once this
battery dies out, everything resets and starts working normally.
Even the photo series counter resets.

I emailed Nikon, their recommendation: "ship it back". Well, before
you do that give this a try, of course I am writing this a couple
of hours after it started working again, but I have read the forum
where people state that nothing has gone wrong with theirs for a
month or so.

Final facts, my camera did not receive any minor nor heavy bumps,
drops or falls, had it for just three weeks, out of the box and
brand new, taken no more than 500 shots with it before the dreadful
system error.

Wish list?: For Nikon to release some kind of "firmware update"
that can be done by a "brainless human" not a NASA geek, to be
downloaded via de supplied cable to the camera that fixes this and
maybe other bugs which I am not aware of, and, of course, secondly,
the fact that I dont have to ship the cute thing to Nikon ever.

So relax, take the battery out, store it for a minumum of three
days (darn difficult to wait for some, yes...) and give it a try,
it worked for me. Of course, you can always ship it back if
uncomfortable .
--
Canepa

Click to expand...

Coolslug said:

I wish that I had read your post last week as I had the same
problem with mine. I've had my camera for about a month. I sent
mine back to Nikon a week ago and am still waiting to get it back.
I am quite disapointed because I need a reliable camera that I can
take with me on my numerous motorcycle trips. I haven't even had
it out of my house yet, never mind travellling around the country
on a vibrating bike. I'm considering returning it to the store for
a different brand. My Sony Mavica has been with me for over two
years through many trips over bumpy roads without a flaw. I had
expected the same from Nikon. The Nikon sure does take beautifull
photos when it's working.

Coolslug

Jose Canepa said:

OK so you bought your Coolpix 880 and just by the time you were
getting the hang of it out of nowhere one day you turn de camera on
and the lens does not come out. The monitor works, the camera
"works", hell, you can even take pictures, but everything is blurry
due to the fact that the lens just does not want to "get out".

So I took worthless pictures, moved the dial to setup, play and
poked the buttons every which way I could trying to get it back to
normal only to find that when moving the button for the zoom to
"zoom in", triggered the lens to come out, waaay out, stopped, and
come baaaack in, followed by the ominous SYSTEM ERROR on the
screen. Of course the system error freezes everything on the
camera turning the On/Off switch worthless, having to remove the
battery the only way to shut it down.

Have you been spooked by this or perhaps similar symptoms? Well, so
did I, just to find out through the search at http://www.google.com for
the words "nikon coolpix 880 system error" this wonderful forum,
where other frustrated guys just like me had gone through this trip
before!

So, after all this, here is my two cents!

Did I sent it back? NO

How did you FIX IT THEN, TELL US!!!

OK, following the excellent advice of several guys that went
through this before in this forum, I removed the battery from the
camera, got it back on its pouch, stored it in my closet one
saturday morning, forgetting all about it until tuesday night,
when, I got it out of the pouch, inserted the battery (which is the
rechargeable if you care to know), turned the dial to ON, aaaaand,
YEAH, the camera started to function normally again, shot pictures,
downloaded them, you know, the works.

What is wrong with it? This is only speculation of course, but
maybe it really has to do with something going haywire with the
internal firmware that only fixes itself up by "resetting" the
camera once the internal battery runs out of juice. Once this
battery dies out, everything resets and starts working normally.
Even the photo series counter resets.

I emailed Nikon, their recommendation: "ship it back". Well, before
you do that give this a try, of course I am writing this a couple
of hours after it started working again, but I have read the forum
where people state that nothing has gone wrong with theirs for a
month or so.

Final facts, my camera did not receive any minor nor heavy bumps,
drops or falls, had it for just three weeks, out of the box and
brand new, taken no more than 500 shots with it before the dreadful
system error.

Wish list?: For Nikon to release some kind of "firmware update"
that can be done by a "brainless human" not a NASA geek, to be
downloaded via de supplied cable to the camera that fixes this and
maybe other bugs which I am not aware of, and, of course, secondly,
the fact that I dont have to ship the cute thing to Nikon ever.

So relax, take the battery out, store it for a minumum of three
days (darn difficult to wait for some, yes...) and give it a try,
it worked for me. Of course, you can always ship it back if
uncomfortable .
--
Canepa

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Blake said:

I also posted about this problem back in December. In my case,
leaving the battery out of the CP880 overnight was enough to clear
the error. It's been fine since then. I wish Nikon would admit
that this is a problem so at least their tech support would give
advice other than "send in the camera".

Click to expand...

gito said:

Blake said:

I also posted about this problem back in December. In my case,
leaving the battery out of the CP880 overnight was enough to clear
the error. It's been fine since then. I wish Nikon would admit
that this is a problem so at least their tech support would give
advice other than "send in the camera".

Click to expand...

I too just experienced the dreaded system error problem. Let me
get this straight, for all of you there was no indication anything
had happended to you camera, just one day you try to turn it on and
the system error message appears and nothing works except a fuzzy
monitor behind the system error text. I will try to leave the
battery out of the case for awhile say 3 days, and that should fix
it. It sounds as if I have the same problem, I hope this solves
that problem. Has anyone actually sent there 880 in for repair.
Did they indicate what the actual problem may be?

Click to expand...