Canon 7D Problem

[aubintbay]

Hey all. A couple of days ago when i took out the camera it would not turn on....dead battery. I recharged the battery installed and got the message " cannot communicate with battery". I said to use the battery anyway but now I have no display showing how much battery power left even if I go into the menu to look it up. When I google the issue there are litteraly 1000's of hits! Turns out this is a common problem with the 7D. Just wondering if anyone out there has any tips or experience on dealing with this. From what I can find out on the web its a $250+/- factory repair. It seems that most people out there just live with it.

[Barefoot]

Firmware update? Maybe you need one, or perhaps a recent one you performed prohibits communication with a third party battery if your using one of those.

[aubintbay]

Hey Barefoot.
The camera is a little over 3 years old and I have updated the firmware in the past but not recently. Per some of the comments elsewhere out there I am not expecting that to help but am going to try everything...including changing the internal battery. The only battery I have is the original that came with it and it has shown no signs of weakening or dying off too quick so I think its ok. Apparently when you send the camera in canon tells you very little about what they have actually fixed. Some people out there have pointed out a screw that works loose on the lower circuit board and causes the problem as well as a slow battery drain. For now the battery is out of it unless I plan to use the camera which for all appearances seems to work just fine. What a pain!

[Barefoot]

Did anyone mention having any luck with a battery grip using AA batteries? Probably not if the problem is internal.

There are a lot of people beatchen about one of Nikon latest firmware updates for a few of their models for a similar reason. No communication with third party batteries after the update. Panasonic started doing it several years ago.

[aubintbay]

Hey Bf. Apparently even with a grip the problem persists. Funny you should mention that though....I had just talked to some 2 days prior to get a price on one! Gonna hold off on that one until I can sort out this issue. Debating whether or not to live with the issue or just send it in straight away. Don't know if I'm prepared to do without it for a few weeks. Probably be easier to do without the wif than the camera!! (good thing she doesn't go on here.......)

[Runmonty]

I haven't had the problem (yet) but just Googled it after reading this post.

Approx 2 months ago my battery mysteriously discharged very quickly. At the time I put it down to me accidentally switching on live view or something (although I don't really think this was it as it still should have switched off automatically). From reading some of the forum posts about your problem it appears that this discharge behavior is a common symptom related to your problem. After this, the recharge performance of the battery was showing as only 1 red bar indicating it is ready to be replaced. As I was going on vacation I purchased a new canon battery as insurance, but have kept using the old one until it dies.As it seems that the common thread is switching on the camera with a dead battery, I think maybe it is time for me to change it over to the new one. At the same time as I purchased the canon battery I also picked up an aftermarket battery for something like $15, and it seems to work fine and still communicates with the camera.

[aubintbay]

Well I left the battery out for 2 or 3 days, put the battery back in and all was fine. Turned it on/off a couple of times and all was still fine. After this I went ahead and changed the internal battery, updated the firmware, reset the time and date and got the " cannot communicate with battery" message again. I took the battery out and put it back in again and all is good! Go figure....

[asnow]

So far (knock on wood) I'd had no problems with my Canon 7D. Thanks for filling us in on this this problem. Hopefully that's the last you've seen of this issue.

[aubintbay]

Well I went ahead and sent the camera to canon for repair. I got it back in only 4 weeks.....about what I expected. It seems the fix was to replace the lower circuit board....similar to what I have read about elsewhere. The cost was about $275 which includes shipping both ways. Camera seems to be working just fine...YAY!! On the bright side I'm hoping I got a tune up and cleaning while it was although there is no note of this on the bill. Good for another three years??

[Runmonty]

I too have just had this problem. It appears to be extremely common.

After a bit of internet searching I found that in the majority of cases this is caused by a screw that holds the PC board on the inside the camera falling out.

I found this instructional video that I followed, and sure enough it was the missing screw. Now fixed and working again after 20 minutes work. (Kinda scary pulling the camera to pieces though)