Re: A2 Repair Attempt = Success!
A few days ago I bought a Dimage A2 from a charity shop in the UK for 25 pounds and although it was initially faultless, my flexing of the EVF module resulted in the, what I now know to be common, problem that the EVF screen fails to illuminate.
I found this thread and the excellent illustrated comments, and was able to confirm that I too had the problem with the broken flexible connector track.
Having found I much preferred using the EVF to the LCD screen I was determined to try a fix - having had some success in similar situations with laptop and mobile phone screens where the flexing of the display hinge leads (!) to breakage of the flexible connector.
I initially experimented on an unused "safe" part of the connector - the area circled in red on the first picture - to find out how thick the insulating layer was and how best to expose the copper track, checking that the depth I was scraping away was sufficient by using a multimeter to check for continuity between the two spots.
Red: test areas. Green: Insulation removed and copper track exposed.
I then traced the broken track and found that it goes to the Black wire in the small white connector block so I intended to make the final connection to that block rather than attempt to "jump" the break in the track.
I scraped away the track at a convenient point - circled green in the first photo - and attempted to get some solder onto the bright metal. The iron was too hot and neighbouring plastic melted over the top, insulating it again. Scaping that away resulted in me breaking the thin track.
Realising that I was now at a critical point I carefully exposed more of the track (camera side, not EVF side) and lifted it away from the plastic film. I was able to get some solder onto the track.
Using very fine insulated wire I was then able to connect between that solder point and a direct (unsoldered) connection into the white connector block:
Direct connection replacing broken track to "black" connection in white block.
Power on, waved my fingers over the EVF sensor and was rewarded by seeing the back-light come on. Very carefully replaced the cover and the two small screws and lowered the EVF into the horizontal position - from which I do not intend to move it!
I found a service manual for the A2 on the web and was interested to see that the use of lubricating grease is required on the sharp corner that Ransom identifies in a later post as a likely cause of the problem.
Probably not many folks still use these camera, but this forum was invaluable to me in both learning how to use the camera and then to identify the EVF problem, from which I was able to share this fix - anybody with a dead EVF on an A2 and not happy with using the LCD monitor should have a go - there's nothing to lose by it.
Grimleigh