Powershot sx540hs wont power on

[b1gduk]

Hi All,

~18 months ago I bought the sx540hs camera for my daughters Christmas pressy, it was last used in July 2018 however when we try to turn it on a few days ago after a prolonged time not used , nothing at all, no signs of life, image no battery ! I believe the battery was left in the camera during this time.

The battery appears to be OK, it charges fine and volt meter checks out but its just will not power on, not a flicker / shutter sound or anything. Could the camera with battery left in to discharge over a period cause an issue ?

There are no signs of battery leak on either camera or battery.

Are there any known tricks , button holds/resets with this model ? 

My other two avenues is a Consumer rights claim against the retailer with a poor partail refund offer or send back to Canon to remedy with associated charges.

Any ideas I would be most greatful.

Regards,

Dwayne.

[John_]

The battery voltage may be normal but the battery may have lost its capacity to hold a charge. Turning on a camera is like booting up a computer, there is a lot going on and a large draw on the battery. The first thing, the fastest and least expensive thing I would do is to get a new battery, yours was left for a long time and batteries need to be charged and discharged to maintain their capacity.

[b1gduk]

Hi John,

Thanks for replying, Ill be honest here, I have "alternative" batteries I have tested with the camera and they all demonstrate the same issue. Genuine or otherwise. I take your point about battery performance underload. I would happily pay for a new genuine battery , I just wish I could get one on a try before I buy basis because they are not cheap especially if its more money to pay out then still have to send off for repair if it doesnt work 😞 - I guess at least I have another genuine spare.

[John_]

If you purchase it from a store with a liberal return policy, like Amazon, you can return it for either no charge or just shipping charges which should not be too bad for a small item. I forgot in your original message did you try powering it on without the SD card in?

[b1gduk]

Hi

Yes obsessively. I'm not easily defeated 🙂 I'm in the UK. I might be better accepting partial refund as it's out of warrantee, better than a kick in the teeth but only just !

[John_]

ha ha! Yes! Try and avoid a repair those are very expensive and in some cases cost more than the camera is worth

[BurnUnit]

Do you know anyone with another Canon camera that uses the same battery as yours? Perhaps they would let you install your battery in their camera so you can see if it is as fully charged as you think it is.

There's also probably a micro switch on the battery and memory card door that won't allow the camera to boot up if the door is open. It might be hard to see but you may be able to cycle this switch a couple times with a small non-metallic "pokey thingy" (wooden toothpick?) and free something up so it makes proper contact when the battery door is closed. Maybe install the battery leaving the door open, hold down the power on switch and then close the door or manually depress the the micro switch. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[BearZA]

I had this issue just now, here is how I solved it:
I charged the original Canon battery, but it still would not boot up.
So I removed the battery and the SD card and pressed the power button a few times, (Sometimes this helps computers discharge all caps, so I thought why not try it with the camera)
I put the battery back in, but no luck, so I put the battery back on the charger, and even though it was just fully charged, it lit up orange again, I left it there for just a few moments, put it back into the camera and it started, having lost all date, time and settings (So I assume it lost power completely while it was stored for a few months)

Just give your best battery a few chances, I think after being stored, it will take more charge from the battery to get all the capacitors and electronics in the camera to power up again.

Hope this helps!
(The third-party battery that was in the camera while it was stored did plump up a slight bit, so probably best not to store the camera with a battery installed.)