Nikon FE2 suddenly dead?

Hey guys,

So I was shooting yesterday, and noticed maybe my batteries needed to be replaced because the needle was sometimes only giving a reading as I held the shutter button half way. Next thing I know, I take a picture and the mirror locks up. Great. I assume it's just the battery and set it to mechanical 250th and release the mirror. Today I put in new V76px's in and... nothing. The meter doesn't respond at all and only the M250 fires. Now as I'm writing this, I put the batteries in and out a few times and got it to come back to life. Took them out again, and nothing for another couple tries until I brought it back again. Now I'm just going to leave them in there as is now that the camera is back alive, but what could this be? Electronic contacts in the bottom, meter issue?

Thanks

Clean all the contacts including those on the new cells with a pencil eraser, the ink type if you have one. Don't handle the cells more than necessary.

The cap, beleive it or not can cause problems. I have had FEs and FAs with battery issues start working when the cap was replaced.

In addition to the above advice I would clean the threads in the bottom and the cap as they are the contact points for the cap to complete the circuit. Alcohol or lighter fluid or coleman fuel (naptha) work well.

I swab the battery compartment with rubbing alcohol and dip the new batteries in same. This usually fixes things.