Locked up Pentax K 5 - Help?

My K 5 has locked up. The train of events: Saturday night I checked the charge state of the battery in the body and in the hand grip. Both good. The memory card had 91 RAW images remaining. Sunday morning I went to a water fowl rookery in Port Royal, SC to shoot the birds. Mounted my Sigma 135 - 400 zoom to my tripod, mounted the K 5 to the lens, plugged in a wired remote release, and turned the camera on.

The top screen showed no response to changing shutter or aperture, no change in ISO. I turned the camera off, then back on. Still no response to the wheels. I tried an exposure, and the camera locked up. Mirror locked up, top screen blank. Nothing.

Back at our son's house I removed both batteries, and reinserted them. The mirror returned, I tried a shot. Mirror lockup, no top screen, nothing happening. Home here in Georgia I've done the battery thing again, but no luck.

Looking at the pdf of the manual the index mentions "Reset," but that of course requires access to the Menu. Anyone have any ideas, or do I now have a paperweight. I suspect that a repair would cost more than the cost of a second hand K 5.

The reset is likely returning the settings, ISO, exposure mode, focus point(s), metering mode, exposure compensation to factory default.
I'm not familiar with your camera but this sounds like a battery is bad. They show full charge but deliver no power. Try charging them again, remove the auxiliary battery grip and try each battery separately, try fresh AA batteries if you have the holder.

shutterfinger said:

The reset is likely returning the settings, ISO, exposure mode, focus point(s), metering mode, exposure compensation to factory default.
I'm not familiar with your camera but this sounds like a battery is bad. They show full charge but deliver no power. Try charging them again, remove the auxiliary battery grip and try each battery separately, try fresh AA batteries if you have the holder.

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Well, the camera had worked perfectly only a brief time prior to its failure at the rookery. Using the "fully charged" body battery only the camera briefly returned to life, then showed either battery depleted on the back screen, (two successful shots) then top screen showed only no battery and the camera wouldn't turn off. I'll try the pen light carrier. Many thanks!

Try it with no memory card then with a different memory card.
Clean the contacts on the batteries and the body with a pencil or ink eraser.

GRHazelton said:

Well, the camera had worked perfectly only a brief time prior to its failure at the rookery. Using the "fully charged" body battery only the camera briefly returned to life, then showed either battery depleted on the back screen, (two successful shots) then top screen showed only no battery and the camera wouldn't turn off. I'll try the pen light carrier. Many thanks!

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I found the carrier, six AA cells. Now to get some AAs...

Camera works on AA batteries but not on lithium ion batteries - 1 battery or 2 batteries = defective batteries or charger.
Camera does not work with any type of battery = faulty camera electronics.

shutterfinger said:

Camera works on AA batteries but not on lithium ion batteries - 1 battery or 2 batteries = defective batteries or charger.
Camera does not work with any type of battery = faulty camera electronics.

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I loaded AAs into the grip and all is well. The two Li batteries were Wasabi, which I bought in August of 2012. Pretty good life span!

Many thanks for all the help from PhotoTrio folks!

Happy shooting!