Chosen Solution
Metering malfunction detected. Contact a nikon authorized service representative.
If you didn’t drop the camera, here’s something that MIGHT work, but don’t get your hopes up: With a fully charged battery in the camera go into your menus and select, “Lock Mirror Up for Cleaning”. Per the instructions on the LCD, press the shutter button to raise the mirror. Wait a second then shut off the camera. Repeat these steps three, maybe five times, and see if it clears the error. Read more: https://nikonites.com/d5300/30908-d5300-…
I just fixed this on my D5300. There’s a ribbon cable attached to the left side of the viewfinder that’s come loose. Open up and remove the back, then unscrew the logic board and detach all the cables. You’ll need to do this to get to the ribbon cable. Take a look at that ribbon cable; it’s probably at an angle. Pop that cable out and reseat it and your D5300 will live again. Note that the ribbon cables are kind of a pain to manipulate. Tweezers or needle-nose clamps might work better than fingers.
I have D5300 with the same metering malfunction error after I dropped. I tried couple of things, it won’t work. I opened the back cover and found that the cable right by the view finder (on left - a big ribbon cable that spitted to smaller cable) came off. I put that back and fixed the issue. I put the picture in case others may benefit out of this. You will find full tear down video here which is helpful for disassembling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ndgMs-…
I have spent a few hours trying find some info about this because i have a 5300 that was dropped and now shows metering error message. The only thing i found was a video on youtube that takes the rear cover off and plugs in or makes sure the flat wide cable at top of rear of camera which is the metering cable is plugged in correctly. After that he put the battery back in…no more error. I am going to try it. I will repost what happens. I will look for video and post that too.
I had this problem too. I used this video to show me how to get the back off my D5300. HOW TO DISASSEMBLE NIKON D5300 CASE COVER by XianTek TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DyfrvjW… I only needed separate the back cover. I found the ribbon cable just to the left of the eyepiece. It ws visably loose. I was able to take angled needle nose pliers to put it back into position and then a thin spatula to put the ribbon cable lock back down. I still need to attack all of the screws, but my camera is taking pictures again, and this saved me over $350 for a replacement D5500 off eBay. :-)
Hi, I recently made a video about this issue. Hope it helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpoL2JZX…
