Anyone fixed a broken battery microswitch?

[stargirl3]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum, so please forgive any wrongdoings. 

Last week, my trusty old Rebel T3i didn't turn it on. I Googled around and learned about the microswitch, and after poking it with a pencil, the camera turned on. It worked fine the next night. Over the course of the week, it's done different things. One morning, I thought it was working fine, but the photos didn't save to my card. Sometimes when I try to turn it on, the little red light flashes. A few times, the viewfinder worked but wouldn't actually take any shots. Now it's just dead, and I might cry. I'm in Ecuador until April, so I can't just hop over to Target and grab an upgrade.

The switch seems very flimsy. I can push it down with a pencil, but even when pressed down, the camera doesn't turn on. I've seen a lot of info about the switch, but none on how to fix it. Can anyone help?

[stargirl3]

Nope! I'm on a gap year program, living with a host family before I start college next year 🙂

[ebiggs1]

Oh, great.  All the best and I hope you get the camera working.  We had some good friends that went there for missionary work and wound up staying. They were new Quito.

[Stephen]

You might also give the Canon Upgrade Program a call - especially since you're going away on a once in a lifetime trip! Our team is at 1-866-443-8002 from 8am to Midnight (ET) every day. 

[stargirl3]

As I wrote in my original post, I'm already in Ecuador. I need my camera fixed, not a new one!

[Wolfie0827]

One thing to try is to remove all accessories (Battery, SD card...) next try a couple of drops of isopropyl alcohol, just one, two or three. Then let dry for at least an hour. See if that works. This will work if it is dirt that is causing the issue, and will not hurt.

Isopropyl alcohol is an excellent cleaner for electronics. Also try to use as few drops as possible, maybe even start with one then see if it worked, then try two if one doesn't work. But again no more than three, it can weaken some types of plastic if too much is used.

[wq9nsc]

The drop of WD40 ebiggs suggested MAY work because WD40 is also a fairly decent contact cleaner (largely due to its light petroleum base).  Orient the camera so that the WD40 will head down past the plunger hopefully into the switch but only use a few drops; WD40 in the wrong place in a camera isn't a good thing. Just because the switch moves doesn't mean the contacts are making a good low resistance connection when it is activated.

When I was in Cuba for a few weeks I ended up using some high octane rum as an emergency contact cleaner for the battery contacts in what was then a state of the art Kodak camera.  Things have come a very long way since the year 2000 but that little Kodak survived its drink of rum and still sometimes gets used for documenting disassembly of vintage radio gear on my repair bench.  But even in an emergency I don't think I would expose my Canon 1 series bodies to rum (or Sake).

I have never used the Rebel series but can you power it directly from an AC adapter to rule out a failing/flaky battery pack or connector?

If WD40 doesn't do the trick hopefully a local repair shop can help you.  Most countries aren't as quick to junk stuff as we do in the U.S. so you might find someone who can identify and fix the problem.

Enjoy your gap year!  I taught international marketing along with some other marketing courses for 27 years before retiring a couple of years ago.  From my experience, students who had a little time between high school and college did very well and spending a year in another country is a great learning and maturing experience.  Hopefully you will soon have a working camera to document this experience 🙂

Rodger

[BurnUnit]

If you're concerned about using WD40 on your camera, you might look into a product called "Deoxit D5". It's specifically made to clean and protect electrical contacts and there's a variety of different containers and ways to apply it. I've had great results using it to restore noisy radio and and stereo controls and other contacts.

[stargirl3]

Hello again. The camera decided to work when I made two 7-hr round trip visits to the repair shop, of course. I took a few pics this morning, but when I switched memory cards, it stopped working. I switched the cards back, but no luck. The camera guy said it's not the battery microswitch. Now, it's focusing but not actually taking photos, and the screen doesn't turn on. Camera guy said he'd probably have to change the whole circuit board, which would take 5-6 weeks and cost $200, which is the cost of replacing this with a used T3i. Do you happen to have any other ideas? 

[Waddizzle]

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@stargirl3 wrote:

Hello again. The camera decided to work when I made two 7-hr round trip visits to the repair shop, of course. I took a few pics this morning, but when I switched memory cards, it stopped working. I switched the cards back, but no luck. The camera guy said it's not the battery microswitch. Now, it's focusing but not actually taking photos, and the screen doesn't turn on. Camera guy said he'd probably have to change the whole circuit board, which would take 5-6 weeks and cost $200, which is the cost of replacing this with a used T3i. Do you happen to have any other ideas? 

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He should give you a credit towards that $200 for whatever you paid for his first incorrect diagnosis.  I would cut that person off the list, and never go back there again.  You can practically by a used T3i for that price 

[stargirl3]

I paid $10 for him to charge my batteries and tell me that that was the only thing wrong. I'm not making any more 7-hr trips to him. Phone camera it is, I suppose, unless my camera decides to start working like it did for him.