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hi i brought my nikon d5000 dec 2010 and ive had this problem since a few months old its been back to nikon 4 times now and all they keep telling me is no fault found
last time it went back the body was replaced yet i still have this incredibly annoying intermitent fault all bar throwing it up the wall i dont know what to do next
im hoping someone can help me if possible to try and sort this problem out
all help will be greatfully recieved
thanks
steve
i kind of wish id never brought the camera now
The very first thing to do is a " Two Button " factory reset, ( you will find how to do this in the manual ) Then make sure your battery is fully charged, Make sure you are using a good quality memory card, Once you have done this.
Test the camera in " Auto " mode first, Take a few random frames, Then proceed through the other settings, Make notes of the settings if the problem returns, If nothing else you will have more detailed information for Nikon, Should the problem persist.
If at all possible try using a different lens, Beg borrow one if you do not have one, Why, I'm assuming you send only the body to Nikon, If so and the fault is not body related, Its a good idea to rule out all possibilities, No matter how obscure.....!!!!
The Nikon D5000 has many fans and users, The problem you describe is unusual, So leave nothing to chance, The fact that Nikon supplied you with a different body, Tends to indicate some sort of " User " error, The chances of getting two different bodies with the same fault in a tight time frame, Are at best very very slim.....!!!
Whatever, Good luck with it.....
Make sure your shutter is set to either single shot or continuous. If it is set to remote 2s then the camera won't shoot. I spent a few hours wondering (and shouting at the camera) why i could focus, lock on and then not fire. That was the reason. 
Hope it helps.
Are you sure that you don't have it on AF Priority? (There should be a Shooting Menu option for this I think).
If you do, then even if you think the AF has "locked on", the shutter won't fire unless it really has. This is often a problem (with all cameras) in low light conditions when AF might struggle a bit. Also make sure, if you are using a VR lens, that you have VR switched off.
Once you have more experience with the camera, you might find that you get to know the conditions when you can have it on AF-Priority if you really want it.
I'v had no problems with my D5000 and consider it to be one of the best Nikons made for picture quality, in fact I prefer it to the later D5100. I agree with all the posts sent so far, its good advice. Re set to factory default and start again.
Quote: I'v had no problems with my D5000 and consider it to be one of the best Nikons made for picture quality, in fact I prefer it to the later D5100. I agree with all the posts sent so far, its good advice. Re set to factory default and start again.
thats a big statement. The other thing that may be stopping you shooting, is if you are shooting in continuos mode, and the card can not keep up with the pictures you are taking.... the camera buffer may be full, and is not letting you shoot until it clears some of the pictures.
More detail would be needed to determine what the problem may be, like when it does it, and what the shooting conditions are like, what settings you have the camera on, what you are shooting..... etc etc. 
Maybe you are trying to shoot in focus priority mode with some less than ideal AF targets.
In focus priority if the camera AF is not 100% happy with the target the shutter does not release.
Switching to shutter priority may mean a few unsharp shots because AF is not good - but at least the shutter fires.
Subjects that sometimes result in shutter lock up in focus priority are in your camera instruction book or at https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4585
do you have it on live view? i used to have a lot of problems with my d5000 when i used live view to take photos, rare as it was.
Quote: Do you have it on live view?
One problem, related to my previous reply, is these days manufacturers are often very reluctant to tell a person with a camera problem maybe they have not fully understood how to use the camera to a high standard.
The "problem" is highly likely to be using focus priority - which is designed to prevent a picture being taken if the camera does not think AF is 100% good.
I have not seen the correspondence, but as the user has the problem on a replacement body as well a lot of time and postage could have been saved by pointing out the limitation (or advantage depending on your point of view) of using focus priority.
I reckon LensShepherd has hit the nail on the head.
If you have a lens that has a small max. aperture (you need to tell us what lens you are using btw) then every camera will have trouble in low contrast conditions. Typical standard lenses start at f3-5.6 so they fall right into this category.
I've got a D5k and a D3 and I had no end of aggro using a 300 / f4 as it hunted all over the place trying to focus lock if the light was anything less than perfect on either camera. Tracking terns flying across a beach was a nightmare - it would follow one for half a mile perfectly, then just as it was getting to the right spot the lens would decide it wasn't in focus Didn't matter what focus mode it was in...
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