Nine months or so ago, I bought a Bulldog pistol vault that looks like this:



Not sure the model number as I lost the instruction manual, but that image looks like it so it's probably the 4040.

I largely left it alone since installing it, but went to get into it today and the buttons on top don't work.  I thought that maybe the batteries were dead, so I unlocked the vault with the key and replaced the batteries (replaced Energizer AA with Energizer Lithium AA).  When I inserted the batteries, the blue rings around the buttons lit up and the vault beeped, but when I press the buttons nothing happens.

Is anybody here familiar with these?  I'm glad it wasn't an emergency that caused me to need to open it. I don't know if the thing is just a piece of junk or if it just needs reprogramming (though, why would the buttons do nothing if that were the case).  I cannot find an instruction manual online to try to reprogram a code.

Does anybody have experience with these and know what might be wrong or how to reprogram it?  I haven't called the company yet as this just happened and I'm leaving soon and don't want to spend the next hour on hold.  I also haven't tried the rfid key as that's locked in a safe (don't like the idea of somebody just taking my key ring and being able to get into it so I don't use the rfid).  I did look on their website hoping to find an online instruction manual, but failed, so if anybody has a link to one of those, that would be great, too.

Thank you.

Looks like a couple people on Amazon reviews had similar issues. 

It's dead.

Sounds like its dead. I had a single pistol vault by bulldog I used to keep in the truck. When you press the buttons to enter your code, do the lights blink? The one I had when you entered the wrong code, the lights would blink and then stay illuminated.

Edit: I didn't read that you changed the batteries, if I remember correctly, when the batteries are changed the entry code needs to be reset. At least I think that's how mine was from what I remember.

wildearp ~ Thank you. I went and read the reviews (I had bought mine at Cabela's) and it sounds like it's a common problem with them and that it's truly dead.  Even the replacements they send out seem to have the same problem, so not worth even getting it replaced.

EastonHockey20 - When I press a button, nothing happens...no beep, no light, nothing.  I would try to reprogram it, but I lost the manual and don't know how.  Even if I had it, though, I think that it's dead.  I can't imagine the buttons being disabled completely until it's programmed.

I admit when I'm wrong, and now it's time to eat some crow.  It turns out that I just plain forgot how to work the thing.  After buying a Ft Knox (which I love, btw) and replacing the Bulldog, I decided to call Bulldog.  In the process of identifying which model I have, I was asked if there was a power button on top...uhh....yeah, I forgot that the "o" in "Bulldog" is a power button the turns on the keypad.  Oops...like I said, I lost the manual and after 6 months of not using it, I forgot that little detail and assumed that the keypad was always active.

Lesson learned...keep your instruction manuals (I always do...this seems to be the one that I have lost in the last 10 years of instruction manuals that I have accumulated).  On the plus side, I now have two vaults.