Dead DSLR

[MarkS]

Oddly enough, I put it back together this morning, put a battery in, switched it on and it sprang into life!

Not for long though - I switched it off and now it's completely dead again.

I was reading elsewhere on the net that this is quite typical - it might switch on for a few shots and then dies again.

Mark

[Carole]

How odd, so if it works briefly there can't be anything wrong with wiring or connections, this ought to be telling us something if only we knew what. 

Carole

[MarkS]

How odd, so if it works briefly there can't be anything wrong with wiring or connections, this ought to be telling us something if only we knew what. 

Agreed.  It means that something internal is no longer behaving properly.  Maybe it's a failure of the mythical internal battery.  Who knows

Mark

[Carole]

I'll see if I can sell it for parts.  Thanks for trying Mark, very good of you.
I did some googling and water damage was suggested as a possibility, given we take the DSLR outside in the damp, but as I hardly use it it's not so likely and I am sure you would have spotted this when you took it apart. 

Although I said I was not going to replace it, there are occasions when a Modified DSLR is useful: 
Comet Lovejoy, transit of Mercury, Milky way, (never yet got a decent MW), aurora, plus I would love to get the Antares colourful region and I think given the FOV and lack of opportunities a DSLR is the only likely option for that, so I'll be on the look out for a reasonably priced Modified Canon DSLR, but no urgency.   

Carole