5D Mark II Won't TURN ON

[janioedwards]

Help !

I used my 5D at a wedding weekend before the last, it worked fine.

Just before I took it out last week Saturday, battery was low at 40%

When I eventually took it out to photograph at night and it just refused to turn on.

For a week now, nothing happens.

Anybody else been through this?

I am kind of desperate as I can't afford huge repairs costs....

Thanks

Janio Edwards

[dlambert]

I recall someone posting here (I think) recently that they fixed a problem like this by popping out the clock battery and re-installing after a few minutes.

[inkista]

Actually, a few minutes won't do it.

dSLRs don't actually "turn off" in the sense that you think when you turn them off. It's more like putting a computer into sleep or hibernation mode, and all the functions are turned off. But the firmware is still ticking away, keeping your clock and calendar running and waiting for you to turn it back on again.

My 5Dii got stuck in a weird state where it wouldn't power on. I took out the memory card and unmounted the lens, because I wanted minimal electronic communication when I began diagnosing. The battery was dead, and I'd left the camera on when I put it in the bag, and that's when I remembered that I'd stupidly turned off the power sleep feature, so I figured the battery was dead, too. I put in my spare battery, and the camera wouldn't turn on.

That's when I started to panic.

I tried putting the card back in with the new battery, and noticed when I closed the battery door, I was getting the little red indicator light that meant the door is closing but the card is in. So, I pulled everything out again, and waited for a few hours, hoping the camera would discharge, really go into a full power off. I recharged the dead battery fully in this time.

When I popped the recharged battery in, still nothing. But still getting the little red light indicator if I had the memory card in, too, which told me the camera's power system wasn't completely fried if it could still deliver energy to the little red LED. Then I remembered the clock battery.

Pulling the clock battery as well, I then left everything out and went shopping, because I'm a woman, and that's a good displacement activity for high anxiety levels for me. I came back two or three hours later, popped both batteries in, and was victorious. I set the clock, and immediately made sure I turned the power-sleep function back on.

Whether this will work for someone else, I don't know, but the clock battery probably outputs enough energy for the camera to "hold state", and also needs to be removed if you want the camera to go into full reset. You have to wait a few hours, because there are probably capacitors in the camera that can also hold charge for a while, and you need that to dissipate as well.