Disaster with Sony A6000 Menu System Bug - What's Wrong With My Camera?

[D_in_London]

Watch 8 Minute YouTube Video to See The Problem

https://youtu.be/GDxysA7xhBw

The video shows my Sony A6000, a camera that I was extremely pleased with and showing off to all those Canon and Nikon users. I had the camera for 14 months without a single problem - then all of a sudden the camera refuses to go into the menu, or the dials would stop working, as you can see from the video the problem comes and goes, but makes the camera totally unfit for purpose. I have invested a lot of money in the Sony Alpha system - first buying a Sony NEX 5N (which I used to film this video) and also 4 Sony Lenses, Sony Memory Sticks, etc and finally the Sony A6000 Camera.

Does anyone know what causes the problem and how to fix it?

Also what is the standing with European Union Law? Are electrical goods covered by 1 year or 2 year warranties?

[Amfion]

Hi! And welcome to the Community even if it's not for a nice reason....

Haven't seen or heard anyone with the same problem as of yet, but by the looks of it yours is very recent as wel?

What have you tried to fix this?

Maybe you can try:

- Take out the battery for a longer period of time, say a day or so?

- I see you've updated your software, maybe try to re-run the update? If the installer doesn't recognise the software you may be able to do a new install. 

For you warranty question I think it would be wise to contact Sony Customer Services. 
http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/contact

Good luck!

[D_in_London]

I've already tried taking the battery out for several weeks and in the video you can see me performing a factory reset on the camera which doesn't help fix the problem.

[Amfion]

Several weeks? That should have been enough if that was the solution...

I saw you trying the factory reset, what I meant was connecting the camera to your computer and rerunning the software update installer. Don't know if this will fix this, since I haven't had this problem myself, but could be worth a try!

If that doesn't work I would recomment contacting customer services or the camera shop where you bought your camera to send it in for repair. 

[D_in_London]

The camera was 14 months old at the time the problem occurred a few weeks back. I've contacted both the camera shop and Sony both said 12 months is their warranty limit and they'd charge for a repair - being in the EU I was told by some there's a 2 year warranty law that cover the whole of the European Union - this is what I want to clarify.

Either way I think this is some kind of in built flaw with the camera, looks like a software bug to me. Potentially something that could affect the entire Sony range of camera, I'd think Sony would want to actively get involved to investigate the problem to make sure it's not something that could affect their entire line of Sony Alpha cameras.

I think all potential new Sony cameras customers would worry that at this price range their equipment should last more then 14 months and if things do go wrong, which they do from time to time a company as huge as Sony would want to support their loyal customers to solve a problem that appears to be software related and beyound the control of the user.

[Amfion]

I get your point! But not being a Sony employee I can't help you get an answer on that. Yours is the first camera I saw of heard of with this problem. 

I'm in the Netherlands, and I know that the European Law states a two year warrenty as you said, but really don't know how this affects the UK. 

I'll try to get someone from UK community to respond! 

(Was just browsing around here when I saw your question :smileywink:)

[D_in_London]

Would certainly be good to get some more eyes on this problem, espacially if it's firmware / software related 

[lumen_]

If my camera would be in such a shape that it wouldn't react to buttons and would start to behave abnormally otherwise, I would take it to Sony Authorised Service point and leave there with good clarification of the symptoms.

In my understanding all the EU countries have 2 year warranty for ALL consumable goods that fall into category "long usage goods".

It doesn't matter what the manufacturer says for warranty period, because 2 years is the minimum (and manufacturer should understand that when they launch a product within EU).

That is the reality atleast in Finland, I hope it applies to whole of EU.

I run all the time to warranty texts "1 year warranty", but that is b******t from the seller/manufacturer and they always try this (so customers wouldn't return products so easily I guess). One has to demand to follow EU's 2 year warranty (and mention that this is a "long usage goods" (or whatever is it called in English).

For example...

I have a SEL-1018 lens, which was bugging multitude times and repaired once and still bugged.

When I took it second time to warranty repair for same fault the warranty time already had gone overdue actually.

But I insisted that warranty still applies as this is clearly a "craftmanship failure" (hope term is translated from Finnish correctly). And they never coughed at all and repaired it for free.

This left a good image for me atleast of Sony warranty service.

Hope your A6000 problem gets somehow solved!

🙂

[AbortAbort]

Your shutter button half press is sticking / phantom activating. You can tell by the AF boxes staying on and the AEL. This stops yoiunfrom accessing the menu and when you can access it it boots you out (like half pressing the shutter normally does). 

Contact cleaner may fix it, but worst case needs a new shutter button assembly. I had this a bit on my A7S, but but it cleared itself up and worked fine, but mine was a phantom triggering fn button. 

[Amfion]

Hi! And thanks for your contribution on Sony Community!

I'm afraid this won't be the solution in this case, since the camera is showing a software problem warning.

Or did yours show this as well?