Mirror stuck camera dead

EOS Rebel XTI about 2 years old. Has worked flawlessly. While on vacatrion last week I was taking some night photos of the stars up in Canada. After about 20 shots or so. I was taking a 30 second exposure mounted on a tripod. At about the 15 second mark, the camera clicked and went completely dead. The mirror is stuck in the up position and the unit will not power up at all. I have pulled the batteries and changed them but with no luck. Any suggestions?

throwing the camera on the ground has worked for at least one other member

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=917100

Not sure if I'm willing to try that at this point.

Send it in for the loyalty program

What is the loyalty program?

Call canon, and they can sell you a newer canon for a deep discount when you send them your broken one.

From memory the prices are approx:
$400 for 40D
$600 for 50D
$1100 for 7D
$1800 for 5D2

Call Tech Support at 866-443-8002 or 800-828-4040 to get started.
You will need the serial number of your current camera.

Did you pull the little silver memory battery, too? That's necessary to get the camera to "reboot". Take it out and leave it out for half an hour to 45 minutes. (To reboot when a camera is working, rather than waiting so long you can take the battery out and just press the shutter release once to drain all charge from the camera... But since your camera seems dead, I don't think that would work.)

Have you ever replaced the little silver memory battery? The last time I checked, they were about $1.50 at my local grocery store.

There's no guarantee this will work... but it's worth a try. If it doesn't work, you might have a local camera repair shop look at it. The camera is likely out of warranty, so that shouldn't be a problem.

These are merely a couple ideas to try, because I do suspect that something more serious is wrong and the camera will either need repairs at Canon service, or if that's not cost effective then you might be better off buying a replacement under their loyalty program as already suggested.

Dan C wrote in post #10764241
Send it in for the loyalty program

I would try dropping it first.

Whats the worse that could happen? You break it more and still send it in.