Minolta Maxxum 9000 needs help

Hi, all- I have come across a 9000- banged it on the wall a few times and there are signs of life. BUT- It seems to be on life support- I have been using alkaline AAs in it, and the display is flashing as though the batteries are fading- but they measure 3.0v on my multimeter. I have tried several different batteries. Could it be that it wants nicads? Yes, lower volts, but that means more power available? Anyone???? I can get the shutter to click, and the auto focus to hunt, but after an exposure, the mirror doesn't flip down for about 30secs, and the shutter doesnt close. It opens fine, but 30 seconds exposure time is, er, a problem. Before I rush out and buy nicads and a charger to try, I'm hoping that someone out there has had a similar issue. My suspicion is that with all the work that the battery has to do, it is sucking the voltage down which is resulting in a brownout. With more HP available, just maybe we can breathe life into the beastie. Cheers.

There is likely a power drain somewhere that is stealing energy even when powered off. Even AA lithium cells probably won't help much. You could pick up another cheaper than this one could be repaired if parts are even available.

AHA! The Preview Switch wasn't returned to its off position! Wiggled it up and down a few times, said a few words under breath- and now everything is working! Except the digital panel- but who needs that anyway? Looking in this forum and online generally, there are numerous mysterious 9000 faults claimed, that then mysteriously self correct. I would just bet that the preview switch, which is such a subtle thing, was the cause of 90% of the problems! Now if I can just get the data readout working......