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General discussion

Black LCD screen on camera

Nov 28, 2004 11:58PM PST

I have a sony cybershot DSC-P31. I have it for a little over a year. All of a sudden the lcd sceen is black. It will show the pictures on the memory stick, but nothing else. Does anyone know what the problem is? There is no lens cap on this type of camera.

Discussion is locked

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Re: Black LCD screen on camera
Nov 29, 2004 12:23AM PST
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Re: Black LCD screen on camera
Nov 29, 2004 6:57AM PST

I would be a little afraid to do that, in the event that I destroy the whole thing in the process. I just don't know if it's worth having it repaired.

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Black LCD screen so how could you break it?
Nov 29, 2004 9:24AM PST

It's broken. And my bet is repair is equal to or more than a new camera. All I did was to switch to decaf and then light up the work bench very brightly and then dive in with my smallest screwdriver set. Got lucky.

Bob

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Re: Black LCD screen on camera
Dec 9, 2004 5:54AM PST

Hi!

Just had the same problem (black display) on a Pentax Optio 330GS(?). I moved my hand in front of it and took pictures of things but nothing happened. Then my girlfriend tried to point it to a lamp, and all-of-a-sudden it kinda woke up from a screensaver or something. So weird, but it worked. Perhaps it needs enough light in order to start using the display and lens. I couldn't take any pictures when the LCD was black. So, try pointing it towards a strong light source before you break your camera.

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Might be the CCD problem
Oct 19, 2005 1:56AM PDT

Sony P31 is in the list of cameras having the ccd problem and you should be able to get the free replacement from Sony even if it is out of warranty.
For info , refer to the earlier posts from snapshot2 or the following link in that post
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05100701sony_ccds.asp

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Contact Sony
Nov 15, 2005 12:58AM PST

I had the same problem with my DSC-P32, go to this page
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=DSCP31&news_id=95

Call the number listed and they'll walk you through some rudimentary checks to confirm that your camera has the problem and they'll help you through the rest.

They will handle the shipping charges and will service it even if it's out of warranty. Takes about 10-15 business days for the work.