Canon EOS 3 not booting up

[Vinny1]

I am opening this thread on behalf of my gf. She owns a Canon EOS 3 which worked fine until a few days ago. She put in the battery and the screen lit up as shown in the picture attached. We have tried another set of battery which came up with the same screen. Checked the battery with a voltmeter which looked OK to me. I looked up what the empty square and rectangle meant online and it all pointed towards a faulty battery. I proceeded to clean the battery contacts with isopropyl alcohol but no luck. We are getting new batteries to try but the lack of error code makes it hard to diagnose. We will greatly appreciate the help if anyone knows what might be going on. The film is still rolled out inside the camera. Just FYI.

[deebatman316]

Hi @Vinny1 welcome to the forums. Will the camera boot up with the lens removed? What lens are you using please provide the full name. Is it a Canon brand lens or a 3rd Party lens. Some more modern 3rd Party lenses don’t work on older EOS Film bodies. Canon DOES NOT license out the EF Mount. 3rd Party manufacturers must reverse engineer it. Also the E-TTL flash protocol is the same way.

[wq9nsc]

With the battery inserted and the camera turned on, is there anything going on in the viewfinder (like the exposure metering) or is that dead also?

Rodger

[MikeSowsun]

I think your camera has a serious defect. 

With the battery removed, you should not see the "film loaded" icon visible on the top screen. Even with film in the body it should go blank when the battery is removed.   Because you are seeing the "film loaded" icon, that tells me your camera is getting power,  but it will not function. 

Does the film canister disappear when the battery is removed?  Does it disappear if you remove the film? 

[Vinny1]

It does not boot with or without a lens which is a Canon 50mm 

[Vinny1]

Nothing on the viewfinder.

[Vinny1]

With the battery in, the film cannister icon blinks. when I take the battery off, the icon disappears. I haven't taken the film off yet. We have shot almost 18 frames with this roll.

[deebatman316]

@Vinny1 does anything change on the top LCD or not when the power switch is moved from OFF to ON?

[wq9nsc · Accepted solution]

I expect a film jam would indicate an error but at this point maybe remove the film in a dark area and see if that restores operation.

Rodger

[Vinny1]

With the battery in, and in the ON position the film cannister blinks and in the OFF position, the blinking stops. When the battery is taken off, that icon disappears.