[SOLVED - Power switch] 5D mk II BRICK shows life! But wont boot.

[sdmaas]

I picked up a 5d MK II BRICK in hopes of reviving it. It came with a CF card with ML on it, but would not boot or anything. After repairing the CF pins, the camera will flicker the red LED but wont boot. (This only happens if I use the battery grip, inserted with camera switched ON)

My first whack at it was formatting the CF card and fresh installing ML files. But nothing changed.

Then, I put a different CF card from my 7D (with ML) and the camera turned on! BUT... the LCD worked fine, however only showed the ML screen saying "Incorrect build for this model." Also, only the LCD was on.

I can only assume what the previous owner had attempted, but does anyone have an idea?

[sdmaas]

After hours of tinkering, I found the best "configuration that gives the most signs of life"

-Clean CF card format in working camera
-ML files from 7D mk i copied to CF card
-All 7D ML files replaced with 5D mk ii files (remaining files kept on CF card)
^^^^In this configuration, the ML prompt displays "Wrong Modules, This is not a 7D." message^^

Then:
-Replaced (7D) autoexec.bin with 5d mk ii's autoexec.bin file

At this point, I get the red LED to light up if I open the battery door, CF door and when putting on a lens.

[Walter Schulz]

Delete autoexec.bin, ML directory and *.fir from card. Copy Portable display test autoexec.bin to card. Startup cam with it. It will tell you which firmware version is installed. I suppose it is not 2.1.2.
Report back.

[sdmaas]

Magic Lantern Rescue came up.
***
Firmware: 2.12/6.9.8A1(00)
IMG Naming: 100EOS5D/IMG_3771
User PS: CineStyle
Boot flags: FIR=0 BOOT=-1 RAM=-1 UPD=-1
ROMBASEADDR: 0xFF810000
-DONE!

You may now remove your battery.
*****

[Walter Schulz]

Delete autoexec.bin and copy extracted nightly build files and directory to card.
Nightly build -> Top of page -> Downloads -> Download nightly builds -> 5D Mark II
Retry booting camera and report back.

[sdmaas]

Okay, now it's back to just the red light flashing when the doors are open then shut and when the lens is changed. Blank screen, no top LCD either.

[Walter Schulz]

Backup ROM0.BIN and ROM1.BIN. Then format card, remove battery, insert card, insert battery and close compartment doors. Try to startup cam.
If it doesn't work: Can you access the cam via USB and EOS Utility? Remove/re-insert battery after each "failure".

[sdmaas]

After the reformat, nothing happens; no LEDs or anything (clean format with no ML). I was able to follow the "Diagnostic Tools" and get a ROM dump in the meantime.
****
  Magic Lantern Rescue
----------------------------
- Model ID: 0x218 5D2
- Camera model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
- Firmware version: 2.1.2 / 6.9.8 A1(00)
- IMG naming: 100EOS5D/IMG_3771.JPG
- User PS: CineStyle 
- Boot flags: FIR=0 BOOT=-1 RAM=-1 UPD=-1
- ROMBASEADDR: 0xFF810000
- card_bootflags 1025b8
- boot_read/write_sector 1086a8 1086ac
- Patching 103568 from e3500001 to e3500000
- 103528 Card low-level init => F4240
- 102468 Card init => 0
- Patching 102478 from e3510001 to e3510000
- 102468 Card init #2 => 1
- Dumping ROM0... 100%
- MD5: de3c965dfb710a18730c5d74d6d12bf3
- Dumping ROM1... 100%
- MD5: 27f0cf7466180be04fa82acd4ccd4eab
- No serial flash.
- Saving RESCUE.LOG ...
- Done.

[sdmaas]

I have got the camera back to the point in which it registers all doors opening/closing and lens changes.  Still no boot up. EoS utility does not recognize anything when connected... What next?

PS: Thank you so much for taking time to help me!

[Walter Schulz]

Next step: Moving this thread to "Camera Emergency Department" and waiting for the doctor.

[sdmaas]

How does the topic get moved there? I tried to post in the "Camera Emergency Department" but it was posted back into this subforum... Sorry, I'm new here

(Thread moved to Camera Emergency Department)

[sdmaas]

At this point, is it safe to say any of the following?

-the issue is Hardware-related
-the issue is Not Magic Lantern

PS:  This information may have been lost in the mix: when I received the camera, a CF pin was bent and nothing would happen; no ML/LEDs. It was repositioned carefully and began showing life immediately after I fixed the CF pin. I'm noticing many reports of people sending cameras in to Canon for bent pins and the quote comes back with a recommendation to replace both CF reader AND main PCB. Obviously the CF reader works, but would I be able to get this far with a bad PCB?

[a1ex]

At this point, I get the red LED to light up if I open the battery door, CF door and when putting on a lens.

I have got the camera back to the point in which it registers all doors opening/closing and lens changes.  Still no boot up. EoS utility does not recognize anything when connected... What next?

Meaning: the camera turns off gracefully, without locking up. See this flowchart for details.

Best guess (unconfirmed): the power button, which is actually a soft switch. The camera wakes up when you toggle the card/battery door microswitches, or when you swap the lens, then - after going pretty far in the regular boot process - it decides to shut down. When ML is not installed, you don't see any LED activity - it all happens in background, quietly. When a ML card is inserted, it turns on the CF LED at startup before doing anything else.

These might save a log, but I don't have high hopes:
https://builds.magiclantern.fm/jenkins/view/Experiments/job/startup-log/
https://builds.magiclantern.fm/jenkins/view/Experiments/job/startup-log-mpu/

If the shutdown happens because or power switch stuck to "off" (or because of open card door, but not the case here), the above won't save any log.

You could also send me the ROM dumps privately, but I don't expect any surprises. The ROM will probably boot just fine in QEMU (but again, that's just my expectation, based on the above guesswork).

If you don't mind wiring a UART adapter, you can get a log with all Canon messages without running any custom code on the camera:
https://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=7531.10

I can also try to display a log on the screen, hopefully catching the shutdown reason. No equipment with me to test the testing code, but I do have some half-working experimental code, so I'll also need a volunteer with a good 5D2 for that. If you can get a log via UART instead, that would be preferred.

At this point, is it safe to say any of the following?

-the issue is Hardware-related
-the issue is Not Magic Lantern

It can be pretty much anything - the power button was just a guess. Let's try get a log first (UART if possible), then we'll draw the conclusions.

[sdmaas]

Thank you so much for the info about the power button.  I opened up the camera and noticed the power switch had separated from the "actuating gear". I noticed that the gear tends to fall off the switch when turned to "OFF" so I am keeping it on and allowing "auto off" to turn it off, followed by removing the batteries.

YOU. GUYS. ROCK!

[a1ex]

Nice! And to think it's probably the first case of a camera with defective power switch...

Anyway - you can power off the camera by opening the CF card door. It's a 100% clean shutdown, and on these old cameras, I consider it *safer* than using the power switch.

Why?

If you turn off the camera from the power switch, and then you open the card door, Canon firmware will read and execute autoexec.bin from the CF card *without LED activity* (and afterwards, ML will turn on the LED). This happens within 2-3 seconds or so after you open the CF door. If you remove the card during this time, your camera will lock up. You will be puzzled about what happened, as there will be no LED activity.

But, if you keep the power switch on and you turn off the camera by directly opening the card door, Canon firmware will shut down (cleanly) and will no longer access the card afterwards. Therefore, you will be able to safely remove the card as soon as the LED activity stops.