7D autofocus stopped working..

I have been using a 7D at work for the last month so I am fairly familiar with it but not so much with the deeper menu settings. I share it with other staff so sometimes it is used for video but they don't seem to play with the settings much.. but here is the problem as of yesterday. The autofocus no longer shows the various boxes that can be used as focal points, it only has one single square in the center of the screen. When i set the lens to autofocus i will sometimes get a beep to say that focus has been established but nothing on screen happens at all... there is the same old black box in the centre of screen that doesn't flash, or turn red or anything, just the beep. After the shot has been taken the image is previewed as always for a few seconds but now that image has a red square over the centre of the image.

My question is, after having followed the manual and going through the autofocus settings I cannot seem to get this setup to change in any way. I can also not figure out what the hell that red square is all about. Can somebody please help me out here?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Press menu,
Go to the second blue item,
AF point disp. is enabled. Change to disabled to get rid of the red square.
Scroll to Custom Functions,
Go to C.FnIII:Autofocus/Driv​e,
Go to the 6th item and check if "Enabled" is blue.
Check the boxes you want by pressing "Register".
Go to the 8th item to enable VF display illumination.
Go to the 9th item to select your preferred mode.
Halfpress the shutterrelease to return to normal mode.
Check if my suggestions were helpfull.

Have you tried changing AF point selection mode at all?

thanks for the feedback peeps, all of those instructions look quite familiar but i've gone over that much lately than now im honestly just confused. I will try and go through those instructions you've listed mate but i'll have to wait til im back at work tomorrow to see if it works.

Thanks very much for your feedback guys

P.S. apersson850 i did actually try changing the AF point selection mode but it still stayed the same.. at least i'm 99% sure I did that but i'll try that again tomorrow also.

OK, if you tried but couldn't, then the directions above my post could help. It's possible to set the camera to allow only certain configurations, down to a single one.

With multiple people of varying abilities using the camera just consider a reset back to factory settings coupled with clearing custom functions.

Or trade it in for a 7Ds.... which is designed especially for studio use and multiple users.... It allows you to lock people out of changing the settings.

Ok with the advice provided above i managed to get the AF sorted again. It turns out that whenever we do and video work with the 7d the AF goes all crazy again and it needs to be set up all over again. Does anybody know why this is or if there is a quicker work around? (other than a second camera which ive already asked for)

The AF does not at all go "all crazy" when doing video. Unless you set it up "all crazy". So the cure for this is educating users.
But without seeing you doing video I can't say exactly what you are doing wrong, of course.

to clarify what I mean by crazy, the faults/issues I raised in my original post did NOT exist prior to my colleagues using the 7d in video mode. they did not change any settings as they didnt know what to start with, they simply clicked it onto video and started recording. Once I got it back from them the issues i raised above were there.

As far as how the camera is set up for how it is set up for video... hopefully that answers that query. I have seen a number of informative tutorials online that explain how to set the camera up for video but so far i have not modified any settings at all.

Well, then to clarify further, switching the 7D to video you do by flicking the switch to the right of the eyepiece. If that's the only thing you do, then when you flick it back again, your AF settings are the same as they were before you engaged video mode. So your friends probably changed something without understanding what they did.

thanks mate... that's what i was kind of hoping not to hear but thank you very much for your feedback. Greatly appreciated.

I'll have to buy a smaller point and shoot camera for the other staff i think.

Using a camera that has been used by so many non-professional photographers, I would automatically re-set the camera to its original default setting. At this point you're ready to make all the settings you may want to the camera. I would set it up and write the basics I needed to make the shots I need. Then when I checked out the camera, after reset of all functions, and changes I need, I'd go off and do my shoot.

B