Last ditch effort with H4D before abandoning Hasselblad

[greghaag]

I am having ongoing problems with my H4d randomly freezing up when turned on.  The hour glass that comes on during startup does not go away.  When this happens, I have tried everything I can think of to reset it; removing battery, removing lens, removing back, all with no success.  I have sent the camera in 3 times, it comes back working, but they do not understand why it is occurring.  Has anyone experienced this, if so, did you find a solution.   Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Greg

[NickT]

Ugh I feel your pain. For some reason the back and body are not talking to each other so the body is waiting to communicate with tieback, the only thing I can think of to check is the contacts between body and back.

If you connect the turned off camera to a computer does it all power up on it's own?

[greghaag]

Nick,
Thank you so much for trying to help!  I have cleaned the contacts.  If I understand your other question correctly, if the camera is powered off and I connect to the computer, only the back powers up.
Thanks again,
Greg

[NickT]

Yes you do. That confirms what I thought, that the back and body are not talking to each other. I cannot understand why it works for Hasselblad and not for you. Does it fail to connect every time?

[NickT]

To add to this, I do occasionally see this issue. When things are working well and After I power up the camera there is a slight pause and then a quiet click and the back connects. If I don't hear that click I'll know the two are not talking, this is confirmed with a look at the body lcd which will fail to show ISO or shots remaining (as both these are supplied by the back). On the rare occasion that this happens I drop the battery off the camera and try again, then it always re-connects. not sure if any of that is any use...

I suggest recording a video on your phone and sending the camera back to Hasselblad until they rectify it. Sorry you are dealing with this.

I once had a Saab that would just randomly shut itself down while driving... Scary stuff. Of course back at the dealer they could never replicate the issue. It turned out it was a sensor failing at a certain temperature, when they tested the sensor was cool and so didn't fail.

[greghaag]

Nick, thank you so much for your help!  I hope I do not regret it, but I am going to upgrade to the H6D-50.  I am so heavily invested in Hasselblad lenses that the thought of changing everything out was too much.
Thanks again,
Greg

[jerome_m]

Ugh I feel your pain. For some reason the back and body are not talking to each other so the body is waiting to communicate with tieback, the only thing I can think of to check is the contacts between body and back.

Not only these. If the contacts on the battery are dirty or if the battery is too old, power may drop under a level where the camera or back will boot, so the battery contacts should be cleaned as well (and another battery tried). If the camera fails to talk to the lens or even to the viewfinder, the camera may be in a state where it waits for them forever. I had sporadic camera problems which only happened with one lens and went away by cleaning the contacts

H cameras have lots of contacts due to their modular nature. These are a common source of problems, fortunately usually solved with a Q-tip and some contact spray.

[NickT]

Just thinking about what Jerome said, I wonder if you are sending the Camera to Hasselblad without a lens, and maybe the lens is causing the problem... Just trying to think of what is different when Hasselblad have the camera versus when you have it...

[greghaag]

That could be the issue.  I always sent it in with the 80mm lens, but rarely shoot with it.  With that said, I have traded it in for the H6D-50 and should have it in a week or so.  Thanks for all your help.