G3 LCD trouble

[mattjs]

So bummed right now cause it seems like the LCD on my G3 might have just quit on me. Either that or I'm just missing something. Was shooting outside at lunch and all of a sudden it just went black.

It's not the display setting cause I tried that. The interesting thing is I can just barely make out an image in shooting mode (not enough to to be usable mind you...I'm talkin just barely enough that I know the LCD's on and working). Can also just barely make out the "Canon" during startup, the histogram in the histogram replay mode, and the header in menu mode. You get the picture. It's working but barely giving me an image to work with. And "just barely" is being generous.

What the heck happened? Did it quit on me? Did I foul up a setting? Anybody else had this problem? Again, it doesn't appear to be the display setting, which is what I'd hoped I'd done right off the bat. Camera's just about a year old.

I know the LCD can feeze up in the cold, but it's only about 45-50 degrees here right now, and I only had it out for about an hour, maybe an hour when it gave out. Plus I've had it inside now for a half hour or so, and still the same. Tried changing battery, and CF cards, and no luck there either. I know it's taking pictures, cause I just took some blind shots in the office, and they came out fine. Help ???

[Brian Tilley]

My lcd died a few months ago.

Not quite the same problem you have, my lcd was completely blank; no image at all. I was also getting error messages on the digital display on the top of the camera.

I was able to get it fixed just before the warranty ended.
The paperwork returned with the camera stated that they replaced the lcd hinge.

Looks to me like a wire or connection between the camera body and the lcd failed and they replaced the whole lcd unit.

Hope your camera is still under warranty.

Good luck.

[dbump]

From your description, it sounds like the backlight died--at least that's what I've seen on laptop LCDs where the backlight failed. It may be as simple as the power wires going to it cracking in the hinge, as Brian described. If it's not under warranty, I know there's a thread on this forum that discusses hinge repair, and includes some images. Paying for out-of-warranty repair is another option, but it sounds pricey.

[mattjs]

Thanks,

The backlight sounds like a possibilty. Just bad luck I guess. Unfortunately I'll have no help from the waranty so I'm gonna drop it off at Hunt's Photo here in Boston tomorrow and see what they think ($35 for an estimate to be applied to the repair cost if they do it). Really hoping for a repair in the $100 or less range. I'll post what they say/price when I hear back.

When it first went down I had visions of a new G6 for christmas 8) The more I think about it though, I'd really rather have my trusty G3. Hopefully they can fix it at a "reasonable" cost.

[mattjs]

Forgot to report back on this. Canon repaired it. Replaced the whole LCD unit. Unfortunately I was out of waranty and had to pay for it. Total cost of repair: [b]$220[b]

Not cheap. And the thought did cross my mind to just get a new G6. But I really love my G3 (too much maybe :) )

[Pamela107]

MIne stopped working recently, I was able to fix it myself. Two bundles of wires came unplugged in the LCD.

If your up to fixing it yourself,

Unscrew the 4 screws on LCD, carefully take metal LCD cover off, (in one area it clips into place). Your will see to two of wires one has a blue plug end, theother one yellow, they both should be plugged in . One of mine was out the other almost.

Carefully untwist the wire bundles, and plug them back in.
The wires get twisted over time unplugging them.

Pamela

[kartguru]

Hi Pamela

Can you please describe your problem. The problem with our display is that it still powers up but the image doesn't appear. If you press the settings or menu buttons they appear, even the wallpaper will appear in the background on powerup and in the menu system. Click the button to take a shot and everything happens, shutter, electronic clicks, the works, just no picture appears in playback. If the display is not used it still doesn't work however on the odd occassion the display does work, everything is fine. Go figure!

I'm tempted to investigate after your post but would appreciate it if you could explain your problem a little.

Thanks

Michael

[dedalus-6]

It looks like u r not the only one having this problem,,,my G3's LCD sometime goes black when flipped out, dont know why,,and after some serious shaking and wrong -angle twisting, it became normal again,,,strange,,,,,i think some defect in the LCD's connection with the body,,,I got a 350D,,so it doesn't matter now,,,but

I really love my G3

[DizzyDevil]

Check out this post I made last night.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=74073

[Pamela107]

If you go to this thread
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=47102
Hopefully it will help you, I was able to fix this myself,
Thankyou

Pamela

[ropo]

Pamela's suggestion worked! Again, thanks to everyone for your help! I'm so gosh-darn excited over here that I didn't have to pay a bundle to get this fixed! I promise to be a little less rough with my LCD screen from now on, too.

:D <--- me

[Pamela107]

Ropo

Im very happy to pass the info on, since, I did learn about it on this forum somewhere along the way, around when mine did the same thing.

Pamela

[payman]

The same problem happend to my G3. I opened the LCD display and saw that the blue/yellow plug wires were all in place and secure. What was wrong was with a flexcircuit (ribbon) attached to the circuit board: both contacts had snapped off. A friend of mine who is extremely good with electronics managed to solder the contacts back in place, and now all is well. However it was a very very delicate operation, requiring expertise, patience, and the right equipment ...

[AeroE]

The LCD on my G3 stopped working too. I opened up the LCD panel and saw almost the same problem as posted by payman. One of the two connections from the orange ribbon flexcircuit had broken off of the circuit board. This seems to be a weak connection that is easily broken. The strange thing is that I haven't used my G3 for a couple of months and it worked the last time I used it.

To fix the problem I had someone else hold the two halves of the connection in place and touched the old solder with a hot soldering iron. This melted the solder enough to reform the connection and get the display working again. No new solder was necessary. It's a very simple procedure requiring a $10 Radio Shack soldering iron. This does require a steady hand and I'd recommend a getting a little practice if you've never soldered before. A scrap circuit board would be ideal.