HELP 50D will not turn on
LivingLarge
Registered Users Posts: 120 Major grins
I left my camera in the truck overnite. I do this often with no issues. Went to get it this morning and it will not turn on. Tried 3 different batts and even the direct AC adapter. Nothing.
Any clues?
Any clues?
“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heartis an artist.”
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heartis an artist.”
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He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heartis an artist.”
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It works!!!!
I returned from the store with a new date batt and without putting it in the camera now works. I have done nothing to it. Kinda scary.
I suspect the date batt is the reason. My date and time are still current but I now have a new spare in case. I will update after the weekend to let everyone know how it works out.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heartis an artist.”
Judging from the time of year, I'd rule out cold as the problem, even in NW Montana. I doubt that you got below feeezing over night.
However, heat, at least over night, is also probably not the problem, unless you left the truck closed up for several hours after dawn and the sunlight heated it up. The inside of a vehicle can get into the triple digits when sealed up, particularly in summer and/or when parked in direct sunlight.
Heat and cold soaking make metal and plastic expand at different rates, so components can misalign and solder connections on PCBs can loosten up or even pop. Seals can open from differing expansion/contraction rates and allow moisture or even dust inside. Heat also makes batteries discharge faster; most people don't know that batteries discharge even when they're just sitting on a shelf, and the warmer it is, the faster they discharge.
Most likely, however, the problem was moisture. Moisture is the enemy of all electronics. Moisture causes short circuits that can temporarily - or permanently - stop an electronic device from functioning. This may be why the camera ceased functioning for a time, then miraculously started to function again before you could replace the date battery - it dried out. It took a while, because the camera is closed up tightly, and even though it's not waterproof or airtight, there is very little air volume inside a closed device, so it takes a while for even a small amount of moisture to evaporate.
My guess is that, when it cooled off last night, your camera had some condensation occur inside it, which shorted out a contact somewhere. When you were playing with it, changing batteries and CF cards, the condensation was still inside. After some time, the condensation finally evaporated, eliminating the short, and the camera worked again.
So, do yourself, and your camera, a favor - don't leave it out in the truck all night, or all day during the hot weather (particularly humid weather, when there is more moisture in the air and condensation forms easier).
QUESTION FOR OTHERS:
Will a camera simply cease to function if the date battery dies? I know that computers will function without the date battery, they simply won't retain BIOS settings anf the date; I always assumed that a digital camera would still function but not retain date and custom settings without the date battery, but I've never tried to start any of my cameras without the date batt to test the theory.
I once accidentally left a camera on for several days. It was after a night sky session, and very long time exposures, and I had the auto-off function turned off. The CMOS backup battery must have also been weak because when I realized what I had done and put a fresh main-power battery into the camera, the camera was in a very odd "state" and would not power up properly. I had to replace the CMOS backup battery and then reset the camera and all was fine. (This was with a Canon 1D MKII.)
I suppose that other cameras could go into an even earlier bootstrap failure and not indicate any operation at all.
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