580ex ii problem, please help!

Recently, my external flash has been acting up.
It does not communicate with my camera, and it does not fire a flash. It will only fire if I cover the wireless sensor
on the front of the flash with my finger. As soon as the sensor is covered, the flash registers itself with the camera
and the little flash symbol in the view finder appears. As soon as it is uncovered, it goes away!, and no flash will fire
Has anyone else had this problem with their flash's?
If so please help!

Strange! Do you mean the upper (sensor) lens or the lower (multi-device) one?

Guesses:

1. Loose conductor behind lens which makes contact.
2. Finger action moves foot in camera's hotshoe enough to make/break contact. Clean all contacts in both shoe and foot. (Prime suspect)
3. Flash is in an external metering mode and has not reset properly. Reset all custom functions to defaults.
4. Flash requires Canon service - Aaargh!

CliveyBoy wrote in post #8512466
Strange! Do you mean the upper (sensor) lens or the lower (multi-device) one?

Guesses:

1. Loose conductor behind lens which makes contact.
2. Finger action moves foot in camera's hotshoe enough to make/break contact. Clean all contacts in both shoe and foot. (Prime suspect)
3. Flash is in an external metering mode and has not reset properly. Reset all custom functions to defaults.
4. Flash requires Canon service - Aaargh!

I second that, sounds like dirty contacts to me, because you might be forcing the flash unit, albeit not too much, but enough to make proper contact with the camera

You were right!
I always thought it was because I covered the sensor, but when I tried applying pressure by pushing the flash toward the back of the camera,without covering the sensor, it worked! Thanks a lot!

Your hotshoe on camera may be loose.

See this link for info on how to tighten the hotshoe.

Do NOT use the loctite suggested in the link.

Repeat, do NOT use the loctite suggested in the link.

http://www.conraderb.c​om/flashrepair/

Enjoy! Lon

So I tightened the hot shoe and that fixed the problem. Thanks alot for your help!