GH4 "Battery cannot be used" warning on GH4 and GH5S

blando3

Well-known member
Has anyone had a warning appear that says "This battery cannot be used" when turning on the GH4? This happens to me sometimes with both my GH4s and my GH5S with both Panasonic and 3rd-party batteries.
I have to turn it off, re-insert the battery and turn it back on and usually it seems to fix itself.

Is this just a "normal" bug? I say normal because, again, it happens with all three of my GH cameras and all my batteries.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Andrew
 
Yes, that has happened to me on occasion. I have always assumed that it's due to some kind of effort by Panasonic to make third party batteries unusable, in much the same that printer manufacturers try to make third party ink/toner cartridges unusable.
 
It happened only once with a Panasonic battery. I did manage to get the battery accepted, but after a subsequent recharge it was extremely hot (excessively), and without the benefit of marking the year on any of my other batteries, I assumed it was the earliest one and had reached it's end of life.

It was quickly retired.
 
In my experience, this error is caused by dusty/dirty battery contacts. Give those a quick spot clean with a dry cloth (t-shirt is fine) and the battery usually resumes working.
 
In my experience, this error is caused by dusty/dirty battery contacts. Give those a quick spot clean with a dry cloth (t-shirt is fine) and the battery usually resumes working.

this on GH4, it works everytime after i clean the contact. not sure about GH5S tho.
 
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