I have two digital cameras that use 4-AA batteries.
A Fuji 2400 Zoom and an Olympus D510.

The Fuji has trouble getting started. If it tries to
open the lens and run the display and startup the system,
It shuts down. I can cycle power a few times and eventually
get it to stay on. When it's on it works great. Never taken
a lot of pix at one sitting, but battery life is not the issue.

The Olympus also has startup problems. It can't recognize the
smart media card, on startup. Wants to format the card, then gets
an error and trashes the format. Once it gets past memory test it works
fairly sell except it has transient memory write problems sometimes.

Doesn't have these problems on external power.
Sounds to me like transient load problems. High esr caps?

I've done the usual external things like clean the battery contacts,
make sure the batteries are fully charged, tried different brands 'till
I'm blue in the face. I've got NiCd, NiMH in capacities up to 2200MaH.
Some batteries are decidedly better than others.
Problem is that when I try to measure the internal resistance of the
cell, I get about 60-80milliohms/cell. It's in the same range on all
the cells from the ones that work fairly well to those that won't start
the OLY at all. I was hoping for a definite clue. Didn't get one.

Is there a common fault that I can fix?
Like high ESR on particular caps? Maybe should add some caps in a
particular place?

I took apart a Fuji 1400Z for practice. There's NO chance I'll be able
to power it up when it's far enough apart to probe. 'bout the only hope
I have is to find out what's likely the problem and check part by
part...or "shotgun" it and replace all the suspect parts.

I expect I could fix the Fuji with a cap on the line that senses low
battery voltage...If I could find it.
The Oly has more serious problems with failure to perform memory
operations. It's gonna need something to keep the volts up where it's
drooping.

Advice to trash the cameras won't be helpful. But I'd appreciate advice
on how to go about diagnosing and fixing them.

One more time: Battery life is NOT the issue. Soundness of the logic
of trying to repair them at all is not the issue. Failure to initialize
and random memory errors are the issues. I wanna make these cameras work
and learn something in the process.
Thanks, mike

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