Canon T3i not powering on

[canonaac]

I have a Canon T3i which doesn't seem to power on. First off I have a battery grip that holds two batteries. One battery is the original Canon battery and the other is an Anker aftermarket battery. When I put either battery into my camera directly, nothing happens. Camera does not turn on, the red light doesn't flash, no response from the camera what so ever. Now when I use the battery grip, it works but the Canon only works in one of the slots and the Anker works on both. However intermittently there is an issue where even if the camera turns on the screen flickers or I can see a ghost image on the camera saying "Cleaning Lens" with the cleaning lens icon.

I called a few places and they said try a new battery as they only last 2 years, but I barely use my camera. I've ordered a new battery but I it did nothing to help. I did notice that the battery contact pins where fine on the batteries and grip far as I can see, but inside the camera battery slot one pin was dirty so I used electronics contact cleaner and it cleaned right up instantly. However doing that has made no difference. A camera shop said they don't make parts for it anymore and can't fix it.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Waddizzle]

Sounds like a bad battery grip, to me.  Have you tried it without the battery grip? 

I was not aware Canon had released a grip for that camera body.  

[Tronhard]

From reading the OP, according to this statement "When I put either battery into my camera directly, nothing happens.",  they did try it without the grip and with no success.

Frankly, it sounds like something is amiss in the contacts within the battery compartment if that is the case. The fact that the battery grip works intermittently and inconsistently may be a different issue

[Waddizzle]

It sounds like a third party grip and the battery door might be missing.

[canonaac]

Yes, exactly. I looked at the contact pins inside the camera body battery slot and it seems fine. I keep my camera is a room temp places in a bag so it doesn't get damaged or anything.

To me it feels like an internal connection issue.

[canonaac]

To clarify, both batteries do not work in the camera body at all. Nothing happens. When the battery grip is installed and the batteries are in the grip the camera powers on. But sometimes it powers on the screen flickers or you can see the "Lens Cleaning" ghosted on the screen.

It's not a canon grip, I believe it's one I got from Amazon.

[Tronhard · Accepted solution]

To confirm - do you have the door for the camera's battery compartment connected when you use the battery in the camera body directly?

[canonaac]

Omg I'm such a clown. That was it! I forgot the battery door needs to be attached. Looks like the grip is defective after all.

When I was diagnosing the issue with the grip I forgot to replace the door thinking it wasn't needed to test the battery.

Whew. Thanks for the help.

[Tronhard]

That seems to be a resolution.  I have a couple of 600D and 650D units (T3i and T4i) and they all have battery grips.  One of the grips failed after a while.  If you really want one, you might pick up a genuine grip now for a reasonable cost considering the age of the camera.

If this resolves your issue, please mark as resolved, so others don't keep posting and so that anyone else with a similar set of symptoms can refer to it.