Dropped camcorder. Not working now. Possible cause?

[vid83]

I have a Canon miniDV camcorder.
It dropped from a height of 15 inches (1 ft, 3 inches) onto my desk while powered on. Now it will not power on and I have a miniDV tape stuck in the camera and can't get it out. It is not worth the price to send it in to get it repaired. What are some possible causes?

[zoobie]

How do you know it's not worth getting fixed?

[deadrats]

I have a Canon miniDV camcorder.
It dropped from a height of 15 inches (1 ft, 3 inches) onto my desk while powered on. Now it will not power on and I have a miniDV tape stuck in the camera and can't get it out. It is not worth the price to send it in to get it repaired. What are some possible causes?

i'm going to go out on a limb here, and mind you i'm no expert, but i think the reason it's not working might be, and stay with me one this, because you dropped it.

it should be obvious that something got jarred loose inside, if it's not worth it getting fixed (say it's one of those cheap camcorders or just too old and outdated anyway) and all you want is the miniDV tape, i say do it the old fashioned way, take it apart (or break it apart) and save your content.

[vid83]

How do you know it's not worth getting fixed?

Its going to cost over $100 to repair. Also, I got this camera in 2005. By the time I get it repaired, I should just save up and upgrade to an HD camcorder.

[vid83]

I have a Canon miniDV camcorder.
It dropped from a height of 15 inches (1 ft, 3 inches) onto my desk while powered on. Now it will not power on and I have a miniDV tape stuck in the camera and can't get it out. It is not worth the price to send it in to get it repaired. What are some possible causes?

i'm going to go out on a limb here, and mind you i'm no expert, but i think the reason it's not working might be, and stay with me one this, because you dropped it.

Lol.
I've tried taking it apart and see nothing loose. I've checked to see if the cables were secured.

[redwudz]

'Its going to cost over $100 to repair. Also, I got this camera in 2005.' I'd say those were two good reasons not to have it repaired.

[ranchhand]

Sorry that happened, man. For what consolation you can get, it probably was near end-of-life anyway, they don't last much past five years (+or-) with ordinary usage.

[HoosierGuy]

I've noticed while looking for a Sony MiniDV camcorder on ebay a good number of broken ones for sale for "parts" use. Do people actually get these things fixed? Aren't they basically throw away like microwaves are and new TV's are becoming?

[zoobie]

they're usually bought by techs who know what they're doing and they fix them
I just put my canon hi8 a1 (for parts - not working) on ebay for 99 cents - it retailed at over $2k

[Ditka1985]

I'm one of those losers who buys broken camcorders, etc. from e-bay and fixes them. Sometimes it takes two to make one good, other times the repairs are easy (in relative terms).

Canon camcorders have one problem that I've seen over and over again -- and I'd bet yours has the same (or similar) issue. If the eject mechanism gets damaged in any way (typically from people pushing on the part that says "do not push here" or from drops), it gets jammed. When this happens, the motor stalls and attempts to draw excessive amounts of current from the battery. To protect the battery from hyper-draining (and possibly getting damaged), the good folks at Canon installed several surface-mount fuses on the main board. The excessive current from the motor takes out the main fuse and the entire camera gets no power.

Unfortunately, you'll probably have to find someone in your area familiar enough with the mechanism to safely remove your tape. The fuse can be replaced easily if one is experienced in surface-mount soldering. However, repairing the mechanisms isn't quite as easy. I've not had much luck getting a stuck one to ever work again. The torque the motor produces before taking out the fuse is impressive (it has a large mechanical advantage thanks to a worm gear) and often bends/damages things in addition to the original damage. I usually just harvest a working mechanism from a camera with optical problems (like a busted lens).

I hope I'm wrong and it is something like a broken connection from the battery (try running it with an adapter). However, I've seen Canon camcorders do this enough to think that it is a reasonably likely diagnosis... Sorry!

[SLK001]

I'm one of those losers who buys broken camcorders, etc...

I wouldn't call that being a loser. I'd call that being resourceful and being able to take advantage of other people's misfortunes.

I used to do what you are doing with laptops that had a problem with the power connector at the rear of the computer. A $4 part from Radio Shack would permanently fix the laptops and I would have another high performance laptop to sell cheaply.