Is there a way to fix the No Card in Camera problem on a T3i without spending $190 plus shipping?

[AnacondaSlim]

I took some night pictures on Wednesday. Downloaded them to my laptop and replaced the card in the camera and when I tried using the camera the next morning it displayed "NO CARD IN CAMERA". I placed the card back in my laptop and it worked fine. Place it back in the camera and .... "NO CARD IN CAMERA". So I went on line and a few suggestions said to use compressed canned air. I tried it and it still said "NO CARD IN CAMERA". I went and purchased an new SANDISK 16GB card and ..... "NO CARD IN CAMERA". Does anyone have ay suggestions other than sending it in for repair at the cost of $190 plus shipping?

[bobakman]

I have a T5i and on several ocassions this has happened now to me. After re-inserting the card it clears. I believe in my case the cause is the small switch that is actuated by the SD card while inserted. Without viewing the logic diagram of this circuit I can not be 100% sure but it would appear this is a permissive and is the cause for the message in my case. To prove this I inserted a Micro SD card adapter with NO Micro SD card in it see photos doing this yielded the message "Card can not be accessed..." If I close the SD card door with NO card inserted the message displayed is "No card in camera".
So the SD card sense switch appears to be the root cause of this issue well at least in my case that is.
As far as fixing it you would have to locate the switch to see if it is hanging up due to dust/dirt and that would require some technical skills.
BTW I am an electrical/electronics technician though I don't work on cameras rather power plants.

Bob

[Waddizzle]

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@bobakman wrote:

I have a T5i and on several ocassions this has happened now to me. After re-inserting the card it clears. I believe in my case the cause is the small switch that is actuated by the SD card while inserted. Without viewing the logic diagram of this circuit I can not be 100% sure but it would appear this is a permissive and is the cause for the message in my case. To prove this I inserted a Micro SD card adapter with NO Micro SD card in it see photos doing this yielded the message "Card can not be accessed..." If I close the SD card door with NO card inserted the message displayed is "No card in camera".
So the SD card sense switch appears to be the root cause of this issue well at least in my case that is.
As far as fixing it you would have to locate the switch to see if it is hanging up due to dust/dirt and that would require some technical skills.
BTW I am an electrical/electronics technician though I don't work on cameras rather power plants.

Bob

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Using micro-SD cards is highly inadvisable.  Their use seems to be the common denominator with a lot of problems.

[bobakman]

You are  correct. Due to the second set of contacts in the Micro SD card adapter a high IR condition or open can rear it's ugly head and cause issues loss of data and such. In this instance I was using the Micro SD card adaptor as a troubleshooting aid hence no micro SD card in the adaptor.

Bob

[AsherSmith]

I had the same problem. 

[ACORDK82]

FYI... in case you still have this camera... have you tried blowing any dust or anything that may be inside the SD card slot? Mine was doing this and after a day of trying everything I did that REALLY HARD about 3 times and it fixed it. 

[rgfoto]

I had this problem once with a camera. Turns out that, somehow, one of the pins in the card reader bent. That was a PITA.

[CPL]

This actually DID work! I'd seen it mentioned on another site and tried it, so I'm glad to tell anyone here who asks that blowing hard in the slot seems to clear out whatever may be causing this. I'd taken the card in and out numerous times, tried sliding the lock switch back and forth (no luck)...then saw mention of blowing into the slot.

As soon as I put the card back in I noticed the little red light blink on the back of the camera and knew something had changed. Voila! Fixed!

(Now this really is aggravating that something as idiotic as this can happen...but at least it's fixable.)

[RobertTheFat]

Is five years and nine months a new record for how long a thread stays active?

[Bmo521]

Ok, I just had this problem. Went and bought a new 16G Sandisk card & put it in and got the same message. I took it out and flipped the switch to lock the card and popped it back in the SD slot. I then got a message that showed the card was lock protected. So, I knew it was recognizing the card. I took it out and flipped the switch back, popped it back in the slot and got the same message that of "No Card." I then opened the door for the SD slot and pushed the card to eject and load about three times, then it worked.

I hope this helps others.

Merry Christmas and happy shooting to all of you 🙂

[bobakman]

Yep still sounds  like an intermittent switch issue as inserting and re-inserting the card will often work as in your case and mine. The root cause could be poor quality hardware such as the switch and or switch actuator it's self or the mounting of the switch bottom line IMHO it appears to be a hardware issue related to the switch.

Bob