Canon 5D Markiii will not turn on after attempting to update firmware! HELP!

[deanatamayo]

Hello. I was recently attempting to update the firmware on my canon 5d mark iii as it had never been updated before. I watched a video on youtube that explained how to do it by using a CF card. when i inserted the cf card and hit "update firmware" the screen went blank and nothing happened. When i attempted to turn the camera back on it was non responsive. It isn't doing anything. It appears as though it has no power even though the battery is fully charged. How do I go about reverting it back to original firmware if I can't even get it to turn on? 

[MikeSowsun]

Try taking off the camera lens and any accessories like a battery grip, etc.

Remove the battery for a few seconds and then try it again.

If that doesn’t work, try removing the date/time battery.  

If if that doesn’t work, call Canon. 

[deanatamayo]

Thanks for your response. I did attempt to remove that battery for a while in hopes that would resolve the problem but it didn't work. I still havent' tried removing the date/time battery. Will try that next.

[RobertTheFat]

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@deanatamayowrote:

Hello. I was recently attempting to update the firmware on my canon 5d mark iii as it had never been updated before. I watched a video on youtube that explained how to do it by using a CF card. when i inserted the cf card and hit "update firmware" the screen went blank and nothing happened. When i attempted to turn the camera back on it was non responsive. It isn't doing anything. It appears as though it has no power even though the battery is fully charged. How do I go about reverting it back to original firmware if I can't even get it to turn on? 

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In general, a botched firmware update has to be fixed by Canon. What they presumably do is use a special bootable card (like Magic Lantern uses, for example) to restore the firmware to a specified level.

But before you send it in, try using a different card and/or turning the camera on without a card in it. Conceivably you might have screwed up your card when you copied the update to it. If that does work, the next thing to do is insert the card (without turning the camera off) and reformat it.

Realistically, the chances are that it has to go back to Canon. But at least it's a fixable problem that shouldn't require any new hardware.

Next time forget the Youtube video. Use a card reader to put the update module on the card, and carefully follow Canon's instructions.

[deanatamayo]

I have removed both the CF and SD cards. Now I am getting a screen that says Firmware update program Loading....... but nothing seems to be happening. I reinserted the CF card with the update file but it seems like it's just hanging. Should I remove the CF card again?

[MikeSowsun]

Which firmware update are you trying to do? 

What is the name of the file you copied to the CF card?

What is the file size of the file?

Is there a chance you used this card for another camera’s firmware update?

 Go over the Canon instructions again and make sure you have the right file and it’s the right size and is copied to the right location. 

If you are still having trouble, I would copy the file to another CF card that has been used in the same camera before and try again. 

[deanatamayo]

I am running Mac OS High Sierra. The name of the file is 5D300135.FIR. Size of file is 18MB i believe. i followed all instructions per Canon on updating firmware via CF card. I'm not sure what version of firmware I previously had. It had never been updated before so its whatever version came installed default on the 5D Mark iii. 

[deanatamayo]

I have also tried copying the file to another CF card that has been used in my camera. The screen continues to display firmware update program  Loading........

Even shutting off the camera doesn't stop the screen from displaying this message. 😞

[lly3988]

Please make sure that the .fir file is not inside any folder on the CF card. Looks like the camera cannot find the firmware for updating. The next step should look like the following : (just for illustration only - 7D Mark II)

[deanatamayo]

No, the file is not located inside any folder. It was placed in the root directory. I'm all out of ideas 😞