Panasonic PV GS39 will not power up

[finally17]

obviously, this isn't necessarily the right forum to post this in, but considering it might be camera specific, i figured i'd give it a shot.

before this past week, i had never used a mini DV camera at all. but due to being the most tech savvy person available, i was asked to take some video off of some tapes, which had been recorded using a borrowed Panasonic PV GS39 camera.

this wasn't a problem, and after a few minutes i was capturing the video from the first tape (of 2). since i had never done this before either, before going after the second tape i went to learn how to encode the AVI into MPEG2 so that i could (eventually) make a DVD of the two.

after i had this figured out, and had run a test encoding a small clip, i went to capture the video off of the second tape. PROBLEM: the camera would not power up.

during this entire time (from capture completion to attempting to take the first tape out), the camera had not moved from it's spot on the couch next to my machine. i thought, no problem, the battery is dead...so i went to put the other (charged) battery in...but the camera still would not power up.

after worriedly switching batteries back and forth a couple of times, the camera turned back on (for whatever reason) and i was able to capture the second tape with no problems

however, today, 4 days later, i went to return the camera and decided to check that it turned on again, and NOTHING. neither battery (both charged), nor the normal AC power source would power up the camera. and beyond the possibility of a loose connection somewhere, i can not guess why.

does anyone have any guesses, or has anyone experienced this with this camera before?

thanks in advance

[JohnnyMalaria]

If it is completely dead, it may have blown a fuse. I had that happen with a Sony miniDV camcorder. I purchased the service manual and learned that there were 4 such fuses designed to protect the unit from excessive surges of current from rogue batteries. Unfortunately, it knocks out the AC route as well.

(It is odd that your camcorder momentarily came back to life though).

The problem is that the fuses are typically micro surface mount - i.e., fiddly and, most troublesome, soldered directly to the circuit board.

If you are comfortable with it, you could open the camcorder, follow the circuit from the battery pack connection and work out where the fuses are. With a multimeter you can then readily test to see if a fuse has blown.

Replacing such a fuse obviously requires special equipment and will likely cost quite a bit. No doubt removing just the board and having it repaired would save some money (fewer labor costs).

In my case, I chose the somewhat questionable method of soldering a thin wire across the blown fuse - I needed the camcorder and couldn't afford the time/cost. This was okay because I only use the AC adapter.

One day, I really will get it fixed properly....

[finally17]

well...the owner took it out to best buy (couldn't say why) and apparently it turned on with both the battery and the AC adaptor right away...and this was an hour after he left my place..so i really don't know what's going on.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Weird.

Maybe a bad/loose connection inside?

[finally17]

something like that is my best guess so far.