5D Mark iii back lcd not working other than auto mode

[soumenchatz]

I have a 5D mark iii which I have been using for last 5 years. It was working absolutely fine. But today morning I found that the back of the lcd is not displaying anything other than fully auto mode. I can take pictures in manual mode and review them in auto but it is difficult.
None of the button like Quick view, or Menu or Image playback is displaying anything in manual mode but working absolutely fine in auto mode.

[William_N]

Hi soumenchatz,

Welcome to the Canon Forum!

It is unusual that the LCD screen is not able to display any information at all when not in Auto mode. I would go to the Setup (yellow wrench) menu section of the camera and reset the settings to default. If this behaviour continues after resetting the camera I would contact our Technical Support team for further assistance.

Please CLICK HERE to reach our friendly Technical Support Team by phone or email.

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[DHC]

We had the exact same issue show up on our in house EOS 5D Mark III.   No rear LCD coming on in any mode except A+. There was regular LCD function and thus menu function in A+ mode.  No USB communications except in A+ mode.  We are an independent tech repair house, so we have seen it all ! Using the latest canon connect app version, and in A+ mode, we were able to update the firmware to the latest version expecting this to fix the issue but still we had no fix of the issue.  We pulled and replaced (what appears to be the original factory installed) backup memory battery, its a 1616 coin cell located just under the IN/OUT ports on the side of the unit, you must remove one screw and slide the battery holding tray out of its slo. Unfortunately, still no change to the LCD off issue. We pulled the coin cell back out and the main unit battery (original canon) out of the camera body for 18 hours.  The coin cell battery does not need to be put back in the unit for testing reasons, but only to retain memory settings.  After 18 hours, we put back in the main battery for testing but still no change the unit was still stuck in some weird electrical glitch.  Then, as it was sitting on my service desk and I was pondering the issue, I realized that the AF-ON button seems to be sitting rather deep in its socket.  Then I realized that it was pushed and stuck all the way in.  A STUCK AF-ON button !  Using 91 percent isopropyl alcohol we cleaned around the button, then used a pin to get it free, and cleaned around it again with isopropyl alcohol. The button was not broken or damaged, it simply must of had some external sticky residue placed upon it by some unknowing user. The system is completely fixed, it acts like brand new, fully functional.  I would imagine that ANY stuck button may cause logic control issues like what we had but for sure, the known symptoms above were caused by a stuck AF-ON button on our unit.  I guess the moral of the story to not panic and examine your gear closely, and on another note, take care of and keep clean your expensive toys !  Thank you Canon for making such amazing and dependable gear.

[soumenchatz]

There is no reset option in Auto mode. Also I have reached out to technical support but they have no idea how to resolve it.

[William_N]

Hi soumenchatz,

One other thing to try would be to remove everything from the camera except a Canon battery pack (memory card, lens, etc...) and see how it behaves. If the display still only shows information in the Auto mode the camera body would need to be sent in for a service evaluation.

A repair request can be started online HERE.

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[Luisfbc]

Hi

I saw your post from 2018, but today I started to face the same problem.

Could you tell me what was the final solution you got .

Thank you in advance

Luis Correia

[soumenchatz]

I had to send it to Canon for repair. They did not tell me the root cause of the problem but it appears certain electronic malfunction which blocks the manual mode to not work. Btw, is your live view working in manual mode? Also check menu options are coming or not, if either of them are working a factory reset may solve the problem

[Luisfbc]

Thank you
The live view is not working as well
The menu only shows the A mode options and because of that I cannot reset to factory default

[Mella_Hillerman]

Hi There!
I'm also just reading up on this issue (I have exactly the same issue - LDC isn't working in any other mode other than Auto. It also seems to affect the lens function...) Did you also have to send in your camera? Any information from the technical repair guys?

[Mella_Hillerman]

"Hi There!
I'm also just reading up on this issue (I have exactly the same issue - LDC isn't working in any other mode other than Auto. It also seems to affect the lens function...) Did you also have to send in your camera? Any information from the technical repair guys?"


Me again... So turns out I found a hack that worked for the issue I was experiencing (all modes accept "Auto" were completely disabled, no AF worked, as well as the back screen was black, each time I would put any lens on. No lens, no issue)

After looking online, it seemed the most common fix was removing the battery and FC / SD cards for an extended period of time. I left all outside the camera for over 24 hours and that seems to have done the trick.
(before that I had done a firmware update and cleared all camera settings on the camera menu)