Canon EOS 5d Mark II, back display very dark

[Horstman]

I've just discovered an issue with the back display of my Canon EOS 5d Mark II.

It is extremely dark, you can only guess what is being shown.
The problem appears when calling up the menus, trying to view shot images, live view, etc.; it does however show the menus, the sensor cleaning screen and such, it's just very dim, you can barely tell it's on at all.

Everything else works perfectly, everything is displayed without problems in EOS Utility and on an external HDMI monitor, pictures are recorded properly.

The camera is in great shape with only about 6000 shutter actuations, never dropped or exposed to bad weather.

I have tried all possible and impossible solutions from the Internet, many from this fine forum, but to no avail.

I've tried: several hard resets with both batteries and CF card out, for up to 15hrs; I managed a blind firmware update from 2.0.9 to 2.1.2, cleaned battery contacts, different CF cards or w/o, no lens attached.
New buffer battery, sprayed a little contact cleaner into the 2 micro switches (battery compartment and card slot); both switches appear to work fine,

Then the P hack, both batteries and CF card out, camera on and in P mode, then holding the shutter button for about 30s; a similar hack with TV mode; all settings reset, display brightness set to manual, and squeezing and tapping the camera in inappropriate ways.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[jrhoffman75]

Since you reset the camera I suspect that should have reset the brightness level of the rear LCD to the mid-point.

As such, I am guessing that the LCD has failed.

You should contact a camera repair facility for an estimate of the problem and cost to repair. Canon no longer services that version of the 5D.

[Horstman]

Thanks John,

That's what I thought, probably a hardware issue, but I hoped someone might have another suggestion to try before opening the camera.

As there is little chance to have it repaired for a reasonable price - compared to the current value of the 5D2 - I might just open it up myself and see if reseating the cables helps; maybe even try an LCD replacement.

[Horstman]

Just one more thing - a fact I forgot to mention - the two batteries I have are from 2009.

They show as fully charged in the camera display and the charger - but I discovered a new (to me) menu item - Recharge Performance, in the Battery Info menu - both batteries show red.

I ordered a new (3rd party) battery which will arrive shortly; I'll punch myself it it was that simple...