Weird problem with my Olympus XA2

Hey friends,


I got a Olympus XA2 for a good price a few weeks ago. The seller mentioned the self timer not working but I didn't really care for that so I got it.
The camera did work (except, as said, the self timer which just immediately shot a picture without counting) but I noticed it won't do longer shutter speeds than 1/2s.
I looked it up and found out it should shoot up to 2s.

The battery tester was also behaving weirdly. It made sounds like those internet modems back in the day (can't describe it any better) and the light flickered. But the more I turned it on it stopped doing that AND - all of the sudden the self timer did something. It was way to fast but it did beep and blink for a few seconds before shooting!

So my first idea was changing the batterys which I did. I tried several batterys (SR44 and LR44, new) but the camera just behaved the same.

One evening after playing around a bit with it I just let it open and on over night. I didn't do it on purpose, I just forgot to turn it off.
And well... The next morning, the camera completely worked. The self timer worked, the shutter speed went up to 2 seconds. I was happy.
Test shots revealed that it exposes correctly.

So now I noticed that all the problems come back when the camera is turned off for a while and I have to let it open for an hour or so for everything to work again.
I have never heard of a problem like that and I am wonderin what could cause that?
I don't noch much about technical stuff but I am courious. Is there are part inside the camera that got "tired"? That has to warm up?

I think I won't try to open it up because it DOES work, I just have to keep it on fir a while before I want to use it. Of course this will drain the battery faster but I can life with that as long as I can use the camera.

But maybe someone of you has an idea what could cause this or just has a similar issue. as I said, I have never heard of something like this before and couldn't find anything about it online.


Thanks a lot,

C.

Electronic devices only conform to theory when they work, when they fail anything goes.
Common failure components are electrolytic capacitors. They dry out and fail to hold a charge. In this case they/it causes the voltage on the main IC chip Vin to be .25V to .5V below the minimum the chip needs to operate and eventually stop leaking and hold the proper voltage.
Solid state devices also quit completely, fail when warm/hot and need to warm up to work properly.
You will not know what is going on in your camera until its opened up and the culprit is found.

Expect it to eventually fail to operate.

Never heard of such strange behaviour. Yes, my first thought was of a bad capacitator. Though I find it not very convincing, it still is my best bet...

I would not bother a repair attempt (exchanging all electrolytic capacitators) but instead waiting for coming across another sample of XA or XA2. I never paid more than 5€ locally.

That is not a "typical" problem! But here's something to check:
First, check the battery cover -- if it's the style with a small bump in the center of the interior surface, scrape across the bump with a blade. Those tiny bumps will sometimes "corrode", causing poor connection to the battery. And be sure to wipe and clean the outer lip of the battery cover, the negative contact inside the battery chamber, as well as the blades along the outer edges of the battery chamber that press against the lip of the battery cover.
After that, things get much more unlikely. As in, perhaps the ground screws to the circuit board are loose. That would require complete disassembly, removing the shutter from the body to tighten the screws that hold the main circuit in place that provide ground contact. And while inside, it would be good to carefully press against the legs of the main IC to be sure they are all well soldered to the circuit. All that assumes you see no evidence of corrosion or liquid damage inside.
But let's hope it just the battery cover.