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I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT. For the most part, it is an incredibly reliable camera. however, this past week I had an issue develop with my displays. On both the top back screen and the viewfinder LCD, all of the bottom elements for Aperture, Shutter Speed and shots remaining are constantly on. Additionally, the exposure level indicator is on for -4/3, 0, 1/3, and 2/3. I'm assuming that this is a software issue, since the same thing is happening to both screens. I have no idea what could have caused this. Does anybody know how to fix this?

Edit: I have also tried a hard reset, to no avail.

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    Have you tried doing a factory reset? Find the section about restoring the camera's default settings in the manual and follow that procedure.
    – MikeW ♦
    Apr 15 '13 at 0:21
  • I'll try right now, @MikeW
    – Evan Pak
    Apr 15 '13 at 0:51
  • Good luck. While the XT was a great camera, its unlikely to be worth fixing. If it stays broken, and your budget is low, look at used T3i bodies.
    – Pat Farrell
    Apr 15 '13 at 1:20
  • @PatFarrell I am unlikely to replace, as I am just a teenager, without a job, and this only a nuisance, not a disabling issue.
    – Evan Pak
    Apr 15 '13 at 1:27
  • Try removing the battery (including any backup battery that saves the time and date, settings, etc. if it is removable on the XT) for several hours. If there is a chance moisture has gotten inside the body, try drying it out. ehow.com/how_2247421_dry-digital-camera.html
    – Michael C
    Apr 15 '13 at 3:06
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It's actually more probable that a display driver/multiplexer chip or one of its associated resistors (hardware) is the problem if one of the segments is "stuck" across characters. That's the circuit that translates between the values to display and the character segments that need to be activated (and such displays, whether LCD, LED, or fluorescent, normally only update one character at a time). It's very likely that the same driver/multiplexer circuit is used for both displays.

If the affected character segment is one that doesn't leave you with ambiguous values you can't decipher, it might not be worth bothering with—except that spare parts aren't "forever" and the display will affect the resale value of the camera should you ever decide to upgrade. (It'll never be worth a fortune, but there's a big difference between "used" and "used and busted", and that couple of hundred bucks difference can make an upgrade easier on the old bank account.)

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  • I've contacted technical support, and this is pretty much all that is left. Thanks for the help.
    – Evan Pak
    Apr 20 '13 at 20:09

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