cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

SX60 turns itself on and sticks at "busy" screen

Grove188
Contributor

SX60 turns itself on then sticks at either the busy screen, or if I remove the sd card then the "no memory card" screen.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

I found the problem in the end but delayed giving the news in case things went wrong again.  However since Rosemary has been functioning normally for a week I think it is probably safe to now explain: unlike the SX50 the SX60 has an external microphone and the circuitry for that contains its own mercury button cell that looks to be spot welded in place.  When I unplug this the camera behaves normally, so I guess this component is faulty and was sending some bad signal to the motherboard that was causing it to switch itself on.  Luckily I have no plans to use an external mic so all good. 

 

There did look to be some corrosion on the main chip for this so maybe the previous owner got caught in rain or something.  The motherboard probably switches off in these circumstances, but the external mic probably shorts and has problems.

 

Thanks for the help and advice though - it was good to have others to talk to rather than just panicking by myself!

 

 

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12

Grove188
Contributor

I have just found a workaround: hitting the record button gets it running normally.  But it still instantly turns back on when powered off and boots to the same busy or no memory card screen.

Have you tried it without the SD card inserted? You may have a bad card.

Yes, that is the second case where it stays at the "no memory card" screen.

I think the card is good because it was happy to do a factory reset, and it takes photos fine.  But the factory reset didn't help the problem of it turning itself on and sticking at either the busy screen or the no memory card screen.

I have the SX50 and if it was doing what yours is doing and it is not the card I would drop a couple of drops of Deoxit5 into the seam around the power button. It will not harm anything plastic or rubber and will help if there is any dirt, oxidation or the PC board switch underneath the mechanical button is stuck in a semi on/off position. That mechanical button presses down on another switch mounted on what is called a flexible PC board. Deoxit5 is sold in a small tube or a spray can with an adjustable spray rate, Low, Med or High. It is a high quality, safe electronics cleaner I've used it for over a decade, it always comes in handy even if it does not solve your issue.

In the meantime, someone else might chime in with a different idea to try.

Thanks John, I will try that.

You're welcome, best of luck to you!

As the camera is second hand and outside guarantee (so I have nothing really to lose), I opened it up (taking appropriate anti-static precautions) and carefully disconnected the ribbon cable that connects the switch to the motherboard.  It still switches itself on even when the switch assembly is disconnected, so I don't think the switch can be causing this. 

 

I will still give the cleaning idea a try as it couldn't do any harm.

wow! Did you check if Canon had any firmware updates? That motherboard is getting a false signal to turn on from somewhere, maybe some dirt or something has created a short. I'd find it really odd if the firmware was corrupt and doing this but I suppose it is possible. I don't think the camera communicates with the battery when it is off, I was thinking that somehow the battery might do this? Very odd, Calling an exorcist might be an option!

Announcements