XT hot shoe won't fire. Can I fix this? Disassembly?

[sherman_peabody]

<p>While the pop-up flash works fine, nothing works in the hot shoe, and I've confirmed that the center terminal just isn't firing. So I'm hoping that there's a transistor of some kind that shorts the terminal to ground to fire a flash, which is burned out, and which could be replaced with something that would work. I've confirmed that the little switch that tells the camera there's something in the hot shoe is working properly - with something in the shoe, the built-in flash won't pop up, which is as it should be I think.<br>

I'm much more expert at electronics than photography, but with no information on the circuit in question, or how to get to it, I'm not sure what to do. I've seen in other threads that some here seem to view camera disassembly as not difficult, as I assme must be the case for someone who has done it before. But it would be nice if there was a video. :-)<br>

Anyway, can I get some words of wisdom from the experts here on fixing this problem. Does anyone know what specifically might be wrong, and what would be required to fix it? Can a normal, but handy, human being disassemble the camera far enough to fix this, and get it back together still working? Are there any guides for doing that? Any suggestions would be appreciated.</p>

 

[peter_j2]

<p>I presume you have used a dry soft toothbrush and lightly scrubbed the hot shoe and the contacts of the flash as remedial measures #1?</p>

<p>Here is an exploded view PDF parts list that may help.</p>

<p>http://biobug.org/photography/350d/EOS_350D.pdf</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

[sherman_peabody]

<p>Thanks, Peter. Yes, cleaning the contacts was the first thing I tried. Unfortunately that didn't help. Thanks for the link to that pdf. Now, if I could just find a circuit schematic. :-)</p>

 

[jaydesi]

<p>Is your shoe loose? I found that on my 20D, the screw holding the mount came loose, giving me hit or miss flashes...either the flash wouldn't fire or it wouldn't get the info from the camera and fire at full power.</p>

[sherman_peabody]

<p>No, the shoe is quite tight. Nothing loose at all.</p>