Problem loading DCS420 firmware

Discuss older Nikon-based Kodak digital SLRs, including DCS 100, DCS 200, NC2000, DCS 400/600/700-series, etc. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
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Ross_Alford
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Problem loading DCS420 firmware

Post by Ross_Alford »

I just bought a DCS 420 SLR and downloaded all the software etc. This is mostly a collector's item, but I would like to get it working properly.

The camera works but does not charge the battery, although the charging indicator does as it is supposed to. The previous owner says he installed a new battery. I have not checked this yet. Anyway, on looking through the manual and reading about it on the web, it seems clear that these are prone to firmware errors and problems, so I thought that before fiddling with the hardware I would just see if reloading the firmware would accomplish anything. I downloaded everything from the Kodak support site have managed to get the TWAIN driver installed and working, and communicating with the camera.

The camera reports via the TWAIN driver that it has firmware version 011596 installed. The TWAIN driver appears to communicate OK with the camers--I can retrieve images from the PC card in the camera, when I press the camera self test button the camera display goes through a whole sequence of things and eventually the driver reports the camera passed (usually, about 1 time in 3 it says it failed and I should load firmware).

I tried to update the firmware-- ran dd605.exe, then ran the setup program from the disk1 directory, all the files ended up in C:\WINDOWS\TWAIN_32\Kodak-DCS (several DCS420X.BIN files and some other stuff). When I press the Load Camera Firmware button in the twain driver, I get a message "Loading the firmware failed (The firmware file may be invalid) PDC SDK Errno : 5E03" Any light anyone could shed on this would be helpful. Just to be sure, I downloaded the dd605.exe again, reinstalled the bin files, etc. Still the same problem, and it is very unlikely that the bin files are corrupt, unless they were corrupt before the dd605.exe was created, since the unzipping process involves CRC checks on file integrity, and it worked fine with no reported errors.

(added later) I should say that I have tried this now with three versions of the TWAIN driver, 5.8. something, and the two versions of 5.9.3 that are available on the Kodak site. All have been on a Win XP Professional SP2 system. Kodak notes on the site that these drivers do not support all tethered functions for SCSI cameras, but they don't say which functions are not supported, maybe firmware updating is one of them? Anyone know? If that is the problem I will have to get a Win 98 machine working with SCSI and try the older driver they have available, the one they say is the last one that fully supports SCSI cameras (already tried to install it on XP and it detects that it is the wrong OS and refuses to install).

Thanks,
Ross
Ross_Alford
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue May 16, 2006 1:10 pm
Location: Australia
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Post by Ross_Alford »

Well, I think I have solved all the problems, and thought I should share the fix(es).

I think the camera was not charging properly because its firmware was partially corrupt. I removed the battery, hooked it to a charger meant for 9.6 volt radio-controlled toys, and charged it overnight at 100 milliamps. Put it back in the camera and instead of working intermittently, the camera worked fine, could take photos on battery power, now reads a wider range of CF cards, acts entirely as it is supposed to. However, it still looked like the battery was not charging if hooked to the AC adapter--the battery charging indicator indicated charging, but it just kept doing it for hours.

I hooked up via SCSI to the computer again, tried again to load firmware (using the last full version of the driver) and this time it worked. The error message I was getting before, although it said the firmware file might be corrupt, was aparently caused by the fact that the battery was too low, so even when hooked to the AC adapter, the camera was operating a bit erratically.

After loading new firmware, hooked to charger, now the bars stop moving after about an hour and a half, as they should given the battery was partially charged.

Image quality, particularly with low light levels, seems to be improved too--I was getting horizontal yellowish bands indoors with about 1/2 to 1 second exposures, now I'm not.

So: externally charging the battery (outside the camera) to "jump-start " it, followed by reinstalling firmware, seems (fingers crossed) to have done the trick.
NikonWeb
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Welcome

Post by NikonWeb »

Hi Ross and welcome aboard!

I'm afraid I can't help you with this one, but perhaps these guys can? Kodak professional support is very good. Try to write them at this address:

kprodigital@kodak.com

Good luck!

Best regards,
Jarle

EDIT: For some reason I didn't see your second post until after I posted my reply. Glad you figured it out. Have fun!
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