D90 Errors? Ever heard this?

Eia

I just got a new D90. Now... I'm starting to read and hear about alot of D90 owners getting a 'CHA ERR' error. Seems they don't know if it is the camera or the new Sandisk III cards. Have any of you heard about this? I hope I get spared but it seems like it takes an avg. of two or three weeks to see this error.
Yikes...

Qarik

Never heard of it.
I have had mine for about 3 months now. No problems.

ziggy53

CHA Error is nothing new in the Nikon world.

The first thing I recommend you try is resetting the camera with the 2 green buttons on the top right of the camera. First remove the lens. Hold those buttons in simultaneously for 5 seconds. This will take the camera back to "factory" settings. Now go to the Menu, Custom Controls, Reset.

If you are using a lens with an aperture ring, move the ring to the smallest aperture when you attach the lens.

The error seems to be more prevalent when certain lenses are attached. You may want to also clean the mating contacts of both the lens and the camera body.

After any images of value are off-loaded onto the computer, do a camera format of the memory card.

You may also need to put something in the battery door to add a little extra pressure to the battery to help it make better contact. If you have a battery/vertical grip attached, remove it and clean the contacts of the grip and the internal connection to the camera.

The error is apparently a general error for failure of the card to communicate properly with the body or a general electrical error. It does also seem to be related to the lens and the battery contacts. It would seem to be exacerbated by either poor battery connection or even third party batteries which are not able to supply enough power during heavy drain.

trunx

I too own a D90 (I haven't seen the error) and had just read as recently as yesterday on another photography forum (shame on me ) that some of the first models were more susceptible to the error than recent models produced.

Eia

trunx wrote:

I too own a D90 (I haven't seen the error) and had just read as recently as yesterday on another photography forum (shame on me ) that some of the first models were more susceptible to the error than recent models produced.

I had wondered if it was from the first generation of models made. After Christmas and lots of people getting this camera there seems to be a huge amount of D90 owners with the same problem. I would be tempted to return/exchange it vs. than trying to fix the problem myself, especially if the process ziggy (great information) recommended needs to be continually repeated. However if this is the problem with all the D90's a new one would not be the answer. Other than that, I think this camera is fantastik!

ziggy53

Again, the problem is not limited to the D90 models. It is not really even limited to Nikon cameras.

Other cameras may manifest the same (or similar) problem with different messages or in different ways.

None of the potential solutions I mentioned is damaging or permanent and none should affect your warranty. Replacing the camera will not help if the problem is related to a lens or particular memory card, for instance.

Replacing a camera can, in some instances, make the problem worse as some individual cameras are more sensitive than others.

Be on the lookout for possible firmware updates as those sometimes alleviate or greatly lessen the problem.

If it were me and my camera I would also purchase another brand of memory card just to rule out that possibility.

Shane422

I had it show up once on my D90. My D90 was purchased the last week of Halloween. I simply turned the camera off then back on. Once back on, I formatted the card and haven't seen the problem again. The card was a Sandisk UltraII 4GB card. I would not worry about it.