Leica M10-P “brain” freeze ?

[Peer]

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Hello.

I purchased my m10-p in Dec19, new from official dealer.

It randomly freezes during start up : black screen, no access to menus and “Sd” is blinking in the viewfinfer. I either have to wait few minutes or restart the camera or remove and re-insert the battery to use my camera. I tried out many SD cards (all brands, all types, all capacities) and with 3 different Leica batteries...

But, still, my M10-P behaves like a spoiled diva !

This seems not to be a unique case and affects M10 and M10-P bodies. There are some posts on the net and on youtube about this malfunction. Leica has no answer and only proposes to retun the camera under warranty to get it fixed (how?), which will take...4-6 months.

This is a serious quality issue. For the price tag, you deserve to get nothing less than absolute excellence !

But for now I have to keep my Canon(s) with me as a backup in case my “Diva” refuses to work...

If you have any solution or recommendation, pls share.

Thank you.

[jaapv]

SD blinking means that the problem is with the SD card. Start by cleaning the contacts: a small amount of contact cleaner (electronics or hardware shop) on the contacts of the card and insert a few times.
Then use a new card bought from a reliable shop and format in the camera. Make sure the card is not locked.

This should clear the problem. If not, there is something wrong with your camera. Consult with Leica. Intermittent faults are the most difficult ones there are to get repaired or even diagnosed. Murphy's Law says that they will never happen with a repair person present.

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[Peer]

Thank you.

but I tried out so many different sd cards, cleaned them, etc....

No success ! 

[jaapv]

Then your only recourse is Leica Customer Service. 4-6 months appears unduly pessimistic to me, although the Covid lockdown and adapted working conditions may well cause a delay.

Something like this may well be caused by an intermittent contact in the SD card reader. The camera may be expensive, but this is a 5$ generic part. (on all camera brands )

[Kwesi]

Hi Peer,

A few things to try. Are you able to start up successfully without a card inserted? if so its possible that your cards are corrupted or have an unreadable sector-causing the freeze(hang up).

This can happen very easily if you delete pics from the card - especially while in camera.

My suggestion is to download sd formatter and do a full format of your card then insert in camera and format in camera then use as normal except don't delete pictures from card and see if this helps.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/eula_mac/index.html

 

In the meantime it also wouldn't hurt to reach out to Leica in case there is a virtual queue for repairs that you can join.

 

[sarkleshark]

My M10 has begun doing the same.  Tried different cards, batteries. Leica USA was very resonsive.  Asked tme to reformat the card outside the camera and then in the camera but that did not fix problem..  If i fire the shutter it sound like the shutter will fire but no image is taken .  If I do this and fire the shutter form 1 to 4-5 times the camera then becomes responsive and the Sd message goes away.

Help!

thanks

 

 

[oka]

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Mine got stuck when I shoot a lot. Only happens on wedding gigs.

Little weird shutter sound, screen stays blank and nothing happens. Only solution is to remove battery and then it works for a while...

I send it to the repairs and for my surprise they swapped few logic boards. I was told that they read multiple errors from the camera.

...I don’t know if this is common practice for all cameras, but it’s great that M10 stores error codes which can be retrieved later by the service as many problems like this is difficult to reproduce.

Edited April 29, 2020 by oka

[helohe]

My M10P randomly does the same thing. I sent it for repair twice, they did not find anything. After the last firmware update, I did not experience lockups anymore. But maybe I was just lucky so far. (Or the camera is waiting to lock up again as soon as the warranty expires :P)

[Peer]

Just an update on my Leica M 10-P with these symptoms.

I tried all the "tricks" you can imagine, but none of these could fix the problems.

So, had to send the camera to Wetzlar where it got repaired (change of control board) under warranty and returned to me 3 weeks later. Now it works fine.

I asked Leica Customer-Service about some comments on the problem.....but "no comment !" other than they notice a lot of "system errors" in the memory logs....

 

[oka]

4 hours ago, Peer said:

I asked Leica Customer-Service about some comments on the problem.....but "no comment !" other than they notice a lot of "system errors" in the memory logs....

 

Glad to hear you got it fixed.

Im bit overwhelmed with all the reliability issues on M10 series (I have no experience prior to M10).

I have bought 7 M10/P/R/M, (upgraded on every update) 3 of them had severe problems (sensor/shutter/rf/logic board replacements). 6 of 7 had RF misalignment. Lenses also suffer from the calibration issues.

This has happened in so many users in my region that it’s impossible to explain it with just bad luck.

First I was frustrated but then faced the fact that if I want to shoot with Leica, this part of the game you have to play.

But seriously, this is something what management should fix. It tarnish the reputation and it cuts the bottom line.

Previously I shot with Canon gear, I’ve had 10+ 5D series’s bodies, none of them had serious issues (but had to recalibrate the lenses and bodies regularly so on this regard it’s same with Leica).

[DrDaveH]

I just sent my m10-p to Leica for the very same problems.  Have reformatted smd with Leica software, reset the camera,    Nothing.  Just random freezes where the Evf stays dark.  Sometimes I hear a shutter but. No pics are produced. I can reset it by turning it off and on.  Then it will work for a while.      Freezes the most in hot weather.   

[chris_tribble]

I know I'm tempting fate, but just to reassure others, I've had 2 M10's from launch and haven't experienced any of these problems.  Throughout this period I've used Sandisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s SDHC 1 32GB cards.  I used SD Formatter to format at the beginning of use.  Since then they've been formatted in-camera (I never use "delete all" as a way of clearing the card...)

I hope this helps.