D3 Battery issue

[Michael J Posner]

I bought a nice low mile used D3. Camera said battery status was a 1 and 94 charged but need calibration. Put battery in charger and ran calibration. Now battery is dead and charger is flashing green at the top and at 50%/2hours.

Is battery dead or charger bad?

 

[fpapp]

Nikon battery?

Nikon Charger?

The calibration process sometimes takes 6-8 hours.

 

[Simon Stuart]

Calibration discharges the battery and then recharges it…

 

[m43Nikon]

???

2 days ago you said your new D3 works perfectly and you got multiple batteries.

Are you saying one of the batteries isn't charging? Under the circumstances only you can answer your question.

Does the charger work on the other batteries? Chargers are pretty simple and reliable, whereas battery are chemical and they have limited lifetimes.

2 hrs in not am adequate test/charge cycle. Try overnight, Try 3 times. Calibrate if it allows you to. The discharge/recharge process seems to be important with old batteries.

 

[Michael J Posner]

Yes I got 2 days ago and was working perfectly. Only one battery though.

Camera said to calibrate battery.

I did that overnight.

I suspect that the battery was too hot. I put in fridge for an hour and then it recharged in 3 hours, now at 100% and gets a 1 score from Camera. 0 is best 4 is shot.

 

[Simon Stuart]

Good result! Does the battery have a manufacturing date on it?

I had a new old stock made in 2017 fail immediately in 2024.

 

[Michael J Posner]

I looked no date I could find. I think the seller was the original owner of this D3.

 

[fpapp]

I looked no date I could find. I think the seller was the original owner of this D3.

Nikon didn’t start putting the production dates on the batteries until 2016, which means that it’s 2015 or older. Since it has a life rating of 1, it should still be usable for a while.

 

[Parry Johnson]

You may be better off with a new replacement battery. Of course, you're looking at a third-party battery, but even if it's not quite as powerful as the genuine Nikon battery, it'll probably still last longer than any older one.

I bought a Cameron-Sino brand EN-ELa for around $25 US a few years ago when I bought my very well-used D3, and it still shows #1, whereas the Nikon battery will take a charge, but it won't keep the charge for more than a day (and now shows #4 for lifespan, so I don't dare calibrate it again).

A recent Amazin search shows less options, but one even cheaper option at $28 CAD. What do you have too lose? An extra (good) battery is always helpful.

 

[Michael J Posner]

Good points and that is what I will do. I have had good luck so far w/3rd party batteries.

That said, this one show 1 and holds a charge so appears for now to be good.