The official ERR99 poll and what I did to fix it.

There are a lot of ERR99s cropping up again and a lot of suggestions of what to do to solve the problem without sending in the equipment. Many of these suggestions sound folklore-ish and I am wondering if any of them have actually helped anyone solve their issue. I though a poll of the folks here might be in order so lets here your story. Have you ever had a ERR99 issue? Did you try any of the home remedies? Did it solve your problem? If you have had more than one ERR99 and different things worked, you can check all that apply.

My ERR99 story is as follows. I have had 4 ERR99 issues over the last year and a ½. One with the kit lens, two different issues with a 28-135, and one with a XT body. All four needed Canon to service them and none of the suggestions given here of suggestions Canon service recommended solved my problems and a return trip to Canon service was in order. Lets here what you’re experience was.

WELL there getting me a new 1dmk3 as the darn thing locked up with erro99 the first time it cleared after not useing it for a day ( dont know why ) but the next time it just went to the erro everytime i tried to use it.
Rob.

Never had..

10D in the rain at Brands with a 100-300 lens. I panicked, clicked the shutter button a few times and then it went away!

Hmm... I should have also added. "Problem just went away". I guess thats a valid repair technique.

When I had my 20D, I had the error, but only once. I took out the battery, waited a few seconds, put it back in and never had it again.

I've had two or three in nearly 3 years - I'm sure I just turned the camera off, back on again, and all was OK.
It also did it last week with my 10-22 on, but I noticed it was not twisted fully on to the body, I 'clicked' it on properly, switched off and back on and all worked fine, so I guess that caused it that time.

Well I havent had another err99 message since the last one almost 2 weeks ago but I am still going to send it into canon once the sub mirror fix has slowed down a bit. As far as I can tell its not a lens to body issue its the battery not comunicating with the camera properly, as once the batter gets about 50% (still showing full charge on the camera) I can here the shutter start to sputter I guess you could say, If I dont change the battery at that point I get the err99 message, if I change the battery I go on shooting until I get roughly another 800-900 shots. Its going into canon with both my batteries so they can check it all out. Thats what the warrenty is for.

Only ever had it on my XT with my Tamron 70-300. Sold the 70-300 and never had the problem since. I now use a Canon 70-300 IS.

Had my 20D for 18 months and had occasional err99 but in the last month it was constant couldn't use the camera at all. Canon replaced 6 or 7 circuit boards and gave me a goodwill 30% off the repair. The camera had around 1500 actuations on it.

The only ERR99 issue I've ever had (knock on wood) was due to a faulty Lexar CF Card.

Mark

gjl711,
With 3 Canon DSLR bodies (10D, 5D & 40D) I have never had Err99 problems. I like it like that

Never had an ERR99.

But my 300D is so old maybe it only goes to ERR66 - who knows? I've never had any error code, in fact.

-js

I got the ERR99 back in the spring on my older 10D. It had 47,000 +/- acuations on it. Took the battery out and put it back in ... took maybe another dozen shots ... ERR99 again.
Ended up cleaning all the contacts on the camera and all my lenses. Still got the ERR99 after a few shots. Cleaned the contacts with an eraser and re cleaned them and it worked fine for a few day, though I didn't use it much each time.
Finally crapped out and cleaning wouldn't work so I sent it to Canon.
Worked like new!
Then all of a sudden the color was gone, everything was black & white and leaves turned snow white, skies black ... OH YEAH, I had that 10D converted to IR!