Student-Contributed Wiki
An awesome team of students from our education program made this wiki.
[toc]
The device does not respond when the power button is pressed
Open the battery release lever on the bottom of the camera and remove the battery pack. Then replace the battery pack with a charged one.
Remove the battery or disconnect the AC Adapter for 1 minute. Reconnect the adapter and check to see if the charging light comes on. If it doesn’t, try “The Camera Will Not Charge” below.
The camera will not playback sound or the audio was not recorded correctly
Verify that the speaker on the device isn’t broken. It’s possible that the audio was recorded, but the camera won’t play the sound back. Download the file onto a laptop or another computer and play the mp4 file using any compatible software. Also, try to play the dual recorded XAVCS or AVCHD file. If the audio did not record on either file, then there is a problem with the microphone. Keep reading to find out more. If the audio was recorded with the file, but didn’t play back on the camera, click here to learn how to replace the camera’s speaker. If the speaker is broken please refer to our Speaker Replacement Guide.
If an external microphone was attached while recording, then removed during the middle of the recording, the audio for that recording might be distorted due to the removal of the external microphone. To eliminate this problem do not remove your attached mic while recording your video.
The audio for your recording might not be recorded due to the fact that your volume level is set to the minimum level. To fix this, open up the camera and click on the “Menu” button then select the “Camera/Mic” button. At the bottom of the list you will see the “Audio Rec Level” button. You can adjust the level as needed or set the audio level to “Automatic”. If none of these fix your audio issues please refer to our Microphone Replacement Guide.
When recording, the recorded video looks shaky or unsteady
The SteadyShot reduces the shake from your video significantly but will not take all the unsteadiness out of your video or photo. If you suspect that your SteadyShot is being even less effective than it should be, try the following advice.
It is possible that the SteadyShot is turned off in your settings. To turn SteadyShot back open the camera up and go to “Menu” then click “Camera/Mic” then scroll to “SteadyShot” then click “Active” or “Standard” to turn on the SteadyShot feature. SteadyShot for taking pictures may be off as well. If you are having issues with unstable pictures as well follow the same steps for the video but select the “SteadyShot” button with the camera icon on it and turn SteadyShot on.
If the SteadyShot is on, but not functioning properly, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water and dry with a clean paper towel. Use hand sanitizer as well and ensure that your nails will not scratch the lens and that your hands are completely free of dirt and oil. Then, carefully reach in and nudge the outside outside of the camera ball. You should feel some resistance from the SteadyShot technology. Wiggle the camera ‘’slightly’’ to make sure that it isn’t stuck in place.
The device will not charge when put on the charging cable or when charging the battery
If you have a replacement battery, try plugging that into the camera instead. If that doesn’t solve the problem, or if you don’t have an alternative battery, try the other solutions listed below.
The POWER/CHG (charge) lamp turns on when the camera is powered on or is charging, and it turns off when the product is finished charging. If the POWER/CHG (charge) lamp does not turn on when attempting to charge, the battery may already be charged. If not, you should consider purchasing a replacement AC Adapter.
It’s possible, though unlikely, that even with a brand new battery ‘’and’’ AC Adapter, there are problems going on inside the camera itself. If you have access to another camera, maybe one that belongs to a friend or an older, cheaper camera that uses an NP-FVxxxA V-series battery (xxx is the total charge the battery can hold, i.e. the one that comes with the camera should be an NP-FV50A V-series). If the battery and the charging cable work for the other camera, but not yours, click here to see how you can replace the charging port.
To save money, try buying the individual components from cheapest to replace to most expensive to replace. Try to charge the camera after you’ve purchased each new component in this order:
- AC Adapter (charger): $13.17NP-FV50A V-series (battery): $49.00CX 455 HandyCam (camera): $399.99
When taking photos, the camera freezes randomly
If your camera randomly freezes after taking photos, attempt a factory reset. Make sure that you’ve downloaded all of your pictures and videos before attempting this solution. On the menu screen, navigate to [Setup]. Go downwards until you are hovering over the tool wrench icon and click on the control dial. Once on the General Settings page, go down until you see [Initialize] then click on it. When prompted “Reset to default settings, Press OK to reboot”, click OK.
