Kodak DX6490 Hi, I have a Kodak DX6490. The camera hasn?t been used for a while and upon charging the battery and switching the camera on to "auto", the green camera symbol starts flashing but both the screen and viewfinder remained blank. The camera gives a soft click, but the lens doesn't move and the camera doesn't respond to any of the buttons. After a couple of seconds, the screen starts to glow very faintly. This glow is very obvious in a darkened room, but invisible in daylight. There are no other apparent signs of life. I have discharged and recharged the battery several times and tried the camera on mains power from the adapter, but the symptoms persist. Switching the camera off does not stop the light flashing - only removing the power source does that. Is there a way of resetting the camera to fix this, or would I have to send it to a repair centre to get it fixed? Is it worth fixing do you think? Any help you can offer will be appreciated.

Yes sometimes the color of the light changes to. Yes the battery is about to die on the camera..I only buy kodak digital..lol

You can charge the battery with the charger that came with the camera. Or you can charge the battery with the camera dock. For that to work, you should switch off the camera. While the charging is stopped as soon as you switch on the camera.
If you don't have a dock nor a charger, you could buy a new universal battery charger. Several brands do have universal camera battery chargers. Those new chargers sense what voltage your battery needs and will give no more.

Sounds to me that if you bought 2 chargers then you have a bad battery. what are the odds that you have 2 bad chargers ? Time to buy a new battery.

Hello, sounds like you have a faulty battery,if the battery is several years old it will lose the capacity to boot the camera and the dock is trying to charge a defective battery,if you get a new battery, charge it for at least 6 hours or more.Hope this solves your problem.
Regards,Russell

Hello, If the batteries you have are charging up with no problems then it sounds as if the rotary switch has gone 10 - 7. This model Kodak suffers from a great deal of switch problems. Cheap China plastic.
There are thousands of owners with these cameras having switch problems as the cameras age. Only cure is to replace the camera. It is not cost effective to repair.
Best Regards, Russell

Hello, Sounds like you may have a battery problem. The DX6490 battery loses it's capacity over time, If the battery is a couple years old they are known to fail. May not be any problem with camera, try a new battery and let it charge completely before installing it.
Best Regards, Russell

CHECK THE FLEXABLE TIENS IN THE CAMERA. AFTER MANY USES THE TIENS GET PUSHED IN. USE A SMALL HOOK ASSEMBLY AND PULL THE TIENS OUT TO TOUCH THE BATTERY.REMEMBER TO BE CAREFUL AND NOT PULL TO HARD ON THESE, THEY CAN BREAK.THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME ABOUT MY CAMERA NOT COMING ON!!!

See if the camera is asking for the date to be relaoded. Tiny clock battery dies after a few years. Not a big problem

mine did the same thing, only it hadn't been dropped. Turns out, the battery went bad. The repairman said that the life of those batteries is only about 3 years average. He also said the average lifespan of the camera itself, with frequent usage, was only 3 years! I am still hoping to get the auto focus fixed on mine though. I sure did love that camera.

Hi,
I presume the camera is out of warranty?

There are many possible problems..
would the old battery charge on the fast charger at all or did it do strange things (dont do it now to try), If the battery was shorted, and you tried to charge it on the dock it may have damaged the cameras internal power supply, which is quite a complicated device, there are fuses but they are absolutely tiny and you need special equipment to fit them properly.
Also the flash capacitor lives on the power board which can keep its charge for quite some time at up to 300v at a substantial current and will make you drop the camera (at least) if it bites you.. :) so from the safety angle if you don't have at least some electronic training I cant recommend opening the camera..

The only possible suggestion that is a relitively easy fix is that the battery contacts may be bent or dirty.

Beyond that as I currently don't have my test dx6490 (used for checking voltages with units in for repair etc..) .. the next try is the dc socket, it may be damaged, or contaminated. try inserting and removing quite a few times and maybe using a VERY small amount of electrical switch cleaner.
Unfortunately to get to the socket if it is broken requires the whole camera be striped down as its just about the first board you fit when re assembling.

If you are adventurous, probably the easiest route to getting a camera back up would be to buy a faulty one from ebay. One with a broken screen or mode switch would be the easiest fix as you only need to remove the back and disconect and reconnect three ribbon cables.
Next would be a lens swap for one with a broken lens but requires quite a significant amount more work.
although the most difficult bit in both procedures is getting the diopter knob (eyepiece focus) on and off which in most cases means a small amount of damage will be done to the eye piece but nothing really bad, just cosmetic (kodak would replace the bit)...
If i can be any more help drop me a line....

best of luck