How to fix Canon Powershot A590 IS battery issue

I have mixed feelings about this camera, while it packed a great set of features for its price, the image quality was notoriously inferior to older A-series cameras such as the A60, A80,A80, etc.
But the big deal breaker was the battery issue. Most cameras would run out of battery (well, not quite, read bellow) after very few shots. This defect affected nearly every unit of this and similar models. So badly that canon pulled these cameras out of the market as quickly as possible.

Most of the people that owned this camera most likely already replaced it. But for those who still have the camera laying on the back of some drawer, the fix is surprisingly quick and simple. And it will bring back this perfectly usable camera to life.

All you have to do is force the metal contact on the strip slightly out of its place. This way the metal contact between the metal and piece and the battery will be more effective.

With a pointy object such as a knife or a screw driver, press the tip of the metal lid so it bends until it gets out of it place. The picture bellow should give you a clearer idea:

Notice that you need to press from the tip of the strip first.

And here’s how it should look after the procedure

The lid will be slightly more difficult to close, but that’s barely noticeable.

I’ve seen dozens of fix suggestions that mention buying fancy batteries or install a custom firmware called CHDK which allows you to set the the threshold voltage that triggers the battery warning. All these sound like non-fixes to me, ultimately this is not a small software or electronics issue. It’s simply a malfunction electric contact. No camera setting or expensive batteries will fix that.

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Tags: battery, canon, canon a690is, fix, how to, photography