300D Power up Issue

[skyphix]

Hey everyone,
A week ago now my 300D started to not power up. I figure it to be a short, as do most of the other people I've talked to locally and at Canon, and I'll be sending it in (since it was purchased just before Christmas time).

My question: What could've caused this? I know, typical electronics says over powering the camera, which I guess could've happened.

I've got a battery grip, and the camera was fine when I had one Canon battery and one third party battery (same voltage, different mAh)...

this seemed to happen after I put two 3rd party batteries in the battery grip, although I can't exactly narrow it down to that.

I know that both 3rd party batteries were putting out more than 8.1v which is what the Dreb is rated, but not much more. One was putting out 8.27 and the other was 8.32, which is both less than 1/4 volt over the max (but quite a bit over their rated 7.4v) which I dont see as being a huge problem, but are the new Digital camera internals more sensitive to this than the older electronic film cameras?

Oh, and I won't be using these batteries again... since they are putting out almost 1v over their rating.

Are there ANY safe alternatives to the 50 dollar a pop Canon BP-511a's?

Any other suggestions??????

[FlipsidE]

www.sterlingtek.com <-- these guys make generic BP-511's that are much cheaper than the Canon ones. I have two (both currently in my battery grip), but I haven't put mine to enough use to tell you whether or not they work well yet. But, I've heard good things about them.

FlipsidE

[tim]

Test your Canon battery as well, the voltage will likely be lower under load. I haven't tested my batteries voltage, but my $12 sterlingtek.com battieries are as good as or better than my Canon ones. Also, try with the batteries without the grip.

Sterlingtek don't make batteries, they source them directly from factories in Asia that make them - that's why they're cheap (according to their website).

[robertwgross]

I don't think that battery voltage is the issue.

Open circuit, most batteries will read much higher than the rated voltage, especially when they are fairly new and freshly charged.

If batteries like that got quickly drained down very low after the camera was turned on, then I might suspect a short circuit. However, I'm guessing that not to be the case. Instead, I would suspect an internal open circuit. Maybe even something as mundane as a contact inside the battery compartment.

But if it is being fixed under warranty, then I wouldn't worry about it.

---Bob Gross---

[skyphix]

Thanks for the replies :)

Here's what happens - Camera doesn't turn on... at all.

If I leave a fully charged battery (the canon one, since its sitting without the battery grip to go in for service) in the camera the battery goes dead within ~24 hours, even though the camera can't even be turned on.

I've tried all 3 batteries without the grip, and I get nothin'. Its like the camera has no battery in it at all.

For all I know it could be a faulty CF door sensor or something along those lines, but I wanted to get the opinions of those here before I go and throw the battery grip on with the two generic batteries and have it possibly blow the camera again :(

And to think, I was going to test my new knowledge of Hockey Game photos on MArch 5th. Guess not now!

Thanks again for all the replies and I'll check out that source for three new generic batteries :)