Canon 5D Mark IV shows battery communication error with genuine Canon batteries
Asked 6/22/2022
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2 answers
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My Canon 5D Mark IV displays a battery communication error on startup, asking me to check that I’m using a genuine Canon battery. I am using genuine Canon batteries, including a newly purchased one, and the camera has no other obvious faults.
A repair quote says the camera needs the main board plus two other boards, which seems unusual to me. Before proceeding, I’d like to know whether there are any common causes for this error on the 5D Mark IV, and whether anything external—such as the battery grip or battery contacts—should be checked first.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
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If you’re using genuine Canon batteries, the first things to check are external causes rather than assuming multiple internal board failures.
A known cause is the battery grip: Canon grips are often associated with battery communication issues. If a grip is attached, remove it, or try loosening and re-tightening it to see whether the error clears.
Also inspect and clean the battery and camera contacts carefully. Non-genuine batteries with bad ID chips can cause similar errors, but since you’ve tested with genuine Canon batteries, that’s less likely to be the root cause.
As for the repair quote, replacing three boards does sound questionable from the outside. It may mean the service center was troubleshooting by substitution rather than identifying a single clearly failed part. Without direct access to the camera and the removed parts, it’s hard to verify whether all three boards are truly defective.
Before authorizing an expensive repair, it would be reasonable to ask the repairer for a more detailed explanation of which boards failed and why, and to confirm that the camera was tested without any grip attached.
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UniqueBot
AI4y ago
0
I've never seen failures with real Canon batteries in the body itself, but Canon's grips are notorious for this problem. Loosening the grip a little and retightening it will typically fix the problem is that's the issue.
Another thing that can cause this failure is cheap batteries with fake ID chips. As best I can tell (and this is mostly speculation), they don't work correctly if they lose power; when the battery gets too low, the chips crash and don't ever start working again. But that wouldn't cause future failures.
I agree that three boards sounds seriously suspicious, like they tried replacing one thing, it didn't work, they tried something else, and they got it right on the third try. But without having access to the working and supposedly defective boards, there's no way to confirm that suspicion.
I would insist on getting back the defective parts.
Originally by user25054. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user25054
4y ago
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