Battery Reading Incorrect on M9

[Alexander Charles]

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Hello - I have recently noticed on my M9 that the battery indicator continues to show a 100% charge as the battery power discharges. Eventually the 'battery low' warning comes on signaling that the battery has completely discharged. Has anyone else encountered this problem or is aware of a fix. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

Alex

[lct]

Are you using a 3rd party battery?

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[Alexander Charles]

Thanks for the reply. I am using genuine Leica batteries that came with the camera. The life of the battery seems to be acceptable. The only issue is that the indicator displays 100% all the time.

[jaapv]

The best thing to do is to run it down all the way. That means disabling automatic shutdown in menu, and as soon as the camera shuts off because the battery is low, press the "set " button to activate emergency power. Repeat until the battery is fully empty. Then recharge and it should be recalibrated.

[Alexander Charles]

Thank you, that sounds like very good advice. I just followed your instructions and did the following: 1- disabled auto shutdown in menu, 2- waited for 'Attention Battery is Low' display to stop, 3- pressed 'set' button. Pressing the 'set' button did not prompt any display. The 'Attention Battery is Low' display continues to show when I press the shutter or on/off button. Is this normal? Should I just keep pressing the shutter until there is no more display? Thanks again!

[jaapv]

Just let it run down until it only shows a red flash when switched on.

[Alexander Charles]

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I'll give that a try and then put in new battery when I get home tonight. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks, Alex

[ho_co]

Alex, you're trying to recalibrate the battery circuitry.

 

When you get home, charge the battery you just discharged and re-use it. Don't go to a new battery yet.

 

Usually a case of this sort means that the informational circuitry in the battery isn't synched with its actual status; the full discharge followed by full charge will usually correct the error.

[Alexander Charles]

Hello - the 'fix' that you suggested seems to be working! Thank you very much for your help!

 

Regards,

Alex

[jaques]

didn't know that pressing the set button enables 'emergency power'? I guess that's in the manual? How much extra life does it add on average?

[msap7222]

Yeah, I wanna know about the "emergency power" too. Read the manual twice and could not see it. Is it a new firmware feature or little known tech tip?

 

 

Sent from my wife's iPad as she's asleep ZZZzzzz

[jaapv]

I'm not sure this trick still works under 1.196.

[250swb]

Pressing 'Set' was never in the manual, but it overides (or did) the low battery warning which was premature in many cases. It also allows third party batteries to carry on operating if they are not in sync with the camera. Eventually the camera would cotton on that a fully charged third party battery can't be empty after all, and the battery indicator would reset to the correct state of charge. I suppose all bets are off until somebody tries this with the new firmware (which I haven't installed yet).

 

Steve

[alieb]

Pressing 'Set' was never in the manual, but it overides (or did) the low battery warning which was premature in many cases.

 

I’m fairly new to the M9 but the low battery warning is just a warning that you can simply ignore or make it disappear with any button, not only the SET button. I’m thinking jaap’s tip would power the camera back up after it shut itself down because the battery ran out of juices.

 

Anyway: I’m running the latest firmware on my M9-P and I am currently draining out my battery to test whether this tip still applies and if it does to see how it does work.

Edited August 19, 2012 by alieb
correcting a typo

[alieb]

While I was draining the battery when the remaining charge was at ~25% the warning message I was familiar with started appearing on the LCD (Attention / Battery low / Switch off camera). Then when it was close to 0% the same message appeared, the only difference was the lack of the last line (Switch off camera).

 

I have been able to use the camera after the first "Attention / Battery low" message: I am not sure it was because of pressing SET or the shutter. After a few minutes this last message appeared again and at that point the LCD simply kept on displaying that message and I couldn't access any of the menu or get any other life sign out of the LCD or LED.

 

So if this is supposed to be the emergency mode, I did manage to use the feature in 1.196

[BlackPaint]

I’m trying this emergency power method now on 1.022.  Will update here if it works or not. 

[BlackPaint]

Fully drained the battery and let it sit for 24 hours. The battery meter in camera still will not show anything less than 100% even after I get the low battery message.  

[jaapv]

And other batteries? If there is something wrong with the battery power management of a battery it is a fire risk and should be disposed of.