Check your warranty Canon SD500

Check your warranty Canon SD500

Most cameras have a 1 year warranty. If your camera is still under warranty you may want to see if you can get the camera professionally repaired free. Look at the details of your warranty. Most companies have you write a letter stating how the problem occurred (ie: LCD wouldn't turn back on after transferring pictures). Cracked LCD's are harder to explain because the warranty doesn't cover you if you dropped the camera. If you purchased a warranty package at a retail store (such as Circuit City or Best Buy), their plan may cover accidental damage. If you did drop it, and plan on sending the unit to the manufacturer, do not admit to dropping it, lie.

Recognize the problem

Before you begin to tear into your camera, make sure it is a problem that you are comfortable repairing. A lens problem requires a much more invasive repair compared to changing an LCD.

Avoid static damage

The first time I tried to repair a digital camera, I did everything correct, except one thing. I did not take the proper precautions to make sure I wouldn't damage the circuitry of my camera with a static charge. The camera I tried to repair thus needed even more repair than when I started.

Here are a few precautions you can take to avoid damaging your camera with static electricity:

1) Remove the battery from your camera before you open the case

2) Wear anti-static latex gloves, or a wrist strap that grounds you.

3) Try to keep your body at the same electric potential as the camera.

You can do this by touching something metal (non-electrical) on the camera at different points during the procedure. For example, I know most Canon's have a metal frame holding their shape.

Keep track of materials

There is nothing worse than closing up your camera after a successful repair and realizing you don't have enough screws, or just as bad, realizing you have too many screws.

Here are a few tricks that you can follow to make sure you don't lose any screws and so that you remember where every screw was removed from:

1) Do all of your work over a paper plate. This way, if you do drop a screw, the edges of the plate won't let it roll away.

2) As you remove each screw, tape it to the plate or a piece of paper and label where it was removed from (ie: 'top of LCD'; 'housing case left bottom'; 'under LCD top right'; etc.)

3) Even though a magnetized screwdriver would make loosing screws more difficult, one should not be used because it may interfere with the electrical and mechanical parts of the camera

4) If you want you can sketch the camera on a sheet of paper and tape the screw on corresponding area of the sketch.

How To Replace a Broken LCD Canon Powershot SD500

If you have a damaged LCD follow the steps below to repair this problem.

Step 1: Make sure that the LCD is what is the problem and that by fixing this the camera will be like new again. The best way to do this is to take the A/V cable that came with the camera and plug it into the camera and TV (A/V slot on camera found by the USB cable)

Step 2: Unscrew housing, keeping track of the screws. You should have a total of eight (8) screws. For this camera they made it a little tricky. There are three (3) easy to see screws on the bottom, two (2) on one side, and one (1) on the other. The side with one screw has two more hidden. There is one under the flap you lift to access the USB port, and there is one under that piece you just unscrewed

Step 3: Unscrew the LCD/backlight unit and the button pad. There are three screws for this, one on the top left of the LCD unit, one under the backlight ribbon on the top right of the LCD unit (you have to remove this ribbon) and one on the top right of the button pad.





Step 4: Fold both the LCD/backlight unit and the button pad down to reveal where the ribbon is inserted into the camera's motherboard

Step 5: Undo the ribbon from the broken LCD.

Step 6: Now get the new LCD. (information on how to get a new LCD can be found on the repair shop link). And insert it opposite the way you removed the old LCD (the metal on the ribbon should be down). Make sure it is FULLY inserted (use toothpicks in ribbon holes for aide in this step)

Step 7: Put back the LCD/backlight unit and the button pad (the screw that goes under the backlight ribbon goes through both the LCD/backlight unit and button pad, make sure the LCD/backlight unit screw hole is under the button pad screw hole)

Step 8: Replace the backlight ribbon

Step 9: Remove any fingerprints

Step 10: Replace the housing. Don't forget to first screw in that hidden screw from before before covering it up.

Step 11: Insert the battery and test to see if the LCD unit works.

Congratulations, you did it!!!!

Didn't work? - If you only see white, this means that there is either a problem with the LCD unit you inserted, or that you failed to insert the ribbon fully. If you see an image, but is dark, then the backlight ribon was not replaced correctly or fully. If the camera doesn't power on, then you may have shorted a circuit, and failed to take the proper precautions as mentoined here.