Weird 5D II Problem - please help!

So I have an odd situation happening with my 5d2. The left side buttons on the back (Menu, Picture Style, etc), top manual controls (WB, ISO, etc), and liveview button will not work when I boot the camera up in any of the manual mode settings. I can still adjust shutter speed and aperture, and the camera will still actuate and take photos, but I cannot get any of the buttons to function.

The weird thing is that if I turn the camera on in the full auto mode I can hit menu and it will work. Info works, and I can playback as well. I'm also able to go into liveview. At this point I still can't tell if my top controls work since it's all full auto and I can't make any adjustments.

I've tried swapping out the battery with fresh ones, changed CF cards, formatted CF cards, switched lenses, left all batteries out (including the clock battery) for over an hour, and I still can't get the camera functioning properly in the manual modes. Very frustrating.

I noticed the problem immediately after finishing a timelapse. Prior to starting the timelapse all functions were working, upon finishing is when I noticed that they were not working when I tried to playback and view the photos. The lapse was about 2 hours (in manual mode). I was thinking it might have overheated somehow, but then again it's weird that the left side buttons on the back work in full auto mode...

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm currently on vacation in the Philippines and for this to happen is really frustrating!

Welcome to PoTN!

By "manual modes' I assume you mean P, Tv, Ac, M and B.

Some questions -
1. Do you have Magic Lantern on some of your CF cards? If you do, there could be a firmware mismatch.

2. What happens in modes C1 through C3? If the buttons work in these modes then you can probably set them up to your shooting style.

3. Does the Set button work? You can press it inward and get a screen that allows parameters like ISO, focus mode etc. to be adjusted using the lever and rear wheel. Unfortunately, you need access to the custom functions to get access to activate this control, so it may work but only if you'd set your camera up that way previously.

Since the buttons seem to be working, I can think of three possible failure points - a. corruption of the firmware, b. contacts on the rotary mode selector have become contaminated or c. a patial mainboard failure. I think c. is unlikely because other functions seem to be ok.

So first off I'd download and reistall the latest firmware. This will reset the camera anyway. I would then check operation.

If that doesn't cure it, relax and enjoy your trip. The "Green Box" is still useful so I would use the camera in its current state and set the color balance to best reflect the conditions. You might want to increase the default .jpg sharpness a couple of clicks. If you have one, a grey card (or better a colour checker card) could help you tweak things once you get back.

Do a full reboot - main and button battery out.

Hey thanks for the replies guys.

I just left for a few hours and was shooting with my 60d and when I got back to try the 5d again it was working just fine... very, very weird situation. I have no idea what happened or why it works now, but I'm so happy now!

Its because digital cameras rely totally on electronics! Over the years I've experiences many weird moments when my cameras refused to behave only to find that ignoring them for a day or so made them realise they could in fact do it right.

Film cameras never misbehaved as much. My Eos-3 is very well behaved.