K20D battery gauge going crazy!

Sometimes, I have two fully charged batteries in my K20D and the gauge may show "empty". I take off the grip and then, it might show "full" again. I put the grip back on and it shows "half". Anybody else having that kind of behavior?

This is very similar behavior to the *istD with 2 sets of batteries. I've never had the same problem with the K10D.

Neither camera will 'switch' batteries when powered on. When one becomes depleted, you get the low/exhausted symbol. Then when you switch off and on, the second battery kicks in.

Are you sure both of your batteries fully charged?

I have my K10D set to use the grip battery first, then I know which one has depleted. It also saves having to take the grip off to get at a dead battery.

Both batteries where fresh off the charger. I actually have four batteries and it might happen with any combination of batteries. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, you start wondering where you goofed up !

I had a battery problem with my Samsung GX1S. After slotting a fresh set of AA batteries in, the camera would sometimes register as being completely out of power and not turn on (empty battery sign blinking). Then I'd have to twiddle knobs and keep turning it on and off to get it to sort itself out. Also I think the battery life is much less than it used to deliver. This doesn't always happen though, often the camera works fine.

The other day I got a K10D to replace it. The Samsung's still under warranty so I'll be sending it back to get it fixed before I try and sell it.
This issue may be completely unrelated to yours, just my 2p.

I am not sure that battery gauges are worth anything with lithium batteries.

My Metz flash will warn that the batteries are low, immediately after I put in a brand new set of lithium AA's.

The manual does warn that with some battery types, the gauge can be somewhat erratic.

I don't call my K20D battery gauge "erratic". It's completely off it' "rockers"!

My istDS battery gauge is completely useless too. Frequently will switch on the camera, battery reads completely full. Try and take a picture, and it will just die before completing the picture saving with battery empty flashing.

This also happens with batteries straight from charger (rechargeable AAs). I was wondering if my charger is broken, a short-circuit in the camera was draining batteries very fast, or the battery gauge is just plain bad. Either way, I've lost some great shots due to this, was hoping they'd have fixed it by now.

I suspect it's more likely to be something wrong with your charger or batteries than the camera. Perhaps the cells are being charged unevenly, or one or more of them is dead.

I occasionally had odd battery readings with my DS too - but more often with some sets of batteries than others.

Temperature plays a part too. Also battery voltage increases after they've had a rest. So they may seem to come back to life a few seconds or minutes after they previously seemed depleted, only to fade again quickly.