Cannot communicate with battery - 7D

[aridillse]

Dear Friends,

I am a proud owner of 7D for the past 2.5 yrs and have done many trips and shooting with that.

I am not using any battery grip. Have 2 Canon original battery with me.

Fromyesterday night I am getting an error  "Cannot communicate with battery". It is same described in the below link also :-

http://kbsupport.cusa.canon.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1011&PARTITION_ID=1&secu...

I am using Original Canon battery and I have tried with both of them but no result.

As per User Guide ,

"

If the message "Cannot communicate with battery" is displayed when checking the battery status, select [OK] and continue shooting. Please note that the battery level indicator will appear blank.

"

My concern is :-

1. If I ignore that and continue shooting , will it create any problem to the Camera functionality ?

2. Wil the battery drain fast due to that ?

I am Ok with not displaying the battery infor as of now ( which I will repair by Canon) but need to confirm that the battery functionality will remain as usual. I will be travelling for a birding trip soon and I due to short time I dont want to send it to repair...

Please guide.

Warm Regards,

Ari...

[pheffernan]

I tried contacting Canon directly and have had no reply as of yet. If the situation changes, I'd happily share the resolution proposed on this thread. I felt I had no option remaining but to vent my frustration here. Apologies if I have overstepped remit of this forum.

[ebiggs1]

Oh, it makes no difference to me. I just wanted to make sure you contacted the correct place and people for your concerns.

Sometimes moderators jump in here with a link but not always.

[Jeffjeffz]

My 7D same  Cannot communicate with battery

I am dissaponted with Canon not becuase my Camera do have a problem but becuase this is a very common problem.

I hope Service center will not charge me anything.

2 Years old Canon 7D

[eesnova]

Hi Pferrerman,

Last time I checked, the social world of the Internet ,derives it's power from the free flow of information. As such I believe you have the right to express your opinion good or bad about products. You need not apologize in my view.

There are always people who believe they need  to indulge in selfpromotion by  boasting many years of  experience, and  to display what equipment they own, to justify their own image of "guru" and behavior of  self appointed "Censor police" without the accountability of offering real solutions.

Out of my own experience , we are talking about a mayor malfunction.You are a frustrated customer and user , who  has the right to express yourself, especially if the normal channels do not work to your satisfaction  and you  need help. 

If I were a manufacturer with a reputation of quality to maintain, I would pick up this thread and reach out to you.

Canon is a fantastic company, with wonderful products, and I myself, although faced with the same issue would never dream of shopping for a different product. I hope they will pick up your distress signal and that of many others.

Because of time constraints I resorted to a third party repair shop who did a great job in one day, at a very reasonable price. And still a Canon fan !

Kind regards

[eesnova]

Hi Jeffjefz,

please find a link to an article which put me on the scent to a solution.

http://www.advancecamera.com/2012/09/01/canon-7d-cannot-communicate-with-battery-error/

When I discussed the issue with my local certified repair shop, they described almost 1:1 the same reasons for the issue and the recommended procedure.

As this was a known problem for them, they were able to fix it relatively easily.

This is probably an open door, but:

1) Check your warranty expiration date and if still valid and you can do without your camera for a number of weeks, contact the Canon support center. In my case: warranty had expired.  I do not know what to recommend if they do not respond.

2) if you are a professional user club member, then Canon should really be able to help. (I am not a member ) 

3) if your warranty has expired and you are in a hurry, then a certified local repair shop is a good idea, as it was for me.

kind regards,

[ebiggs1]

"There are always people who believe they need  to indulge in selfpromotion by  boasting many years of  experience, and  to display what equipment they own, to justify their own image of "guru" and behavior of  self appointed "Censor police" without the accountability of offering real solutions."

Yeah, how true, and then there are some that  don't have enough self esteem to dispaly there real name. Takes all kinds don't it?  

[bud411]

I was having the "can not communicate..." problem with my 7D also. If I left the battery in the camera with it turned off, in a day or 2 the battery would be stone cold dead. So, yes, it did affect battery life in my experience.

By accident I discovered that putting a fully charged battery in with the power switch in the on position, without a memory card loaded & after inserting the battery, opening the memory slot door to install the memory card, it would read the battery

properly & NOT discharge the battery in a day or 2 like it had in the past. It is now working properly even with my second battery (chipped aftermarket battery, BTW). I don't know if it had anything to do with my 7 yr old great grandson dropping it on a tile floor (not a recommended repair method), but after that is when all started working properly.

I'm going to continue using it & not sending it & a stack of hard earned dollars to a repair center until it fails again. Just wish Canon would take ownership of this failure as it seems to be a common fault of an otherwise spectacular piece of

equipment.

[Martin_C]

Hi all,

perhaps interesting for all victims od "Cannot communicate with battery" problem. I had the same on my 7D, with two original and one third party battery, starting sometime previous spring, showing exactly the same symptoms described here, for all my batteries. I lived with that all the year, having apparently a bit more drain from batteries (especially when left in switched-off camera for few days), but .. I managed to cope with that having the other two batteries always full and ready in a pocket.

However, few days ago I got all the battery functions miraculously back - just inserting another "third party" battery (very cheap one from Ebay) borrowed from a friend of mine for a timelapse session. Now my camera shows the status and all the infos from all my old batteries. No idea how it could get back .. but it did!

all the best

Martin

Prague, Czechia

[fgossieaux]

I cannot believe Canon is not responding on their own forums...probably because their communications are controlled by their legal department.

I can also not imagine that they have "shills" like ebiggs1 blasting people for complaining on the Canon forums for legitimate issues.

I lost my charger and bought a new one, which is the original Canon charger. I have 2 Canon batteries and one Canon compatible. As soon as I tried to charge the canon compatible, which had worked for over a year, it would not charge. When I charged the original Canon batteries, it did charge, but when I put them in the camera I got the message "Cannot communicate with this battery"...

I have the 7D and 2 other older Canon cameras (30D/10D), with the 24-70/f2.8 usm, 70-200/f-2.8 is usm, the 60/2.8 macro, and the efs 10-22/3.5-4.5 wide angle lens from them....we should be getting better answers from a vendor like that...

I have upcoming shoots and cannot use the camera...

[Larryjay]

Makes me question Canon. Thu I'm invested in them now. I''ll remember this on my next camera purchase,