Should I take this camera in for repairs or is there still hope?
January 28, 2016 8:21 AM   Subscribe

I have a Nikon Coolpix P-510. It has never worked right and I am trying to decide if I need to send it in for repairs or if there is still something I can do to figure it out.

I bought this camera for work a year ago and when I got it it wouldn't turn on or charge. I was in the middle of a stressful period at work and I foolishly put it in the category of "deal with later." It turned out that I never actually needed to use the camera and I kind of forgot all about it. Finally I turned my attention back to it and tried all of the methods suggested online. I bought a new battery, tried charging it with the wall charger, tried charging it with and without the memory card...no dice. I attempted to send it back to the seller on Amazon and on a whim tried it again. Suddenly, it worked! I was thrilled, put it back in the box and put it away.

Yesterday I actually needed to use it and surprise! It has the same original problem. The Amazon seller never responded to me and I am now out of warranty. I have two choices, I guess: send it back to Nikon or bring it to a local camera store. I have no idea what this will cost me, and I will probably have to eat the cost myself.

So I am looking for 2 things:
Have you successfully fixed this problem yourself? How?
Have you had a similar problem fixed professionally? How much did it cost?
posted by Biblio to Technology (4 answers total)
 
You may already have tried this, but I'll include it as an option you might be able to try for free: try different cables. If it's the USB cable that's the faulty part of this setup, you've probably got other cables on hand that will fit, so plug them in and see if anything changes.
posted by asperity at 8:56 AM on January 28, 2016


I'm guessing the alternative to using a wall charger is to charge from your computer via USB. Any chance your wall charger is also the USB type, and you used the same cable? Because the intermittent nature of the problem sounds like a short or bad connection.

On preview: exactly!
posted by jon1270 at 8:58 AM on January 28, 2016


Response by poster: It IS the same cable! I think my son's phone charger is the same kind. I will try it when I get home.
posted by Biblio at 8:59 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


How long did you let it charge? Sometimes cameras take a long time (multiple hours) to charge.

Also, when you plug it into your computer, does the computer "see" it?

There are, indeed, similar cables which can confuse you!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:56 AM on January 28, 2016


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