Rapidly blinking charger – any suggestions please?

[marcg]

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I bought second-hand battery for my M1M.

I've tried charging it and both lights – the green and the amber lights on the charger are simply blinking very rapidly.

Anybody familiar with this please?

 

[AlanJW]

Both lights blinking means a problem with the battery (or, rarely, the charger).  If the charger works with other batteries, then it is the battery.  Does the battery power the camera?   Batteries do not have an infinite useful life. If it does power the camera, the only thing I can think of is to see if you can run it down to zero and then charge it again.  If all that fails, you'll need to see if you can return it and get a refund. You may have bought a dead battery (you did say it was used). 

[marcg]

Yes I was coming to that conclusion.

I have to say that the seller has been magnificent. I simply flagged it up to him to warn him that there might be a problem and I would let him know – and within half an hour he wrote me a message apologising and making a full refund - without asking for its return or anything. 
That is a seriously consumer-facing eBay seller!

I told him that if it bursts into life then I'll let him know and pay him – of course.

[a.noctilux]

Hello Marc,

you can see the date of manufacturing somewhere on the battery:

"XX YY one letter" XX  week of  YY year

May it be too old ?

[marcg]

It is an old battery but I have a couple of others which are similarly old – M 8 which is still going strong. He sold it very cheaply – but anyway he's refunded me so that's very kind of him and I'll see if I can bring back to life weekend although I don't hold out much hope. I have jolted them into life before by freezing them and then putting them into the oven for a while – on a low heat. Not very scientific – that it has worked.

Don't try this at home!

Edited March 21, 2020 by marcg

[ianman]

Age is not the only factor. I'm still using the battery that came with my M9 in 2009.

Of course there could be a manufacturing defect but also the number of charge cycles. I'm not sure if this is so important now but I just about always let a battery run out completely before recharging.

[Keek]

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It's happens when you want charge full battery. Take some pictures and try again.

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Keek

[marcg]

Thanks but the battery doesn't even power the camera on.

Anyway when my batteries are fully charged the lights just come on without blinking at all all.

 

[ianman]

16 hours ago, marcg said:

Anyway when my batteries are fully charged the lights just come on without blinking at all all.

Same for me.

[marcg]

Anyway, I've tried my usual bit of hot and cold rough treatment.  This battery wouldn't respond if I pushed 10,000 V up it. –  it is definite that it has turned up its toes.

It is no more
it is an ex-battery
it has toppled off the twig
it has gone to a far better place
bereft of life it is no more
it is pushing up the daisies
it has croaked
it has kicked the bucket
it's a stiff
it has bleedin' snuffed it

it is a dead battery.

[Graham (G4FUJ)]

Time to find another one, and put this defunct battery into a battery re-cycling centre.

[marcg]

I'm in Paris – not allowed out at the mo.  

[Ko.Fe.]

If it doesn't power camera and charger blinks it means dead battery charger can't charge.

[marcg]

Two chargers and they both charge other batteries with no problems

[otto.f]

I had this problem a few times, but not anymore. I just put the charger with battery off and on in several ways, pulling the plugs out, putting the battery back in and out of the camera etc. and now it’s working again. 

[jaapv]

Batteries do have a fail-safe circuit that cuts in to prevent them from for instance overheating. If a battery fails like this one, don't fiddle around  trying to revive it - the circuit  probably cut out for a good reason.

https://gulfnews.com/uae/dubai-resident-left-with-second-degree-burns-after-vape-machine-explodes-1.69916638

[FTI]

Coincidently I had the same issue this weekend. Rapid blinking lights on the charger and battery not holding a charge. I left it in the charger a second time for a few hours and then the blinking disappeared and it did charge. Think my battery is making an exit planning...