Sony DSC W7 consumes battery in less than 5 minutes

my battery cover is NOT cracked, and i am having the same issue...so possibly it is not just that. wish i could help, but i'min the same bind too! I have had mine for two years and it just started this stuff :-(

Ok, gang, here is what I discovered with my DSC-W7. I initially started getting that camera message that said "please turn camera off then on". It always seemed to happen as I was zooming to the point where the optical zoom gives way to digital zoom for further reach. Sometimes the camera would just go black and the lens would freeze. I'd wait a while, then I could turn it on again. At first, I got my head wrapped around it being a camera logic or chipset problem. Checking the manual, I looked at the recalibration sequence, but that didn't seem to help. With my tech background, and knowing something about battery life and battery characteristics, however, I discovered the problem.

First of all, I was using NiMH rechargables, fairly new batteries. Better than ni-cad, of course, and they should have been fine. I've used NiMH for other gizmos. But I found, in measuring several sets of somewhat used batteries, that they were only reaching about 1.3 volts when fully charged. New AA batteries are 1.5 or even a little more. I surmised that the camera doesn't like working with batteries that are below optimum, and that it must have a fairly high threshold, or what we sometimes refer to when using battery backup systems as a "low voltage disconnect". In major systems, this saves big batteries from deep discharge. Anyway, I got some new, regular, non-rechargable alkaline cells, and also some AA lithium. Both indicated over 1.5. And the camera worked fine on those, even when I really did a lot of zooming, on-off cycles, etc. - to force the lens motors to work and load the batteries. No problems whatsoever.

So, you ask, in the previous scenario, why did the camera work again (if only briefly) after being turned off for a short time? Because batteries that are not completely or deeply discharged have a sort of bounce back characteristic. Just like a car battery that is low, when you try to start a car and it finally goes wow-wow-thud, and then you wait awhile you can crank the engine again somewhat. Same thing. In this case, there was just enough bounce back to bring the battery voltage back over the threshold so the camera would re-start, but shortly after that, under load, it crapped out again.

I have tossed out my NiMH batteries for this camera. Other cameras may have a different voltage threshold, but the W7 seems to be around 1.1 or 1.2 before it says 'I'm outta here'. Once I switched to AA lithium, even though they are throw-away, I get MANY more pics before they die.

This may not answer all W7 problems, but I'll bet it answers many of them in terms of weird behavior. Very likely power related.

I have a DSC-W7 cybershot, I use the factory charger with duracell 2650 batteries I can take pictures most of the day on one set of batts? Also use a 4G mem card. Battery life for me is excellent??

try using energizer lithium batteries. Mine was doing that because I broke the charger to the batteries that came with it and I was trying to use regular batteries instead but it would take like 3 pictures and die. I finally figured out that the energizer lithium batteries work and they last a pretty long time.

Mine is fixed (new door). I took about 20 pictures one after the other and still full battery. So it seems to be fixed!
I take out the batteries now if unused for a longer time.
Stupid plastic doors...

So I had the same problem with my camera. The issue is related to the cracked camera door. The crack protrudes through the large C & E on the bottom of the camera door. When you close the door the negative battery doesn't fully contact the copper node that located on the battery door. The solution I reccomend is to buy a new camera door. If you need a quick fix I would take a small needle & pry up the copper node on the negative side of the battery door. This will allow more contact with the negative side of the battery when the door closes.

Same problem for me. My battery door cracked and I assumed that was the source of the problem. Fully charged 2500 mAh batteries last 5 minutes max. .