Camera won't work. Only shows Change Batteries,even with new ones

The manual says:
The camera turns off immediately even when battery power is full.
The remaining battery power is low even if new batteries are inserted.
•The remaining battery power may not be displayed accurately, and the camera may suddenly stop working, when the type of battery and the settings on [BATTERY TYPE] are not identical. However this is not a malfunction. Depending on the battery
brand and the operating temperature, or if exhausted batteries are used, the remaining battery power may not be displayed accurately.
and:
Use sufficiently charged batteries when using Ni-MH batteries.
You also should set the correct battery type in the setup menu. So put in alkaline / NiMH or oxyride. According to what you are using.
Before you panic, buy a set of alkaline batteries, to make sure your camera is ok. Perhaps you are using rechagable batteries who are not ok anymore.

Even though the battery appears to be charging it may be shot. Some batteries if they run down too far can not be recharged. You need to try a new battery in the camera.

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.

Clean front and back + - terminals in camera careful with fine emery paper. Also, MAKE sure batteries are not loose if they are they will not make the connection. Fine jeweler screwdriver will pick them out enough.VERY CAREFUL.I truly think this is it.regards Billy

A capaciter in your camera is not working properly and is discharging your battery even when the camera is turned off (this is a cheap problem to fix but must be sent back to NIkon for repair

It turns out that the problem was the batteries. I put some good ones that I had in the camera and it started working just fine. Even though the others were showing that they at least partially working, maybe just not enough juice to really work. Anyway, with just about any problem - try new batteries first and see if there is any change or improvement.

I have this problem as well. I thought it was a problem with my NiMH batteries. So, I bought a volt meter to make sure the batteries worked. I have 8 AA NiMH batteries. I charged them all up and tested them with the volt meter. They were all good to go. However, no matter what I put in the camera one of two things happens:
1. I get the "change batteries" message.
2. I don't get the message, but the next time I check the camera (a few days later), one of them is totally drained.
Something is very wrong and I plan on contacting Canon.

It occurred lately with reloadable NiMh-batteries.
When I put in some alkaline batteries I had no problem.
I cleaned the contact surfaces of the NiMh-batteries and the contact surfaces in the camera. Up till now I have had no problems.
grt.
Aad

Dear Camera User, I am by no means a professional when it comes to these matters. However, I do have the same camera as you, and currently have the same problem. Other users with the same camera have also apparently had the same problem as us. I have not gotten a chance to try this yet, but I read that if you keep the camera on the video feature for a while, and maybe even try recording some video, the camera will finally power up properly and not have to shut down all the time. According to the user who suggested this, his camera worked ever since that incident. So it is very possible that this may be the solution, or at least, one of them. Good luck to you...and to me (I have yet to try it).

I purchased a *ist DS used a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out to have similar problems. This camera seems very fussy about batteries. I am using rechargeable NiMh AAs. After about 30-40 exposures, the camera shows battery depleted. If I turn the camera off, then back on, it will show a charge - sometimes a full charge and will work for another 20 or so exposures. It can keep this up for a couple of days.

I read an explanation in one of the photo blogs (can't remember which) that suggested this was caused by one or two incompletely charged batteries in set of 4. If one is discharged the current from the others supposedly will flow to it, giving fluctuating power readings to the power management curcuit. This sounded plausible enough that I purchased a new charger yesterday which monitors the charge on each battery. Too early to tell whether this solved the problem or not. The other option is to switch to disposable batteries.