GL2 locked up

[Jerry Keener]

I am just getting used to using my new GL2 and have been very impressed with it...till this afternoon. I was shooting footage about 2 minutes into a new tape, when all of a sudden the camera locked up. There was a blue display on the screen and a number of horizontal lines. Everything else was frozen in it's current state.. Even the audio meters where frozen in their most recent position. It was as if the cpu in the camera just froze solid. (I had hit record pause about 5 seconds before this all happened.)

Before turning off the power switch, I tried to eject the tape. Nothing. The eject sequence did not happen when I opened the tape door. After trying this a few times, I finally hit the power switch, and removed the main battery and backup battery to attempt to reset the camera. I reattached to the AC adapter for power and still nothing. Sometimes the power light will come on when I put the camera in Camera or VCR mode, but nothing else in the camera responds. Since I was not at home at the time, I simply reattached the battery, put the camera in the bag and headed home. When I arrived home, I opened the bag and immediately realized that the bottom of the camera and a few other parts of the camera where quite warm to the touch. (As was the battery.) Experience tells me that something must have shorted out internally and was shorting out the battery, thus producing the heat.

I plan to contact ZGC tomorrow about what to do about this problem. I am fairly certain that the camera did indeed burn up some internal component/power board or something. I only have the camera about 3 days and only maybe 45 minutes of footage total. I am hopefull that ZGC will take care of the problem, but my main concern is: How do I get the tape out of the camera? It seems like the eject mechanism won't move since either logic or power are non existant in the camera. Is there some kind of emergency eject sequnce to get the tape out? I have important footage that I do not want to lose?

Any suggestions on how to get the tape out would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jerry

[Jeff Donald]

There are some little tricks that can force an eject cycle sometimes. But with the electronics shorted it would be a waste of time. You don't want to tamper with things and void the warranty. When you return the camera, include a note detailing that a tape is stuck in the camera and would they please do everything possible to safely remove the tape. You should get the tape back in a couple of weeks.

Jeff

[Jerry Keener]

Thanks for the reply Jeff. I just tried removing the backup coin cell and the main power for a while (like maybe 5 minutes). After reapplying the ac adapter and cycling the power switch a few times, something started to happen. One of the transport or eject motors starting running at a very high speed, unlike I heard before and it didn't stop. The only way to make it stop was to disconnect power. (The power switch did not stop it.) After reapplying power again, it actually powered up normally, and the eject cycle worked properly. I am again able to play back footage from the very tape and spot on the tape where the lockup had occured. (The first time I played, it gave garbage on playback, but after a cleaning tape, it played back perfectly.) Was there some kind of tape jam that caused the camera to lockup or trip some kind of internal safety device? I never got any tape warnings or eject warnings on the screen before this all happened. The whole thing leaves me a little concerned about the camera really working as it should.

So, perhaps it reset after having all power removed for awhile including the backup coin cell battery. This still doesn't explain why the bottom of the camera got hot along with the battery. I am still going to call ZGC and ask for a replacement. After spending $2200 plus for a camera, I don't think I should be seeing behavior like this.

Thanks

Jerry

[Bill Hardy]

Amazing that it bounced back from the dead like that, but yes, I would still seek an exchange.

[Chris Hurd]

Jerry

ZGC will fully accomodate you; no worries. Contact them immediately. Unfortunately a DOA will happen on occasion and you were the unlucky person to get it. However you were smart to purchase from ZGC, as they will make it right for you. Hope this helps,

[Jerry Keener]

Thanks Chris, for your response. I called ZGC today. I'll post back when I know more.

Thanks

Jerry

I just received my GL2 from ZGC. I read the directions and turned it on and it worked perfectly. I turned it back on a half hour later and nothing happened. I could just see a faint red light that showed it was getting some power.

I called Brian the next day, and I shipped it back and he is sending me a brand new camera. That is what I call service. I haven't received it yet, but he said he was going to send it as soon as I e-mailed him the tracking number.

I just wonder what would have happened if I had purchased my camera from Bway Photo for about $800.00 less. I think you all know the answer.

Thanks again Chris.

[Jerry Keener]

Just wanted to update where I am at with the GL2 lockup issue. Christine at ZGC recomended that we send the camera to Canon and see if they find something obviously wrong. If not, she will send me a new camera. The camera made it to Canon Factory repair in NJ day before Thanksgiving, but the long holiday weekend has left me waiting in the meantime. Hopefully, I will hear something early this week. I'll post back once I know what the resolution to the problem was.

Thanks

Jerry

[Jerry Keener]

I just found out that I should be getting my GL2 back from Canon in the next day or two. The person I spoke to at Canon said that they replaced the "Digital Mechanical Chassis", aligned, and did the standard checkout. I don't know what this part is specifically, but it is good to know that they at least found reason to replace something. I was also told that there should be more details with the actual paperwork when I receive the camera back. I will post back any more details on what they found to be the cause of the problem, in case it is useful to anyone else that reads this thread.

Jerry

[Rich Stone]

Actually it is very useful. I've been following this thread to see how things are working out for you.

[Jerry Keener]

Just got the GL2 back from Canon today. Guess what.....now there is another problem. Words can't really say how disappointed I am that things still are not right.

Here's the problem: The microphone seems to be producing absolutely no audio. The audio meters in camera mode do not show much movement at all. The left meter will occasionally rise up and then fade again. There is no sound in the room that corresponds to this. I can clap my hands shot at the mic, but nothing....either on the meters on audible when the tape is rolling/recording and then played back. I am wondering if they forgot to hook up the microphone connection to the logic board when the service was performed. I just can hardly believe that a respected Company like Canon would make mistakes like this.

Will do more testing to see if other audio inputs work or not.
Regardless, I will be calling ZGC tomorrow and asking Christine for a new camera. I suppose I got a lemon or something.

If anyone has thoughts of some setting I should check or that I am missing, please post.

Thanks
I'll keep posting till I have a camera that is working 100%. I haven't really seen others on this forum that have had problems like this, so it must be a "lemon" or something.

Jerry

[Jerry Keener]

I just tried both recording and playing back through the main A/V input on the back of the camera. Nothing at all. I played back a tape recording previously with lot's of audio (from when I first got the camera and audio was working properly). The meters show the audio properly, but no audio is output through the a/v jack.
I checked the menu for settings, tried setting the audio output to both l/r, l/l, and r/r. Also doing audio and video dubbing from an external video source to the camera=no audio, completely silent. Also, the headphone output gives nothing when hooked up playing back a tape with known working audio and footage. I called Canon tech support and the person I spoke with said that even with headphones plugged in the selecter wheel should adjust levels for the headphones on the screen. This adjustmnet never appears on the screen when headphones are plugged in. It does appear without headphones, but even the internal speaker produces nothing when turned all the way up.

All I can deduce from all of this is that the entire audio subsystem of the camera is non functional. It seems to be more than just not having the microphone hooked up internally. Again, I am very very disappointed after all of this hassle. I just want a camera that works. I'll post back after I talk with Christine at ZGC tomorrow.

Jerry

[Jeff Donald]

This won't be much help to you, but maybe a little consolation as to how this type of thing happens. I used to own a large producton/post-production company. On of the divisions did camcorder and VCR repair. This time of year (Holidays) is the absolute busiest of the year. Guess what? Everybody wants their repair back by the 25th too. You can't hire part time help to fill the need because you can't train them to do the repairs in so little time. So, the repair technicians would work 20 hour days for weeks to try to stay up with the workload. I would even pitch in and help the last week. We would be delivering repairs on the 24th.

So what happens? On 4 hours, sleep you make mistakes. In your case, I would wager the camera was reassembled improperly. In their haste, to get the camera back quickly to you a human error was made. It should never have been made; it should have been caught in QC. But, this time of year mistakes happens.

Sorry for your bad luck. Please keep us posted.

Jeff

[Rich Stone]

At this point I would hope that ZGC would step in, give you a new camera, and deal with the defective one themselves. They could sell it off as used or something and probably still come out okay. You did, after all, pay for a working camera. Yes, these things do happen but this is madness.

[Jerry Keener]

Update:

I called ZGC this AM. Christine is going to send me a new camera as soon as she receives my defective one. I talked with one of the tech guys at ZGC as well, to verify I wasn't missing something. We both agreed that this kind of problem is so "black and white" that you think you are going crazy or are missing something obvious.

I am sending the "lemon" (ur, camera) back via UPS today. So, if the weather in the northeast cooperates, I expect to get a new replacement camera by Monday or Tuesday of next week. You can be sure I will check and test the new camera with a sharp eye very thouroughly and post back. Hopefully, the next time I post I will have some good news to report.

Jerry