Date changes everytime

[FocusOn]

When l recharge my battery on my D80 l always lose the current date.

Can anyone help me with this little problem?

[I @ M]

That sounds like either the internal battery that powers the flash media that remembers date, time and camera settings has exhausted itself or the flash media has died.
I believe that the internal battery is not a user serviceable item :(

From the D80 manual ------

The camera clock is powered by an independent, rechargeable power source, which is charged as
necessary when the main battery is installed or the camera is powered by an optional EH-5 AC adapter.
Two days of charging will power the clock for about one month. If fl ashes in the control panel,
the clock battery is exhausted and the clock has been reset to a time starting at 2006.01.01.00:00:00.
Set the clock to the correct date and time.

[arthurking83]

Almost certainly .. the internal battery that retains it's info has died.
The term battery doesn't necessarily infer a standard battery .. it could be a capacitor of some kind.

I'm pretty sure that which ever type it is, it's almost certainly not user replaceable anyhow .. so a repair job is most likely needed.

Being a D80, it most likely doesn't warrant the repair cost.

[FocusOn]

Thank you for your help and advice Andrew & Arthurking83.

I have no problems with the time, just the date, just have to reset it every time l recharge the battery.

Like you said it's not worth it to have it fixed will be upgrading later this year.

john

[arthurking83]

Just a test that could be worth trying(if you're bored).

The camera has a large internal capacitor, this is used mainly(from what I understand) to power the flash.
I have a theory that it may also be used as a charge bank for other internal devices that need power to remain on too.
That could include the internal clock.
(ie. Why have a separate electrical storage device, which cost money! .. when you already have one).

This capacitor has a specific charge/discharge rate.

If you fire off a few rapid photos using the flash, does it take longer to recharge for the flash, does it alter the clock/date.

That is, you're trying to place the capacitor(or any related components .. resistors, diodes) under stress just to see if it has any bearing on the component that's causing you issues.

IF .. it turns out that it does have an effect, then replacing the capacitor is actually quite easy to do, if you're a bit of a tinkerer. But capacitors do have their dangers!!!!!

if there is no effect(on the clock), it means that the systems are fully isolated in some way, or that the clock has a separate power source from this capacitor.

I think(from memory .. so not 100% certain) that the flash on the D80 could have a 3sec recharge cycle. That is, the capacitor needs about 3secs to recharge itself to provide enough power to the flash again from the last flash it produced.
So if you shot at 3fps with flash enabled .. the first exposure will fire the flash as expected, the other two exposures will most likely not trigger the flash.

if you try this rapid flash test and it takes significantly longer than 3 or so seconds to recharge .. you know the cap is probably faulty.

I'm sure the flash duty cycle is listed in the manual somewhere to be sure of it's ability.

Things to note: Caps have been known to leak and die. No device is immune to their failure. They will contain some charge(always look at them in this manner, even if they don't hold charge and cause a clocks to repeatedly die ;))
The large ones used for flash recharging need to be discharged properly before they should be handled.
The leaking fluid of a capacitor is not good for other components inside the device.