Reliability issue with Canon 5D II - anyone else seen this?

[Somersetman]

After using my Canon 5D II for an hour or two I get one or both of the following symptoms:

1) the buttons on the left hand side of the display (preview, picture style etc) stop working
2) failure to "wake" from auto power-off state when I press the shutter button half way

Removing and replacing the batteries usually solves the problem(s), but only temporarily. Makes me think that it's power-related. I'm using the 5D II with a genuine Canon battery grip and a pair of genuine Canon LP-E6 batteries that are in good shape. I've cleaned the battery contacts with a pencil eraser, to no effect. Ditto removing the grip and using just one battery.

I don't know if it's relevant, but ever since I bought the camera second hand it's never successfully remembered the time/date... in fact it doesn't make a difference whether I have a button cell in place or not (and yes, I've tried all the contact cleaning and battery replacement tricks here to no avail, but that little foible is one I can live with!).

Any thoughts would be welcome!

Thanks

 

[stu.artd]

Sounds like a faulty camera, shame you didn't take / send it back when you noticed the date / time issue. I've used my 5D2 for a lot more than an hour and have never ran into any problems, both with and without the official grip.
You could try talking to Canon directly, maybe one of their repair centres, in case they're aware of what causes this to happen. I think they do the diagnostics and give you the option to pay for the repair or just get it sent back.

 

[Somersetman]

Thanks Stuart - the date/time issue has been with me since purchase (on ebay, at a silly price) but the present problems have begun after more than a year's fault free regular use, sometimes 8 hours a day.

Repair centre will be the next step, but would hate to find out after spending £££s that someone out there has a simple answer to the problem

 

[cymruchris]

Never heard of it - and never have the issue with either of my 5dmk2's that are used often for long time periods... Think it needs a trip to Canon.