D40x Press Shutter Button Error Fix by Steve Jackson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at jacko0.wordpress.com.
In August 2009 my girlfriend and I went to Calgary in Canada, we hired an RV and drove through the Rockies, I took with me my Nikon d40x and two lenses.
After a few days of driving from campsite to campsite, we decided to climb to the top of a mountain in Jasper. At the summit, I setup the tripod and placed the camera on top, ready for a timer shot.
As we waited for the timer to count down, a gust of wind blew the tripod and camera over and smashed onto the ground. After brushing off the dirt and dust all seemed fine, my new 50mm F1.4 lens was ok and the D40x was still working.
However, the next day i saw the dreaded display, “Error. Press shutter release button again”. Whatever I tried would not clear the fault, my holiday with the D40x was over.
I now had to use a Casio point and shoot, not a great replacement but it’s all we had.
When we got back to London I had some quotes to repair it, but they we more than the camera was worth. I also tried to claim on my insurance, but it worked out cheaper not to claim!
As a last resort, I opened the camera up and tried to see what the problem was. Below are the steps I used to fix my D40x.
Since that day in 2009 this blog has helped many people to fix the fault, and others have copied my advice to other sites helping even more people.
The following procedure is what I used to get my D40x working again, many others have since done the same, most with successful outcome, some not. But as with any unauthorised fix it could go wrong and render your camera useless.
What you need:
- Get a very small cross head screwdriver (watchmaker size)
- Silicon Grease (I used WD40, but grease is better)
- Sticky tape
- A good light
Remove the Battery and SD card
Take pic with another camera or make a note of the location of all the screws, so when you come to reassemble you don’t the screws mixed up (some are different sizes).
Open up the bottom of the D40x putting the small screws onto the sticky tape in order of removal.
There is a small red gear wheel that drives the shutter. The problem seems to be (at least with mine) that it became stuck and/or have too much friction for the motor to drive the shutter.
I wanted to apply some Silicon Grease to the gear wheel but I didn’t have any to hand so i used some WD40 spray.
Silicon Grease might be better as it will cling to the wheels and provide lubrication for a lot longer than WD40. But saying that my D40x is still running fine months later. The only thing to remember is DON’T USE TOO MUCH, if any drips down into the camera optics you might get big problems.
Spray a SMALL amount of Silicon Grease onto the red and white gear wheels.
Put the battery in and hold it down to make contact, next put in the SD card and switch on the camera and try the shutter button. (switch it to manual focus or it might try hunting around for ages for focus)
It might start working, if not try and move the red wheel a few stops with your finger or a small screw driver and then try again.
Once the gear wheels are lubricated and the wheels move it should be ok.
Keep taking some test pictures until you feel it’s ok and no more shutter jams occur.
Then reassemble following the screws backwards on the sticky tape remembering that some are different lengths.
Enjoy your D40x once again
PLEASE DON’T COPY THIS TEXT TO ANOTHER SITE, JUST LINK HERE TO THIS BLOG POST!
I’m not liable for any damage that could be caused by this procedure.
My site at www.jacko.co.uk
Jacko's Weblog 
maybe grease from old vhs,cd or dvd-machine is a better soulution? one of my friends has just fixed his camera with a help from this site. 🙂
but the fact that he lives in the arctic and uses the camera outside and inside with too much temperature change mader the grease evapourate?
hehe he says it sounds strange without grease.
yea, why not if you have an old VHS or DVD player lying around why not give that a try!
I am glad it worked for him, my D40x had no grease on the gear wheels from new. So maybe that’s why after sometime it wears and the motor won’t drive the shutter.
jacko0 thank you for posting but i have to ask how little should id be putting on the gears and where to i spray? i will use the red straw on wd40 on this. Did u use a dropper or something or you just went straight spraying a WD40 right away? My D40x just got this problem today and I do hope this will work as it make total sense that the gear wont turn due to so many clicks.
I used WD40 as that’s all i had. But silicon grease might be better as it will stick longer to the wheels. If you use WD40, only use enough to fix the problem. I used about two quick sprays and made sure nothing dripped down into the body of the camera
Jackoo
Your remedy worked superbly. I did not have to remove plate.
I used WD40 and instead of spraying directly onto wheel I coated a small artists brush and gently applied.
Keep up the good work—you just saved me £100.
Select any image from either of my web sites and I will send you an A4 print.
Cheers
Alan http://www.gatehousestudio.co.uk http://www.mycosmos.co.uk
Jacko – really appreciate you taking the time to post this advice. I’ve just followed your instructions, got to the stage needing to remove the metal plate, and then couldn’t as I don’t have the right screwdriver. Can see the red wheel, and have given it some WD40, do you recommend I still try to remove the plate to get to the white wheel?? Thanks.
Hi, as long as you can get some lubricant onto any of the two gear wheels you should be ok. Just give it a go and see if it fixes it.
I don’t think you have to strip it right down.
Hi Jacko! Thank you for your help! The D40X camera is working again!
I used a silicone grease. I hope the result will be lasting
Again: thank you!
Endre, Hungary
Well done for fixing the problem!
Thank you very, very much for this fix. It didn’t work the first couple of tries and I couldn’t remove the metal plate, but now it’s been working great again!
Good job!
Glad i could help 😉
thanks for the tutorial – sadly it would still jamm after a couple of photos. Since the warranty time is over anyway, I just drilled a hole in the bottom to help me out for now. It allows me to poke the red thingy if needed. Luckely, that part is close to the body. 🙂
[http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/5141724567_1f1ac6440b_b.jpg]
[http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1078/5141724573_5324c6871a_b.jpg]
If it works for you why not! Just watch for dust and dirt getting in the hole.
Hi Jacko, just stumbled across your blog looking for a solution to this issue, thanks for posting this fix.
I was a bit wary of spraying WD40 directly into the camera body as there are quite a few electronic components quite close to the inner silver plate not visible in the above pic.
I took a slightly more cautious approach and sprayed other items in the workshop that needed loosening, and then applied the drips of WD40 that remained in the nozzle straw directly to the red gear that was visible through the cutout. I did this a few times and allowed it to penetrate with the body resting upside down.
You might want to consider submitting this fix to ifixit.com as it seems to be a fairly common issue with the D40X shutter assembly?
Anyway, nice work, thanks again for sharing!
Jacko –
I also wanted to thank you as well. My D40x suddenly got this problem the other night and I was afraid I was screwed. I am happy to report that my camera seems to be working fine again thanks to your instructions.
A couple of notes – I found the diagram on page 6 of the manual you linked to to be particularly useful – it shows which screws go where, and that there’s only 2 sizes (for the bottom cover anyway).
Like the other commenters – I could only see the red gear since the metal plate was still on and covers the white one – and being paranoid and not handy – I was scared to try and tear down the whole camera to get at the white gear.
So I wound up lubricating just the red one. I found that it would work for a shot or 2, then freeze back up. Juggling the red gear with the screwdriver would un-stick it again. I tried several times dripping a tiny drop or 2 of the silicone lubricator on the gear, then firing off several shots until it froze up again. Finally after about 10 rounds of this, it quit sticking altogether. I put the bottom cover back on and have taken 30-40 pictures since then and it seems to work great again!
This whole repair cost about $5 too – in case any other non-handy types are interested to know what parts I bought that worked great-
Screwdriver – $2 – 7 pc Precision Screwdriver set from Walgreens – “UltraTuf” – 16305. I used the middel Philips screwdriver (#00 x40mm) for everything.
Lubrication – $3.50 – Needle-Tip Precision Lubricator from Radio Shack. 64-2301A. Seems to be a Teflon-based lubricant. Packaging says it’s suitable for electronic equipment and will remain almost indefinitely. The needle-tip really made it a snap to put just a tiny drop on the gear.
Anyway, thanks again so much for taking the time to post this fix! I would almost certainly have had to send it in to Nikon for an expensive fix, or bit the bullet and bought a new camera. Instead I have my camera back for less than $6. Awesome!
Just an update – it’s been a couple of weeks and the camera is still working perfectly. We took at least a 200 photos over the Christmas weekend – no problems at all.
your the best…thanks for the info:]
Hi,
I have a Nikon D5000 which I have had for 3 months and now that we have some cold weather my camera wont take pictures. The shutter releases but nothing is stored on the card. I also found out that in live veiw I get a black screen. It has been back to Nikon and they found no fault. So I tried it again and sure enough it fails in cold weather. The shop I bought it from says its probably cos of the cold, “they are not designed for sub zero temperatures”. The sub zero temperature is about -2°C. Its away at Nikon again now but I am sure it is faulty, how could they use them in the arctic?
Any comments I could use on the shop would be appreciated.
Regards Ken
i hope my D60 will work 😦 i haven’t done anything yet but i’ll try to put silicon grease.
Hi
Thanks a lot for your instructions! Worked nicely for my D40x and was easy to do with this information.
Just done this myself on my D40X, worked perfectly first time. Many thanks.
At our camera repair shop, we have had several major repairs from customers who followed this advice, and caused severe damage to their D40 cameras. One gentleman lost his rear LCD, and another (who was an engineer) scrambled his Image Compression PCB, which is an $800+ part.
It sounds like some folks have managed to get a working camera, but I felt compelled to remark how many people have made a small problem into a very big problem by introducing WD40 into a camera that is never intended to have any lubricant like that anywhere.
It’s not my intention to argue with anyone who has had success, but just to present another perspective. Those gears were not designed to be lubricated with oil, and WD40 is not a camera lubricant.
The Mad Hatter was pleased with his results when he opened his pocketwatch and smeared butter inside. I still don’t recommend this approach.
Thanks for your advice on this subject. I realise that this is not a approved fix, but for some people, including myself, it was a risk i was willing to take. I have now added a warning to the blog to remind people that it could damage the camera even more. The way i look at is, the camera was broken anyway. I was not going to pay £££/$$$ to get it repaired, so either junk it or have a go myself.
@LeZot –
I’m curious to know how you repair this problem at your camera shop? Do you replace parts of the shutter mechanism? How much do you charge?
For me, it was pretty simple math to try this fix. I could take the almost 4-year-old camera into a shop and almost certainly pay at least a couple hundred dollars to repair it – but considering the fact that I could buy a new, upgraded body for about $500 – it was not going to be worth it to me. If I could get a couple more years out of my D40x for next to nothing, it was worth the risk. I was a little worried about the WD-40 as well – but the silicon-based lubricant I used seemed to work great. It’s now been a couple of months, and I’ve taken at least a couple thousand pics with no more problems.
Also, you mention that customer (who was an engineer) ruined a $800+ part trying this fix. Considering that he could buy a newer and better body for less than the part you mention, I hope that’s what he did.
Thanks again to Jackoo for saving me a lot of money!
Omg! You are the best! I fixed it with no problem! Thank you so much!!!
Jacko, I have a d40x that I’ve had for 3 1/2 years. I started having problems about 1 1/2 yrs ago. I hit the shutter and nothing, but I never got the ERROR. I’ve sent the camera and lenses in and always came back with nothing found. I was told that the Nikkor lenses are cheap adn to buy a good lense to fix the problem. I can hear some type of gear noise which I never heard before. When new, I took the camera on a 3 week vacqtion and took 7,000 poics with no problems. I’ve also found that the sport mode doesn’t work and was told there was nothing wrong with it. Thinking about switching to Canon. Any ideas.
thank you a lot! it worked for my 40x also!
Completely worked for me. I used a toothpick to apply the spray, and I have taken hundreds of photos since the fix. Thanks!
Our World around us would be a much better place if more people like you would exist. You have saved my VACATION.
My husband and I leftSo.Cal a week ago. I took about 1000 pics these last few days. We are touring the US. got to New Orleans and the problem appeared. Thought it might be caused by the high humidity… Stopped at two camera shops and called Nikon….all said to send it in….while on a vacation?…:(((
So, my husband found you. Purchassed a $1.00 small screwdriver at Ace….and with your help, we saved about $250.00
Of course I have a backup camera…..not comparable though w. The D40X. THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!
I am glad it worked for you! I was on vacation in the Rocky Mountains a few years ago when I got the dreaded error, unfortunately for me, I had no idea how to fix it until I tried when I got back to the UK!
Hope you took some good pics 😉
I have a D80 with what I think is the same problem, it happened before and I got it fixed for about US$140, and now it’s happened again maybe two months after. I tried opening it up but I don’t see a red gear only very hard to reach white gears…sigh…I tried as best as I could to get some WD-40 on them but I’m not really able to move or touch them…has anyone else had any problem with the D80 and how did you resolve it??
I love my D40, but am saving for a major upgrade so professional repair is not one of my options.
I also don’t want to be camera-less in the meantime.
I tried this, and got to the point where I could reach the red gear, but not the white gear which I am assuming is the actual problem area here.
I was stopped by a stripped screw which prevented me from getting to the metal plate that would allow me both visual and physical access to the white gear.
Applying lubricant to the red gear was useless, if that tells you anything about the extent of my issue.
Any tips to accessing the necessary gear? Or any other quick fix options?
I am just needing it to last another month or so as a necessity. If it lasts longer as a back up-
super!!
Thanks in advance!!
I have the same problem as you do. I would love to know how to get to this white gear.
how about cutting the cover with a box cutter as to be able to take the cover off. there would be a crack in the cover, but i there are enough screws to hold the cover on even with the crack.
Hey this worked for me last week, but then I used the camera again today and it happened again! 😦 frustrating. I will try your technique again
Bought a used D40x off ebay for $175 after researching this for days. ive always been one to fix things myself. couple bucks for silicon lube and worked perfectly. on comes fall, colder weather…. Again! im not giving up yet..
Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and suggestions on this thread. I also had this problem, D40x body, and was able to take it apart per the suggestions and lubricate the “red gear” (though with lithium grease, not WD40). I was able to get the camera to function again, but only for tens of photos, after which it would get stuck again. I noted that the gear seems to turn quite easily (through several revolutions) for some mirror positions and but for other positions. This suggests to me that the friction is not in the gear, but elsewhere in the mechanism. In any case, at this point I’m thinking that an unreliable camera body is useless to me, so I’m planning to replace it. I did go back and make a rough count of the number of shutter actuations, I’m guessing for me the number is between 65,000 and 75,000. Thought I’d share that bit of information since I skimmed the many responses but didn’t see any mention of usage level – maybe the D40x body is only good for 65k photos?
When the error message popped up I feared the worse but thanks to you guys my beloved camera is up and running again. Saved me an absolute packet by enabling me to fix this problem by myself. Danke danke danke.
thanks very much it works took about 30mins to sort it out. I am a very happy man again 🙂
I tried using WD40 on the gears but it only worked for 10 photos. So I took it apart again and looked closely at the white gear. The side surface of the white gear has metal contacts that rub up against a metal “disc” on the clear plastic piece next to the white gear. The metal “disc” has gaps where the metal stops then starts again and I think this is what triggers the shutter. It looked like one of the contacts was bent back to where it was not contacting the “disc” so I took a toothpick and bent the contact back to where it was supposed to be. This appears to have worked as I have taken a couple hundred photos since without any issue.
Camera shutter locked up again. I will take it apart one last time and use grease on the gears to see if this works…
How do I get the metal plate off?
I have d40x & found somebody elses site before yours. I used wd-40 & then got nervous when I read you shouldn’t use it. It’s trying to work by taking 1 pix but then I get the error again. Should I now try the grease you mentioned or just keep rotating the gear back & forth? I didn’t realize the gear would need lubrication, duh on my part. I’ve had my camera for about 5/6 years now & this is the first time this has happened.
Please help!
Thanks Jacko! Worked like new again.
i was taking pictures during a function were i was contacted to to take photos. this damn thing poped up. thank God it happened at the time when it was me using it otherwise i would have jumped into hell if it was a fried i usually lend to.
Good Lesson but whats better? i will try this option hoppin for the best.
Geoffrey.
I was on a cross country road trip from Georgia to California and the shutter on my D60 failed at our first big stop in Arches National Park. As soon as I got somewhere with an internet signal I found this article and gave it a try. It worked! Not perfectly though, the shutter did keep freezing up every fairly often. I decided to treat it like a film camera (not a DSLR with a 32gb card) til the thing would just work more consistently. After several “fixes” of the red gear it started working for about 100 pictures at a time so I ended up still being able to take about 1000 photos of our trip. I was a little disappointed at not being able to do any time lapse stuff in the desert like I had planned but oh well, I was just happy to have the thing working consistently again. Thanks so much for your advice, otherwise I’d have had to use our backup P&S camera that I really don’t care for.
–Mark
Hi Mark,
I’m really happy that you managed to take some pictures on your road trip. I had exactly the same problem on my road trip in the Rockies, unfortunately I didn’t know how to fix my D40 until I got back to England! I then took it apart and fixed it, shared it with the world, and many people are now happy 😉
Jacko
I have followed the procedures. But even after unscrewing the screws on the metal plate, I could not get to open the metal plate. Any idea?
I could only spray the white wheel (it’s not visible behind the plate.) I could only do the red wheel.
It seemed that it worked about 200 pictures. Then on and off not working.
Or I have to wait for hours to see it working again.
Any Idea?
thanks
Really glad I googled and found your site. I got the error message taking shots at my grandson’s soccer game. Camera is 6 years old and I was ready to dump it instead of paying to have it repaired. The procedure worked as advertised. My D40 works again. Many thanks!
Worked for me Jacko – many thanks. Nikon D40x back up and running again. Opening up the bottom gave me visibility of just the red wheel but I could see a bit of dust in there straight away (maybe not surprising as the body is 5 years old). I used a pin to clear that away then a bit of WD40 on a cotton bud to lubricate and turn the wheel slightly at the some time. A few attempts with the shutter release and all was good again.
To me, it might work for maybe 200 pictures. After that, it’s back to problem again and it may not work at all.
Today, I went out to shop for a new Nikon . Maybe Nikon 5100
It’s better to fix it. The repair cost is high plus they only guarantee 6 months after repair. So give it a thought if it’s worth fixing an 5 year old camera or to invest a new one with 10 times more features.
how did you remove the metal base to see the white gear? i had taken out the back piece to take out the other two screws holding. i could move the metal base now without the screws but could not take it out as it still somehow trapped in the body.
To reveal the white gear: Remove memory card, 4 screws on the side, and 2 near the viewfinder; this removes back-panel (careful with cable) and exposes the 2 screws on the PCB. Also I had success, but for how long?
New shutters can be bought on ebay for 50$, but I’m not sure if they are the culprit and if the repair is hard or requires calibration.
I tried this and it didn’t work 😦 If this doesn’t work, what should my next step be? My D40x is almost 5 years old so I don’t want to spend an excessive amount of money to have it repaired…however, I’m only using it to photograph my kids so I don’t really want to invest in another camera when this one is ONLY 5 years old…
Thanks for any advice!!
Sarah, I tried the fix mentioned and it worked for maybe 15 shots. I had the same concern you mentioned because my D40 too was only 5 years old and I didn’t want to invest in a new one. I went ahead and sent it to Nikon for repair. Was a simple process. It cost me $169 including shipping and taxes. Took about 4 weeks. Camera has been working fine for over a month.
Start process at http://www.nikonusa.com
You are my savior! My friend is getting married in two days and is counting on me to take the pictures. Your fix saved me a bunch of money. I didn’t remove the metal plate (I was too chicken) so I was only lubricating the red wheel. I bought the Needle-Tip Precision Lubricant from Radio Shack that was mentioned in an earlier reply, but I was hesitant to overdo, so it took me a few times before it really seemed to free up without catching again. I’m hopeful this will do the trick! I will be taking lots of shots in the next two days to make sure before it is wedding time. Thank you!!!!
Just had to redo and it is working once again. I use my camera a lot, and am not always the kindest to it. I live in the desert so there is TONS of dust and dry, dry air. I can only access the red wheel to lubricate, that may have an affect on my length of fix. Still super thankful!
Thank you very much for this thread. I was just prepared to buy a used D40x on ebay… now I’m checking Google for EOS troubles 🙂
Thanks for the post! This fix took all of 10 minutes!
Thanks for the fix tip and great picture. You saved Christmas!
The hardest part was putting all the little screws back in.
Thanks Jacko,
you are our saviour, man 🙂
I followed your advice but I didn’t want to remove the metal plate so I tried what the others did before me, I only greased the red wheel. The camera always took few pictures and then got stuck again. I went through at least 30 tries, but it seemed that I will have to disassemble the camera fully to unmount the metal plate and get to the white wheel. I decided to leave it for tonight. When I came home after 10 hours or so while the camera rested, the miracle happened and it’s fully operable again! (I guess in the mean time the oil spread where it was needed.)
Thanks again and wish you all the best in the year 2013.
I may have solved this problem on my own d40 without removing the metal plate to get the white gear lubed. At first, I read the recipes here and lubed the red gear only, but that did not cure the shutter problem for long. I stripped the screws on the circuit board trying to remove the metal plate. I just about gave up when I got a flash of inspiration and lubed the white gear by dripping oil carefully into the camera body, then tilting the camera (and using a bamboo pusher stick) to guide the oil downhill to the white gear cell. It appears to have worked, but I’ll have to log in again tomorrow and confirm. Thanks everyone!!! P.S., there appears to be no way oil can get into the optics this way, only the circuitry 😉
Alas, no such luck… there is a broken gear or loose part inside the housing! You can hear it rattle. When I turn the camera upside down, I can take pictures. When I turn it right side up, right away the shutter error message comes on (and the battery gets drained quick, indicating massive torque in the path of the motor OR a short circuit). Unless I can get the now-deformed tiny screws off the motherboard and remove the bottom plate to fix the loose parts, this camera will be retired. Unless I can work out a recipe for shooting upside down 😉
I can also clear the obstruction temporarily by rotating the red gear enough times to raise the mirror half way. Then the camera will resume taking shots for a few times and then lock up. Upside down.
OK, OK, the final solution for the foreseeable future. Since I have neither the time or tools to fix this correctly, I simply torched (and cut) a hole in the bottom plastic casing of the camera (being careful to preserve its flat shape). Now I can rotate the red gear whenever the shutter gets stuck so as to get the gear past the obstruction, and then I can take another 10-20 pictures!! Good enough until I can get a true repair done. BTW you all might be interested in a Flickr group where many folks have this same issue.
Hi thanks for the help i greased the red cog and got about ten photos out of it then it stops what do u recomend? I havent taken off the silver plating yet do u think it would be a good idea? Thanks for the help
Getting the silver plate off may help. The true problem is probably something broken or lodged in the gear assembly. To diagnose it requires removing the plate using two sizes of screwdrivers (available from WIHA by mail I hear, don’t use radio shack cheapies), big ones for the plate and small ones for the places where the silver plate mates to the circuit board. Be careful! You will also need to remove the back of the camera before the plate can be removed.
Might I add that everybody seems to have a slightly different problem. Do what works for you. I decided it was not worth it to remove the steel plate. Some day I may do it. I, like others, rigged up a gimmick to allow me to “reset” the obstruction for a short while.
Thanks Jacko for posting the Repair Manual!!!
Thanks, Jacko!
My camera is temporarily fixed. I accidentally dropped the camera from a height of 3 feet onto a hard tile floor in a church. The 52mm UV filter bent but the camera survived intact. The shutter jam problem is history!! Nikon takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
Congratulations, Robert! And thanks for the follow-ups. I’ve got the problem and will investigate trying to clean out the gears as well as lubricate them. Thanks, Jocko, for the original post.
opened my D40 last weekend. was able to lube and turn the red gear. success!
but after 7-10 shots, its gone again. have turn the red gear again. success again!
but after 7-10 shots, its gone again.
tried to wedge a folded paper to keep the motor from shaking, but after 7-10 shots, gone again.
i guess my D40 would really like to take a rest for good.
hello D600!
hey robert, i was thinking the same, to put a hole under my d40 then turn the red gear whenever the error returns.
Jacko, maybe you can advise me on what to do next…..I followed your steps to oil gears, but my camera still will not take pictures. When I select auto position, turn the camera on, press the button…… the lens tries to focus, but will not actually snap the picture. What now? Please help.
Hi Laura,
Try setting the lens to manual focus, then press the shutter button. Try moving the red gear wheel round a few click and press the shutter button again.
Also watch my video I uploaded today, that might help. http://youtu.be/rcV90NKs1ck
Someone dropped the camera, got the error message. I took off the bottom (some of those screws were tight- a good quality small Phillips made it a LOT easier!), saw the red gear. Tried to take off the metal plate, but decided against it since some of the screws are a bit tricky to access- at this point, most of the metal plate screws were out.
Added a small glob of silicone grease (I really recommend the silicone grease over any thinner oils or lithium-based greases) and moved the red gear a little. I noticed it was a bit resistant for a bit, but when I tried to rotate it, it suddenly loosened up. I held the battery pack in place to test the camera and it worked fine.
I screwed the plate screws back in, and retested it (I retest every few steps steps after learning to do so the hard way.) It stopped working again! Rotated the red gear, and loosened some of the metal plate screws a tiny bit- and it worked. It continued working after reassembly and testing.
So- try not tightening the metal plate so much (perhaps the drop warped something a bit?) and turn the red gear a rotation or so before reassembling everything.
THANK YOU for the instructions!
That sounds possible that dropping the camera could warp the housing. Good tip regarding the screws, glad it works again !
Thanks Steve
Hi! Just Question 😦 I have this same shutter problem, but I accidentally pushed down what seems to be a stopper, and it didn’t come back up? i don’t know exactly what it’s called it;s that thing on the right hand-side along side with the two non-moving tubes. My question is– Would the red rotating gear also loosen it? or is it forever stuck-up and one would need to open the whole body to put it back into place? Or can’t be fixed anymore?
PS. I’m talking about the insides where the mirror is. My mirror is also locked up. and won’t come down. I was tinkering it too much thus the “accident”, Hoping for your response. Thanks Sir!
I forgot to mention it is a nikon d60 😦 the mirror wont auromaticaly open, and if it foes it will open all the way back. Thus the pictures hqve ahuge black line below it 😦
Jacko,
My name is Danny, I have a Nikon D60 that has the same error shutter release message. I followed all your steps and recommendations, but its still doing it. I am able to snap 1 maybe 2 pictures but the message comes back and the camera stops working. I rotate the wheel a few clicks it works again and stops. I tried this several times and can’t figure it out. What should I try next. If you could email me any help, i would appreciate it. I love my camera and I am very passionate about my hobby and just would like it to work again. I am working on a very limited budget and would love to learn how to fix this issue. Please help me if you have any ideas send me an email at dannyw1701@hotmail.com.
Please be advised that WD40 is just about the worst thing that you can use in an attempt to lubricate anything; especially the inner workings of any sort of high precision instrument like a camera. The WD designation stands for “water displacement” and that is absolutely the only thing that WD40 does well. Many folks have attempted to use WD40 in numerous precision lubrication applications and have found that over time the “water displacement” compounds in the WD40 first get gummy and then they form a quite difficult to remove hard yellow varnish. That is nothing that you want gumming up the inner workings of your camera.
In precision applications that are subject to potential lint, grit and dirt accumulations try just a very small amount of petroleum naptha lighter fluid as a combination cleaner-lubricant. When the petroleum naptha evaporates it leaves behind a very, very light coating of an ultra light almost imperceptible residual coating of petroleum lubricant. If that does not work in your particular precision repair application, then it is the time to try just a very, very small trace amount (e.g. just a partial drop) of an ultra light oil delivered via a needle point precision oiler onto the gear meshing and axle rotational surfaces.
Hi Jack,
I am karthi, i have a nikon d40. its having Press shutter release button Error comes.
I have to follow your procedure and i am using lubricating material on WD-40. But it will works on just 5-10 snaps only. What i have to do…. Pls reply soon if you possible means you can mail me
v.karthick1990@gmail.com
Hey Karthi, i have the same problem with mine too. Is there anything that Jack told you yet? Cause need it ASAP. Thanks
Hi Jack,
I’m Ryan and i own a Nikon D40X and it has the shutter realease Error Problem. I followed all your procedures and only works on just 4-9 snaps only please help cause i don’t want to go buying another Nikon if it’s shutter can be repaired. I think me and Karthi has the same problem. Get back to me As Soon As Possible at dreamonband11@gmail.com.
ATTENTION PPL ! DON’T USE WD40 AS LUBRICANT in you camera because it can ruin your camera useless ! Use silicon grease/oil instead if you need/want to try out this mod !!!
The WD40 is a mixture of light oil, a light hydrocarbon solvent compound commonly referred to as “Stoddard solvent”, hexane, and naptha. Both naptha and Stoddard solvents are aromatic hydrocarbons. Stoddard solvent and its variants, along with commercial Naptha are themselves compounds of other aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons. Aliphatic hydrocarbons can be incompatible with both nylon and Polystyrene !
Nylon and its cousins are common materials in electronic components and WD40 can dissolve them if it present in sufficient quantity !
WD-40 is for rusty screws and such and it’s not meant to be used in fine electronics as your camera !!!!
I just repaired mine using your instructions as a starting point, but I did not grease it. The mirror was in the up (i.e. exposure) position when at rest. I removed the lense and then moved the gears enough for the mirror to move to approximately the down (i.e. view finder in use) position. After this, I tested it holding the battery as suggested and it worked flawlessly!
I don’t know if this is the universal reason for this error, but I strongly recommend checking the position of the mirror first!
I cant get mine to work pls. I opened the bottom cover with nine screws and turned the red wheel toward the front of the camera direction and the mirror rolled down but it still fails to snap. Any help pls.
Andy.
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Grazie Signor Jackson! Adesso funziona ancora come prima!
ciao, ho avuto lo stesso problema e ho risolto grazie al video. 🙂
hey guys
I own a D60, 5 years old, less then 40k shots taken.
This error gave me some bad days, I’ve even put the camera away for almost 1 year.
Today, i fixed it with this metod.
At first, i oppened up the body, gently or not moved the red little shit :)) put 2 exact small jets of wd-40. assembled it back, give’d it a try. after 10 shots, the error was back. so i opened it for almost 15 times to move the red little thing.didn’t put wd-40 only once, this morning. I was sure that it can’t be fixed, that it’s a dead point problem of the shutter motor. but it wasn’t!!!!!! after leaving it be, on my desk, i started up again, the error was there, put it random on sport mode, and took 100 shots. the problem dissapeared. put it back on manual and it still worked. read some stuff on the internet that in p,s,a,m mods the error persists, but in any other, not.
finally i can say, this method works, u just need to persist with the problem and never put too much wd40. It’s from camera to camera, just like from human to human.
Good luck!
its 2017, tried this, but after 10 shots, fail again. i might try the hole at bottom procedure and bring with a couple of toothpicks
Thanks a lot for this fabulous tip and video steps. I was able to resolve the error with the steps defined in this tutorial.
Thank you so much for this. This is the first time I’ve had this problem on my D60 – now 12-13 years old. I am grateful for such a simple explanation and that this blog post still exists!
I’m glad it helped you out! Better to repair it, than throw it away and pay for a new one.