Rebel T2i Gets Stuck in "BUSY" Mode After Recording a Video

[nelwell01]

Hey! I've been recording video on my T2i for a while but suddenly, after recording a video, the camera would freeze in busy mode and then eventually shut off. I made a video explaing what is happening:

If anybody knows what I can do to fix this then please let me know.

[Mykolas]

Hi nelwell01!

Thanks for posting.

After the video recording is complete, the camera is probably still writing the remaining data from the buffer to the card, displaying a BUSY message during this process.  The issue you are experiencing where this process does not complete and the camera freezes may be related to the memory card you are using.

What specific brand, size and speed card are you using?

Have you tried any other cards?

If this is a time sensitive-matter, additional support options are available at Contact Us.

[nelwell01]

The SD card I've been using is a SanDisk Ultra 16GB and 30 mb/s class 10. I've heard of the SanDisk Extremes being very good so I may buy one and give it a try. I tried my only other SD card which is a EMTEC 30 mb/s class 10 and that didn't work either.

[TCampbell]

The camera powering off on you is the firmware crashing.  

The on/off switch is really just a "software" switch.  It does not actually deprive power.  This is sort of like a TV and remote control... in that when you "turn off" a TV it's not *really* off... the screen is off and it's gone to 'sleep' but some part of it is technically 'on' and monitoring for a signal from your remote control.  The same is true of the camera and the power swtich... it's actually in a kind of extended 'sleep' mode.

When you open the battery door (or even eject the battery) there's a micro-switch that cuts off power.  That actually DOES turn the camera off (really 'off' because the camera has been deprived of all electricity.)  Inserting the battery and closing the door causes the camera to 'boot' fresh again... so the power switch (and everything else) will actually be monitored and respond as intended.

So what's wrong?  PROBABLY the memory card.  In nearly all of these cases with the stuck 'busy' problem it means the camera is trying to write your video clip to the card and for whatever reason it is not successful.  

I did notice you're using a SanDisk Ultra card (good).  How old is the card?

A few tips:  

ALWAYS format the card IN CAMERA (if you formatted a card while it was in your computer, then re-format it using the camera and pick the "low level" checkbox when you format it.)

I do suggest you perform a new in-camera format and make sure you check the "low level" option.

Memory cards do not last forever.  It's also possible you've got a dud (nothing is 100%).  The process of "writing" to a memory card is technically physically destructive (just a tiny bit) to the card.  Reading is non-destructive... you can 'read' from a card millions of times and never wear it out, but each time you 'write' to the card and change the charge state in a memory location you will have ever-so-slightly caused 'wear' to that location.  The card will eventually fail (all cards will).  But for most cards you'll get something like 100,000 writes before it becomes a problem (years of heavy use).  BUT... if you got unlucky and had a weak card, your card may be showing early signs of failure.  It happens.

I ALWAYS suggest you own more than one card (I have lots of them) and test with a different card.  If this is the only card you own, then you need to buy another card anyway because you never want to be caught without a spare card on-hand for just such an emergency.

Next... there are forgery cards on the market and some of them are amazingly good forgeries.  What separates your really nice SanDisk Ultra card from all the non-name unlabled "junk" grade cards ... is that your card has a really nice sticker on it.  It's not too difficult for a counterfeiter to print up a pretty convincing looking sticker.  I and several others here will tell you that it's not just enough that you bought a top-name memory card... you ALSO need to buy that card from a known reputable dealer to make sure you're not buying a forgery card.  Stated differently... I am unwilling to buy a memory card from a merchant I've never heard of before because they sell the same card I can get from a well-known merchant for $5 less.  Screw the $5... I want "known" quanity and that's worth far more than $5 to me.

This is not to say that YOUR specific card is a forgery... even SanDisk will just occasionally ship out a card that passed they're quality test after being manufactured... but just barely.  You get it and start using it heavily and the next thing you know it's showing signs of failure.

Could it be your camera?  Sure... it's just unlikely.

Occam's Razor (a well-established guideline for critical thinking using the scientific method) states that among competing hypotheses, whichever one requires the fewest assumptions should be selected.  

In your case the competing hypotheses are:

1)  The camera is failing:  Except that the camera doesn't fail at any other task... just this one particular task.  That's a bit difficult to explain.  

2)  The memory card is failing:  We've actually got well-established and well-understood failure of memory cards (a memory technology which will by it's very design WILL eventually fail.)  We don't need to apply many assumptions here.

As I mentioned above... you need another memory card anyway (every camera owner should have at least 2).  You may as well just start with that.

Good luck!

[nelwell01]

Thaks for the reply. I bought my card from Amazon on January 1, 2013 (I know becuase I still have the order info in my account). I did the in camera format and it still doesn't work. Lately it's been doing this thing where as soon as I hit the recors button it goes into busy and then I can't do anything. Several seconds later it says that the recording has been stopped automatically and I still can't do anything. Then after it saying that for a while, the camera crashes. I'm a bit annoyed because I mostly bought the camera for video work and it was working for a while.

[nelwell01]

I just got a new memory card (this one) and it too does not work. Any other things I could try? I did format the card in camera but it still doen not work. I've heard about restoring the firmawar (or something like that) though I'm not really sure how you do that.

[TCampbell]

What's bizarre about this is that it sounds as if the camera & card work normally when used for regular photos... and only has the problem in video.  The video issue is almost always related to the card not being able to keep-up with the rate that the data is coming in.

You can restore the firmeware. 

Go to this page to get the latest firmware for the T2i:  http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/eos_slr_camera_systems/eos_digital_slr_cameras/eos_re...  

Pick the firmeware category, and download it.

Once downloaded, extract the .zip file and within it you'll find the instructions outlining two different methods to perform the update (it's your choice which method you'd like to use).  One method updates the firmware by connecting the camera via USB cable to the computer.  The other method simply has you copy the firmware file (the file with the name ending in ".FIR") to your camera's SD card (you'll insert the card into your computer, copy the file onto it -- just as if it were a USB flash-drive, then eject the card from the computer and put it in the camera) and then use the in-camera menu system to tell it to re-install the firmware found on the SD card.

Again, you'll find the instructions inside that .zip file you download.  Read through them completely before performing the firmware install.  Once the firmware update process starts, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you not allow anything to interrupt that process.  I always fear a poor USB connection so I have always only updated using the memory-card method.  It is also suggested that you do this with fully-charged batteries to avoid any possibility of a battery dying before it completes (it only takes a few minutes to complete the update.)

[nelwell01]

I did it once with no change in my video problem. I did it a second time with no change again. I have also cleared the settings and formatted the card with no change. Lately, the crash has been slightly different compared to the one showed in the video. It goes straight into BUSY right when I press the record button and then I lose control of the camera. After several seconds, it says, "Movie recording has been stopped automatically". After a LONG time with this, a white bar thing (kind of looks like a test tube with squares inside) quickly shows up on the right side of the screen and then the camera crashes. At no time in this is the red light blinking.

[ezpop]

Just curious to ask.

Have you ever installed the Magic Lantern on your T2i ?

I remembered having similar problem until I removed the bootflag. There has been some sort of firmware crash. I then re-installed ML and it was working fine thereafter.

[nelwell01]

No, I have not installed ML though I have been considering it.