Canon EOS Rebel XTi issue

My Canon Rebel XTi won't turn off or take pictures at times. I have two batteries and even if both are charged and I switch batteries, this will still occur. I will focus the camera, press the shutter button and then the screen turns blank and doesn't take the picture. I try to turn it off but the green "on" light stays lit. I have to remove the battery to get it to shut off and even then, the same thing will still happen. If I let the camera sit for a bit, I can then take a couple more pictures, if I'm lucky and then the same thing happens again. I have taken the internal (watch) battery out and have done a hard reset and this has still not resolved the issue. Recently, I experienced the actual shutter itself not reopening after pressing the shutter button as well, until I removed the battery. I used to use this camera all the time and take tons of pictures and now I hardly take any which is upsetting as I have a new baby and want to record everything before she grows up and I lose that chance. Is my camera fried or is there something that can be done to fix these issues? Any suggestions I can try at home before taking it to the shop and spending a ton of money to try and fix it?

have you removed the lens and cleaned the contacts with rubbing alcohol and a qtip? on both the camera and the lens?

wheeble wrote in post #16557905
have you removed the lens and cleaned the contacts with rubbing alcohol and a qtip? on both the camera and the lens?

I haven't, but I am not understanding how this would help the issue of the camera not fully turning off and the screen going blank and not actually taking the picture I've tried to snap. I will try it though, but I rarely take my lens off as it's a great walk-around lens and the range is awesome for what I tend to do right now (18mm-200mm) and any time I do have it off, I've checked and everything looks sqeaky clean still.

I'll try the rubbing alcohol and Q-tip thing though.

See if this is any help:

http://martybugs.net …es/Canon-350D-Lockup.html

You can clean the lens and the mirror. Just be really gentle when cleaning the mirror.

Countrygrl2791 wrote in post #16560246
You can clean the lens and the mirror. Just be really gentle when cleaning the mirror.

To be brutally frank, this is ridiculous advice. Neither of these actions is going to have any effect on what is seemingly an issue of hardware failure, or setting misconfiguration. In addition, cleaning of the mirror, as well as being unnecessary almost always as it affects neither image quality nor viewfinder performance, is an exceedingly delicate operation best performed by a qualified service person. The risk of scratching the very thin mirror coating is just too great, especially in this case, when it will achieve nothing useful whatsoever.

Make sure that 'Mirror Lock Up' (MLU) is not engaged. The problem you are having sounds like MLU. That should be consistent, though. Not intermittent, working sometimes and sometimes not.

PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CLEAN THE MIRROR.

This happened to my XTi one time. I was shooting some long exposures and it froze up, green light stayed on, nothing worked. Removed battery and let it sit for a while and it's been fine (still is) ever since.

I don't know for sure, and others can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it may be related to overheating. If it's happening a lot, which it sounds like, then more than likely the camera is on it's last leg. Maybe the sensor is getting too hot under normal conditions.

If it were me, and I was on a budget, with the age of the XTi today, I would just buy a newer used rebel, like an XSi for example. It more than likely will be cheaper than repairing the camera.

Also note like with any technology, the shop has to troubleshoot and reproduce the issue in order to identify and fix it. If (according to Murphy's Law) they won't be able to reproduce it while the camera is with them, you may be stuck paying for their time and have no resolution.