Garden Wildlife UK

I have a Canon PowerShot A560 which has always had an electrical problem since a relative gave it to me used in 2009. It always complains to change the batteries after 10 shots although the battery contacts have been replaced and the two AA Alkaline batteries are new. It will only use batteries with an initial charge of 1.5 VDC down to 1.4 VDC and then I had to use them in something else, therefore I needed pockets full of them.

Now that I only use my SmartPhone as a camera this A560 has sat in a shoe box since 2019. I replaced the button cell for the memory, cleaned the battery contacts, put in fresh batteries and now the problem has even grown worse in storage. It barely wants to boot at all and now not at all. The black screen shows 'Replace the batteries' and they are new!!!

Being I come from the electronics field, it would seem maybe possible a SMD electrolytic capacitor on it's board may have a leakage issue and gone resistive in nature. Alas, tearing the camera down to check or replace this is a task only for a good clock maker!

Have any of you had the same problem with this model???

I can now only use it as a paper weight and it is too nice to throw out.

Please help!

Best Regards,
Charles B

That's a shame Charles, maybe it is just a glitch. Have you tried a factory reset in the cameras menu if it has it. Lithium batteries hold their charge better but a lot more expensive.

Willpar wrote: Mon Sep 08, 2025 11:06 pm That's a shame Charles, maybe it is just a glitch. Have you tried a factory reset in the cameras menu if it has it. Lithium batteries hold their charge better but a lot more expensive.

It doesn't have a factory reset but maybe Lithium batteries are the way to go but I don't know if they are 1.5 or 1.2 VDC. The camera will only function at 1.5 VDC and not below that.

I've heard of other people having problems with this model too. But it's 16 years old and was my father-in-law's. So the wife wants me to fix it.

Maybe there is a Canon users forum on one of the social media sites. Give your problem a Google and see what turns up.

Jacksparrow wrote: Tue Sep 09, 2025 7:31 pm Maybe there is a Canon users forum on one of the social media sites. Give your problem a Google and see what turns up.

Well, so far I've only seen advice in internet and on Canon's website about cleaning the battery contacts.

But now that I think of it all: The external power jack was never used but tarnished dark; that also has a switched contact and is indeed in series between the batteries and the board! If could take the case apart only enough to drop the side panel with this jack out, then I could clean it up with white spirits!!!

Tarnished contacts on band switches of good old shortwave radios were also 'the death' of many good radios!

So I shall look for the A560 tear down video I once saw in YouTube (or maybe I did bookmark it) and clean this jack. Gosh! It's almost midnight here! Good Night!

Well, I just got finished doing the repair I discussed last night. And not to put a jink on it by saying so, but I think it's now fixed! That external power jack was full of tarnish and has a switch contact in there for disconnecting the batteries when an adaptor is in use. A drop of white spirits and some cotton wraped around the tip of a sewing neddle mopped it out good.

Now if only these crazy birds would sit still just long enough for me to test it! There are many younger Great Tits and Blue Tits here today buzzing in and out of my balcony's raspberry pergola structure like mini Spitfire aircraft flying 'dog fights' for play.