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my SX10 IS won't boot but others do

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Offline sx10isguy

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my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« on: 25 / March / 2009, 13:05:00 »
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I have been trying to get my sx10 IS to boot from the card but it just won't do it. I must start in play every time, then go to menu, then update firm, then shutter release to enter record, then short cut, then menu. I've tried it with 2 different cards. I tried both cards in my brothers sx10 IS and my daughters sx10 IS and they boot right up. We all have the same firmware version 1.01a. Any thoughts as to why mine won't boot, and what I can do to make it boot? Thanks
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Online reyalp

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Re: my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« Reply #1 on: 26 / March / 2009, 00:28:41 »
You are *sure* that both cards work in the other cameras ? Perhaps you have one FAT32 card in the mix that you accidentally tried twice in your camera ? Or did you change the lock switch between tests ?

The only other thing I can imagine doing this is if the lock detection is not working in your camera. If you start it with a locked card (without running chdk), does it say "card locked" ?

What you describe sounds extremely unlikely to me, I suspect user error somewhere.
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Offline sx10isguy

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Re: my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« Reply #2 on: 26 / March / 2009, 01:11:05 »
When I tried BOTH cards (an older 1gb sd and a newer 4gb sdhc) in my brother and my daughter's sx10 is they booted right up. Both times, I took the cards out and put them directly into my camera, and nothing.
As you suggested,I just removed my regular (not fat 16 formatted for CHDK) 8gb sdhc card and locked it, I started the camera and it doesn't say "card locked" anywhere that I can see. So I took a picture with it, and it worked without any problem and no notice of a locked card.
This camera has been repaired, it had to have the "optical mechanism" replaced due to a black area in the pictures and on the screen. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
If it is user error, the "user" is able to make it work perfectly on 2 out of 3 cameras.
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Online reyalp

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Re: my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« Reply #3 on: 26 / March / 2009, 02:17:42 »
If the little switch in the camera that detects the lock isn't working, that would explain your symptoms. This could easily go unnoticed, since normal people don't usually lock their cards.

Unfortunately, it has to detect a locked card to autoboot. Maybe if you look inside the card slot of the working and non working cameras, you can see a difference ?
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Offline sx10isguy

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Re: my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« Reply #4 on: 26 / March / 2009, 10:47:09 »
Thank you reyalp, I think there is a very good chance that you have diagnosed the problem. I think it's quite possible that when they fixed my other problem, they missed this one, or else even caused it. As you said, I never tried a locked card in it before trying to install CHDK. Thanks for the help reyalp
Any one know a quick DIY fix for the card lock mechanism?
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Offline sx10isguy

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Re: my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« Reply #5 on: 26 / March / 2009, 12:08:22 »
reyalp, I take back what I said about you might be right, and raise it to you're a damned genius my friend! I looked inside the card slot, a very difficult thing to do. I could see the little brass arm or "probe" that senses the notch on a locked card, and it appeared to be too far in to drop into the notch, so I took a long pin, bent the end into a very small hook, and got a hold of it and pulled a little, the "probe" popped up some. And now everything works as it should, the card locks and unlocks, and CHDK boots right up.
Thanks again, I'm really glad to have it working properly, I hope this helps someone else.
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Offline nimrod

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Re: my SX10 IS won't boot but others do
« Reply #6 on: 29 / June / 2009, 00:29:14 »
I just tried this and messing with the little probe seems to have caused it to work once, then it went back to not working after that.

I think in my case the problem must have been with the card rather than the camera. (Unfortunately I don't have another camera to test this in and am not sure how to detect whether the card is locked on my desktop because it seems to be able to write to the card whether it's locked or not.)

I compared the problem card with another card and noticed that the notch below the lock "switch" seemed slightly shallower than the working card, so I switched the switch to "lock", took a pocket knife, then scraped just a little bit of plastic from the area that the switch occupies when it's "unlocked". This enlarged the notch just slightly (maybe 0.1mm? It wasn't even 0.5mm) and now it seems to be detected as locked.

Oh, and if anyone decides to mess with the probe thing, make sure to take the batteries out. It may look like the camera is off when it's off, but it's not really off. "Asleep" might be more accurate. The power buttons generate an interrupt that the cpu has to handle in order to turn the camera "on", and so the cpu has to be "on enough" to be able to do that. Who knows what else is powered up. I failed to take the batteries out of mine and it was acting weird after I powered it up. I had to remove the batteries for a few minutes to get it back to normal.

FWIW, I took a twist tie, stripped a little plastic off of it, bent the wire at a 90 degree angle, trimmed it down, then clamped it in an x-acto knife handle (in place of the blade) to make it easier to hold and manipulate. I then used a tiny flashlight to illuminate the slot. Not as difficult as it sounds, and the x-acto knife probably made things much easier.
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