EOS Rebel T3i Black Screen, but camera still shoots - Help!

[CassioSiquara]

I have a Canon Rebel T3i and one day it was working fine, but in the very next day BAM the lcd just stoped working and now just show me a black screen.

I searched all the internet trying some way to fix my screen, but none of them worked. Below some information about what I found on the internet and have tried.

> My LCD it's working fine, the light inside LCD turn on, but just don't show any image, even the menu, info and other stuff. Just a awful black screen. And if I press the Disp. button I can see the screen turn off because the LCD light turn off. And, even more strange, if I try to upgrade the firmware, the screen works again for a few seconds when show up the Loading screen (moments before appears the list of files to upgrade the firmware, but I can't see the list, I just can see the Loading screen)

> Verify the "display off sensor". My Rebel T3i just don't have this kind of sensor, I know how this sensor's looks like ( http://www.manualslib.com/manual/454362/Canon-Eos-Rebel-Sl1-18-55mm-Is-Stm-Kit.html?page=15#manual ) and I can affirm that my camera doesn't have this thing. (Anyway I have removed the rubber and plastic outer viewfinder fitting from the camera and cleaned the area around the viewfinder and doesn't worked)

> Upgrade Firmware. I read about fix this problem upgrading the firmware, even without menu image I got it. But still not working. After upgrading the firmware I confirmed the firmware version using EOS Utility in my computer.

> My camera still working perfectly, I mean almost perfectly. I can shoot normaly, and I can do all the others things using the EOS Utility.

> I bought a new original lcd, but shows up the same problems.

> I thought some kind of lcd data cable was broken, but as I said, when I try to upgrade the firmware I can see the loading screen perfectly.


So, I'm desesperated here. Do not know what to try now. Please help me.

[ebiggs1]

Press the 'Info' buton.

[CassioSiquara]

As I said "My LCD it's working fine, the light inside LCD turn on, but just don't show any image, even the menu, INFO and other stuff."

Any other idea? Pleaase

[ebiggs1]

Yes, I do.

Call Canon Support.  Mostly likely it is broken.

[kvbarkley]

Do you use the USB port for video? You might try inserting and removing the video cable to see if it is a bad contact inside - and see if the image shows up on the TV.

[CassioSiquara]

Ebiggs1, I think that the problem is something about the firmware, because the LCD it's working. The canon support doesn't answer me 😞


Kvbarkley, I just used the USB one time, yesterday, to verify if the firmware was upgraded. And after the verification, I used the USB for video. The USB it's working great, the image shows up perfectly. I'll see about that possibility of bad contact inside, sounds possible.

[Waddizzle]

Did you know that there is a feature to turn the LCD Off/On in the menu system?  Here's way that is supposed to be able to reset it.

"When talking software, the LCD blankout problem can be eliminated as follows:

• Turn the mode dial on the 600D/T3i to the "M" position;
• Push the menu button and scroll right to the second setup menu (indicated with yellow wrench icon, as pictured);
• Scroll to "LCD off/on btn." and set this to: "Shutter btn." - notice that shis should be the factory default setting.

Also notice that camera autofocus mode was set to "QuickAF".

If still unsuccesful, try to experiment with different "LCD off/on btn" settings and make sure the camera isn't set to power itself down within 30 sec." 

Here is the LCD OFF/ON setting instructions found on page 179 of the instruction manual.

Hope this helps.  If not, do as Ernie suggested and contact Canon service.  Give them time to respond. 

[kvbarkley]

This will be hard to do with a black LCD. 8^)

But the OP may be able to use the Video or HDMI output to fiddle with it.

[Waddizzle]

---

@kvbarkley wrote:

This will be hard to do with a black LCD. 8^)

But the OP may be able to use the Video or HDMI output to fiddle with it.

---

I realize that. But, sometimes pressing the right keys, the right number of times, in the correct order can fix things.  Think of it as touch typing.

Changing out the firmware raises a red flag, IMHO.  Something else may have happened to the camera.

[CassioSiquara]

Waddizzle, I changed the LCD off/on btn as you suggested (even with black screen), but doesn't work. I know that I really did it because now I just have to press halfway the shutter button and the display turn off. So now I will try to see the menu using a hdmi cable connected to a monitor (for now I just have the USB cable and the EOS Utility - that is not so helpful as I thought) to try the other ways you said.

Kvbarkley, I tried to clean the USB and HDMI connections, but did not worked. 

ebiggs1, don't know =/