EOS 7D Mark II - will not connect to laptop

[orbman]

I've had intermittent problems connecting my 7DII to my laptop using the 7DII supplied cable connected from the camera digital terminal to the USB port on my laptop. Now it will not connect at all. I then used the same cable with an older 7DII, and it connected immediately to my laptop, so it's not the cable or my laptop. 

There must be an issue with the digital terminal on my newest 7DII camera body.

I have two older 7DII camera bodies, and both of them have passed the 200,000 MTBF failure shutter count, but are still working.

I only connect a 7DII to a laptop when shooting in LiveView mode, and not for image transfer.

So I have two questions.

1. Any suggestions to fix the digital terminal issue other than sending the camera to Canon for repairs?

2. If the shutter fails on one of my older 7DII camera bodies, will it still work in LiveView mode, or is the camera bricked unless it is sent to Canon for repairs?

Thanks.

[kvbarkley]

Is WiFi on? You can only use either WiFi *or* USB.

[jrhoffman75]

You should confirm with Canon USA (assuming you are in USA) about repair life for the 7D II. The Canon Japan site says repair eligibility ends in January 2027.

If you want to keep both cameras maybe want to consider preemptive shutter replacement since you have a lot of actuations (and don't want third party repair).

[orbman]

Thanks for the responses. WiFi was not turned on. I do have a WiFi card in slot two, but tried with and without the WiFi card in, and WiFi was not connected in the menu.

Really seems like the digital terminal is not working. I looked into the digital terminal slot with a bright light as well as blowing into it with a HEPA filtered blower. Did not see any dirt or any bent pins. I have connected to the digital terminal slot multiple times on this camera body and perhaps there is a slightly bent pin that I cannot see.

Thanks for the info on Canon repair possibly ending for the 7DII. In addition to the newest one with the bad digital terminal, I have two other and older 7DIIs, both working okay with 200,000+ shots, and a 7D with 176,000 shots.

I only use the digital terminal for controlling the camera with my laptop for astrophotography. Since it works on at least one of the older 7DII camera bodies, I have the cable connected to that digital terminal and plan to leave it connected.

Rather than sending any of these camera bodies off to Canon for repair, I plan to use them as long as I can. If all of them fail, my choices are to either buy a new camera body or an astrophotography camera.

Murphy says if I send any of them off for repair, something else will fail soon after the original problem is fixed. 🙂

[FloridaDrafter]

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@orbman wrote:

Really seems like the digital terminal is not working. I looked into the digital terminal slot with a bright light as well as blowing into it with a HEPA filtered blower. Did not see any dirt or any bent pins. I have connected to the digital terminal slot multiple times on this camera body and perhaps there is a slightly bent pin that I cannot see.

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IIRC, the USB port on the 7D II is soldered directly to the main board (PCB), so it's possible that connection has been damaged, either at a solder point or an actual cracked PCB. I've seen several teardowns, not on the 7D II but similar cameras, that show this damage.

Newton

[kvbarkley]

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2019/08/why-side-mount-buttons-and-ports-break-on-cameras/