Unit appears dead.

I have noticed exactly the same issue with my Sony XDR-S55DAB

Even if it has batteries installed but only working off mains electricity, after several months it will not start when the power button is pressed and I have to replace the batteries.

The radio will work again if you just replace the batteries with fresh ones

Try this next time the batteries go flat; disconnect the radio from the mains, replace the batteries with fresh ones, and leave for a couple of minutes (you do not have to switch on!).

You can remove the batteries if you like then reconnect the mains cable and press ON

If your radio behaves exactly the same as mine, it will spring into life so how come?

In the "olden days" ie pre-2000, small portable radios often had a physical switch which connected and disconnected the power supply be it battery or mains.

Nowadays, many radios don't have a "proper" switch, but a "function" button - press it on, and the radio operates, press it again and the radio stops - to enable this, a very small amount of charge is required to keep the central "brain" alive in order to notice this, and in the case of the Sony XDR-S55DAB, this only seems to be supplied by the battery, not the mains adapter.

My advice is simply keep a spare set of batteries handy and replace them whenever your radio wont turn on. Using the mains adapter allows the batteries to lastfar longer than using the batteries on their own.

It is completely counter-intuitive that a "battery/mains" radio needs batteries to work off the mains, but this is the only design fault can find in an otherwise excellent radio.

This small back-up battery on my Sony is under the main big power battery, it is like a large screw under the main power pack, I just turn that screw and the little round lid comes off to get to the little silver flat back-up one.
They are readily available from most good camera shops like Jesops for around £12 to £15 each.

The Charger that comes with the cam is said to go faulty 99% of the times. I too was shocked to see my cam in the dead condition. Checked a few things on the multimeter and found the charger to be faulty, tried replacing the charger with power supply that i designed for 8.4Volts output and the cam was back to life and started charging.!!! Hope this should help. ... you can email me for the desing of the charger or buy a new charger from an auhorised Canon dealer.Email : [email protected]
thanks 7 regadrs,

Ankur Puranik

How old is your battery? When you use your laptop, do you run it on just the battery or do you use your a/c adapter and battery? If you're going to use your laptop for an extended period of time, it's recommended to remove the battery and run off of a/c power alone. This helps to extend the life of your battery. Over time, using both a/c and battery will cause your battery to charge/discharge, which dramatically shortens the life of the battery.

You may simply have a dead battery.

Another alternative is that you have a bad power unit, which is what the a/c adapter plugs into on your laptop. My guess is that you most likely have a dead battery.

Sounds like the cells inside of the battery are weak and can't hold the charge. If possible, try a known good working battery and then charge it up. If the charge holds and you can run the battery off of it for a while then you know the original battery is bad.

If you try a known good battery and the charge still doesn't hold then it could be the main board inside of the GBA is bad and you would need to get another system unless the one you have happens to still be under warranty.

You can also try a know good ac adapter at that point as well to make sure your adapter isnt flaky but if you can turn on your gba with just the adapter hooked up then more then likely the adapter is good.

Camcorder has charging circuit but it could go defective. The repair would be costly so in this situation, you can purchase stand-along battery charger for around $20 and charge the batteries independently. Make sure all the contacts are cleaned and camcorder is working with direct ac adapter. Good luck -James. for furnter assistance by email, go to www.camerarepairjapan.com

Batteries have a limited life even if they are constantly charged.
Leaving batteries in constant charge will limit their life by causing gas leakage. Once depleted, they must be replaced. There is also a small button battery that keeps unit memory up, if you do not use camera for months at a time, replace this battery also.
Ni-Cad batteries need to be refreshed ony once a month by discharging them fully, then recharging them fully for best performance to erase memory effect

2.7 volts is too low. Usually camcorders use battery at least 6 volts. Problems with rechargeables especially NiCds and NiMH, a cell will be shorted. for 6 volts pack, there are 5 cells in series (5 pcs x 1.2 volts with load , 1.35 no load). If you are measuring only 2.7 volts, it is highly possible that 3 cells are dead. As for the charger, if the same charger is used to power the camcorder and you said the the camcorder operates using the adaptor, this means that the charger is OK. You can ZAP the battery back to life but I will not recommend. It can be dangerous. If you can buy the battery, I suggest you do it since the old battery, even when zapped, will not provide enough juice anymore.

Bummer, especially after getting a new battery. Based on what you have described, it appears that there is something definitely fubar with the camcorder. Only thing is that you have to decide if a repair on the unit is cost effective. Given the high price of proprietary parts and labor it might be better for you to just go shopping and walk away from this unit.

Your unit is a 2004 model. If it has never been used since then the battery is probably no good and will need replaced. Batteries discharge 20% on a monthly basis just sitting on the shelf so yours went dead a long time ago. Then if they are left in that state (dead) they sulfate which means that sulfur oxides transfer to the plates and form an insulating surface. At that point all the charging in the world is not going to bring it back. All you can do is get another one. They are available at most stores which sell electronics. Get a new battery and charge it per the instructions and try using it again. This should solve your problem. Good luck.