I charged my praktika slimpix 5250 camera for a few hours, it has 2 AA batteries but after unplugging the charger and attmept to turn it on it just doesn't go on, It goes on after plugging the charger, and indicates mass storage and requests to press mode and change. But the menu doesn't come on or anything.. please help

Always charge batteries before using it for the first time, or if you have not used it for a long period. 3 months is a very long period.
Always charge sets of batteries (2 or 4) together.

Make sure your rechargeable batteries are all good. One defect in a set is killing for the whole set
Don't use barrettes from different sets or brands together.
I had one brand good NiMH batteries and a very expensive charger from the same brand. The charger destroyed all my rechargeable (more than 60 now). When I first discovered the batteries were dropping out, I stopped using the charger, but it did not prevent all batteries to die in the following months. Every time on dropped out I had to change the set. I tried using up the others by grouping the ones with the same Ri, but not longer then a few months and I had a box full to trow away.
Never use a quick charger, capable of charging them within an hour or faster. Us a charger that indicates the Ri is still low enough, so you can see what batteries are bad.
Check you are using a charger for NiMH batteries.
I would try another set (new) because buying Alkaline is also not cheap.
I used 2700 mAh and later 2600 mAh rechargeable, all dead now. since a few weeks I'm now using 2300 mHh from another brand, costing 1/5 of the "best" I had before, and they are doing great. I won't charge them with the quick charger.

Never use manganese (Zinc-Carbon) batteries in electronic devices.
These batteries are only to be used in flash lights.

Depends on what battery. car battery I charge with i 10 means with a current 1 / 10 of the capacity in Ampere hours for 14 hours. So a 80 Ah battery with 8 A for 14 hours.
A camera battery in the charger I got with the camera. Or a good universal charger from GP. A NiMH AA or AAA battery, with a quick charger that at least needs 2 hours to charge. The quick chargers I have that can charge in less than 2 hours (one can manage in 15 minutes) all kill batteries after a few charge cycles. Hope this helps.

You Might get one form here.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5m-Long-USB-Cable-Lead-For-Praktica-SlimPix-5250-Digital-Camera-/281243102156

Some camera will not turn on (Turn on but not take pictures etc) when you plug it in USB, it will only communicate with the camera PC suite software to transfer pictures.

Regarding the battery, if your camera has mobile phones type lithium ion batteries then you can either charge these batteries outside if you have a charger for them or put the battery in camera and plug the camera with its charger that came with it. Its just like charging mobile phone.

If your camera uses AA size (pencil cell) batteries then you will need to either buy Duracell batteries (or any other good Alkaline battery, Duracell is good) and throw them when they stop working or

Buy rechargeable AA size Ni-MH or Li-Ion batteries with charger. Charge the battery with its charger for at least 12 hours before first use or follow the instruction written on battery pack.

I think you are either using normal carbon AA size batteries that are used in clocks or toys, these will not work in digital camera.

Okay what happens sometimes is the charger gets into a feed back loop. What to do is remove the battery unplug the charger wait a few seconds (Maybe 20/30) plug the charger back into the outlet and then put the battery back in the charger. It should start to charge again and a few minutes later go to the blinking for full charge green.

It'll happen the other way as well meaning if the battery gets a memory (they say they don't but they do) you need to unplug the battery let is sit till it's cool and put it back on charge again. I've had this problem many times and have put it on charge and back off several times with in 15 minutes before it started to charge as it should.

Also these batteries do have a life span and if it's a three year old battery with many charges it could be failing meaning it just won't take a full charge.

with new batterys you may find if quicker to charge them in a battery charger and not in the camera,,,the camera charger is for "topping up" the batterys realy not fully recharging them its so you can leave the camera on its docking port and it will have fully charged batterys in it when you wont to use it,, to fully charge a new set of batterys it could take days,,,,so overnight is to short a charge to recharge them,,,leave the camera on its docking station for a fuw days at least, or use a home charger for your type of battery ie:AAA or AA, both take 16 hours to recharg fully

The Kodak camera that I own states in the manual that you can charge the batteries only with the printer/dock or separate battery charger. I've left mine plugged into USB for hours at a time and never noticed a charge going into the battery. I use both AA lithium-ion batteries and the pack that came with the camera. The Li-on AAs work as well as the pack and for a cheap price, I purchased 4 AA and the charger (about $15).

Please get it here : www.praktica-uk.com/dload.php
www.opendrivers.com/companydriver/.../praktica-free-driver-download.html

Regards, Jay

That is correct. The camera does not recharge the batteries. If you are using rechargeable batteries then you also need a compatible battery charger for the batteries you are using.

may be some problem in your operating system or the cd from which you are installed might be damaged ....

softwares are available in these sites:

www.fixya.com/search/p10047-praktica_slimpix_digital_camera/download_software

www.zandoelectricals.co.uk/Digital_Cameras/Praktica_Slimpix.html

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