K3ii Battery Drains Flat

Hi

I have a new K3ii. I charged the battery fully before use, then took about 20 shots and put the camera away for a couple of weeks. Tonight I switched it on as I am doing a function tomorrow and the battery is so dead that the camera just made a slight click with a totally blank screen. I put in my 5 year old battery from my K5 that has been stored for about the same time, but outside the K-5 and voila, the K3ii lit up as normal.

Does a K3ii when switched off drain the battery flat? I have never had to store a camera without the battery in.

Several possibilities I can think of:
Could the camera have been inadvertently left switched on?
Might the battery have gone bad?
Was the battery a cheap fake knock-off? (Notwithstanding, many third party batteries do not perform any worse than originals.)
If it was a brand new battery it might need several charges to reach full capacity.
Either way, it's not normal even though there is a slight drain to power the clock and retain settings so I'd monitor it and see if it happens again and if it is only that one battery. A completely dead battery would eventually lead to having to set the camera up again when the power's restored.

The battery was the brand new one that came with the K3ii. The camera I am 100% sure was off, and anyway it should switch itself off after a short amount of time. The settings were still OK, so there must have been a small amount of power.

It's on charge now, and I'll charge the old K5 battery and I'll keep an eye on the new camera and battery and its behaviour.

It's probably the GPS .... Check the settings to ensure its switched off.

I had a similar experience. When I loaded a charged battery I immediately noticed the GPS light was on.

Whilst I'm sure the GPS should switch off when you switch the camera off it could be it doesn't?.

I now make sure GPS is off before I switch the camera off and haven't had the problem since.

OK - seems the GPS must be the likely culprit. I'll take your advice and check it's off before I put it away. Now I just need to get ready for tomorrow - the fist time the camera is going to be used in anger. 50th Wedding Anniversary with people from as far away as Zimbabwe and New Zealand! Better not mess it up.

At least you spotted the problem while you have time to sort it out. Imagine finding the battery dead when you'd just got to the anniversary. Embarrassing to say the least!
I'll keep an eye on my GPS too.

Have you the latest firmware, mine did it once, but never after I updated the firmware.

I updated the firmware to the latest as soon as I got it.

its the gps all right as i had the same problem charged it up switched the gps off and its been fine
funny thing is i have just looked at mine and it was switched on last time i used it was sunday so its been sat here switched on all week and still has a full battery

Is that the camera is turned off with the GPS left on and it drains the battery, or is it the camera has been put away in standby with the GPS on?
It might be worth narrowing down firmware versions too to see if it is something that has been corrected in a firmware update.

IS there a firmware update for the K-3 II? I looked on the Pentax website and could not find one -- or have I missed something somewhere?
Batteries have been fine. One Pentax original (supplied with the K5) and an Energiser so far. I haven't charged the new one yet.

link

This is the firmware update

My GPS is on all the time when the camera's turned on. The battery was full when I took shots last weekend, just switched it on and tried it now and it's still full.

I think I heard that earlier copies of the K-3II didn't switch the GPS off when the camera was powered off. If you keep having a problem it might be worth checking that out.

Thank you for the firmware link -- job done