My 580EX Awakes from Coma!

[SYS]

Well, what I was most afraid about 580EX did happen yesterday right after shooting at a swim meet. I placed the flash gently on a table so I can take my camera off the monopod. My younger son decided to lean on the table, and one end of it suddenly collapsed with the flash sliding down and landing on a concrete floor. Thinking that it was just a short fall, I didn't think much of it. When I got home, I wanted to test my latest DIY reflector/diffuser, but the flash's power will not turn on. Placing a new set of fresh batteries didn't do any good, either. No power, no sound, nothing, dead. After about 10 minutes of trying to revive the flash, I finally had to give up and started thinking about sending it to the Irvine Canon factory for repair. Then, just out of whim, I decided to turn it on just one more time, and voila! The red light and the LCD display came on, along with the ensuing flashes at full power!

Now, could one of you electronic gurus explain to me how such a thing can happen? Is there such a thing as an "electronic coma" that a flash could go into for awhile due to a trauma and all of a sudden decide to awake at a later point?

[nadtz]

Unfortunately explaining it without more information is impossible. Anyone who works with electronic equipment enough will have a similar story (I've seen computers do this kind of thing for no good reason many a time) I just call it the universe turning the laws of physics off for a few minutes and leave it at that.

[Miniflash]

I think it was a coma Soo ..Giggles

[markubig]

it's possible that a wire, capacitor, resistor, or something electronic came loose inside when it dropped and then maybe slid back in with some movement from you . . . if that's the case, then you won't be able to predict when it will and won't work as it might be hanging by a thread. If you had my luck, then it won't work during a shoot, so I would send it in for precautionary reasons.

[crackaonrice]

Definitely send it in if this happened...for somebody like you that shoots a lot, reliability is important!

[SYS]

Yes, that's what I'm afraid of. It's working now, but when would it relapse into coma again is my thinking... The unit is out of warranty, so I'm wondering how much Canon will charge me for this....