topic Re: Canon T3i Dead in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Canon T3i Dead

inno — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 02:19:13 GMT

So... here's my situation. I just got the t3i this week (thank you citibank points!) excited, I went ahead and played around with it. and my battery drained, but not all the way. so I go and charge the camera, battery is fully charged and I stick it back into the camera. Yay more fun! I turned off the camera and then decided i want to shoot some more and turned the camera back on. Everything is dead at this point. LCD screen stays black (I hit the disp. button at the top), I tried to turn on the flash and the flash won't pop up, can't focus with lens, etc... The only time to get the camera working again is if I were to re-seat the battery.

What's going on?

Re: Canon T3i Dead

ebiggs1 — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 14:20:08 GMT

Are "citibanks" returnable?

Re: Canon T3i Dead

TCampbell — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 20:22:00 GMT

I'm trying to make sure I understand the situation...

I *think* you are saying that if you insert the battery and turn it on, then it works... but if you power it off and then turn it back on later, it will not work. BUT... if you remove and re-insert the battery... it works again.

Is that correct?

Two things come to mind...

#1 There are some micro-switches on the camera which detect if either the battery door or the memory card door is open. If either door is open then the camera will not power up. Check to make sure the doors "fit" and are completely closed properly.

#2 The on/off switch isn't a true power switch. It's really just a software switch (it does not technically cut power to the camera). When you switch the camera "off", it usually causes a self-clean cycle to run and then puts the camera into a very low power extended sleep waiting for you to turn the switch back "on" again.

If you eject and re-insert the battery, you effectively "reboot" the camera (the on/off switch technically does not cause the camera to power on and load firmware -- it merely wakes it from it's low-power sleep state and returns it to a read-to-work state.)

Assuming you can power up the camera by re-inserting the battery... check the firmware version that you are running and let us know what version that is.

Here's a video that shows how to check the firmware (it also shows how to update the firmware -- but for now just check the firmware version and tell us what it is. Dont' attempt to update it -- at least not yet.)

Regards,

Tim

Re: Canon T3i Dead

inno — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 22:08:52 GMT

@TCampbell wrote:
I'm trying to make sure I understand the situation...

I *think* you are saying that if you insert the battery and turn it on, then it works... but if you power it off and then turn it back on later, it will not work. BUT... if you remove and re-insert the battery... it works again.

Is that correct?

Two things come to mind...

#1 There are some micro-switches on the camera which detect if either the battery door or the memory card door is open. If either door is open then the camera will not power up. Check to make sure the doors "fit" and are completely closed properly.

#2 The on/off switch isn't a true power switch. It's really just a software switch (it does not technically cut power to the camera). When you switch the camera "off", it usually causes a self-clean cycle to run and then puts the camera into a very low power extended sleep waiting for you to turn the switch back "on" again.

If you eject and re-insert the battery, you effectively "reboot" the camera (the on/off switch technically does not cause the camera to power on and load firmware -- it merely wakes it from it's low-power sleep state and returns it to a read-to-work state.)

Assuming you can power up the camera by re-inserting the battery... check the firmware version that you are running and let us know what version that is.

Here's a video that shows how to check the firmware (it also shows how to update the firmware -- but for now just check the firmware version and tell us what it is. Dont' attempt to update it -- at least not yet.)

Regards,
Tim

update on the situation: i was able to exchange it for a new one. yay! problem is still there... clearly it's me being an idiot right now haha.

yep you have that right.

#1 all my doors are closed and fit.

#2. i'm currently on firmware v 1.0.2. according to canons website.. that is up to date?

Re: Canon T3i Dead

inno — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 22:24:59 GMT

sooo i was just messing around..

the sd card that was in my camera this whole time was a 16gb sd card firmware 1.0.2

i stick my 1gb sd card in... firmware 1.0.2. i had no issues when the 1gb sd card was in. but when i put the 16gb sd card, the camera went back to having the same issues.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

TCampbell — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:02:52 GMT

Was this card previously used in a different camera? I'm guessing it sees something on the card that it does not like.

A card should be formated specifically for the camera that will use it -- don't move a card between different types of cameras. The first time you format it, pick the "Low Level" checkbox.

Make sure if there was anything important on that card (if it was previously used in a different camera then make sure you've copied off any pictures you want to keep).

On the T3i, pick "Menu" then navigate to the yellow "Wrench" tab #1 (there are several tabs of yellow wrenches). The "Format" option should be on that menu.

When you select the Format screen, there's a box to check if you'd like to do a "Low Level" format. Press the button with the trash can icon to toggle that box on.

Hopefully that's all it is.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

1970MaleSteve — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 01:29:07 GMT

This is exactly the same thing happening in my Canon Rebel T3i. I'm still using the same 64GB SD card I purchased when I received the camera for Christmas 2011. I can't believe it could just be the SD card but I'll check it out and repost if it works.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

1970MaleSteve — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 01:42:11 GMT

Put a 16GB SD card in the camera and everything is back to normal. So what caused my SD card to stop working? What format should I format it?

Re: Canon T3i Dead

inno — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 06:21:48 GMT

thank you! everything is fixed now 😄

Re: Canon T3i Dead

ebiggs1 — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:49:48 GMT

Tim, Steve and inno,

I am failing to see what the SD card has to do with this situation. The camera should operate as normal (except saving a picture) whether it has a SD card installed or not?

The firmware is not stored on the SD card. Also I don't see why that would make a difference or not either.

My son has a T3i and I will test this on his next time I see him. I am out of Rebels currently but I know this would not effect my 1 series cameras like that.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

TCampbell — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 17:18:48 GMT

Cards *can* be considered "bootable" and hold firmware (which is how Magic Lantern firmware works). Usually they don't -- but they can.

Who knows what might have been on the card -- it may have been nothing more than a bad block which was still marked as usable. We'd need the ability to trace the interactions of the camera firmware with the card to be sure (which probably only Canon can do).

I have had occurances where a person used a card in one camera and discovered that a different camera had problems with that same card until they refermatted it. Reformatting a card is a good practice to eliminate a potential source of problems.

I'm just glad inno's camera is working again without needing to deal with the hassles of trying to return/exchange/repair it.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

inno — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 17:25:31 GMT

i can't believe it was something as simple as that! T.T

Re: Canon T3i Dead

ebiggs1 — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 17:29:33 GMT

I don't know Tim. That seems like a real stretch for the problem. The camera should work whether it has a SD card in it or not.

I will test this myself on my son's T3i later.

When I had my five Rebels, I used the cards without thought and never had an issue. Plus I use the CF cards interchangeably with my 1 Series now. I do believe in formatting before a critical shoot. And to use more smaller cards than fewer large cards.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

ebiggs1 — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 17:31:05 GMT

"i can't believe it was something as simple as that! T.T"

Perhaps it was not. But at any rate glad to hear all is well.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

guitareth — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 03:59:25 GMT

My T3i had totally inoperative LCD screen. It would take pictures (although I couldn’t see them) but would not go into video mode. I changed to a different SD card and then it worked. I assume there were too many files even though there was plenty of free space. After I relocated a bunch of files from under DCIM folder the first SD card started working.

Re: Canon T3i Dead

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 12:31:45 GMT

Very strange. But on another note, the camera SD card is not where you should be storing photos. Get them off the card onto your computer and then reformat the card.