In the search for more exciting broken electronics to repair, [Hugh Jeffreys] bought a GoPro Hero 10 for US$100 with an apparently rather common issue of no camera input, along with a cracked display. This particular camera issue is rather obvious, with just darkness where the camera’s input should appear on the display. Since [Hugh] already needed a spare display, he figured that he might as well get an even more broken GoPro Hero 10 for parts.

Another US$40 later, [Hugh] found himself the proud owner of a second GoPro, this one being water damaged and no longer turning on. Getting to the internals requires removing the glued-in display, which is even trickier than with a smartphone. By inserting a thin blade, adding solvents and not prying, you can slowly work it loose.

With two disassembled GoPros it was now possible to swap modules. After a factory reset and firmware update had failed to fix the first GoPro, the camera module from the donor unit was inserted, but this made no difference. Amusingly, after cleaning the water-damaged unit’s PCBs, it was found to be in good working condition, so ultimately the second GoPro was repaired, leaving the ‘no camera input’ issue undiagnosed.

It’s possible that a board-level repair on the first unit can address the original issue, but without schematics this would likely entail a lot of blindly poking around, in the hope of finding a damaged MLCC or other obvious fault. There is also the possibility that this is a firmware issue, with some reporting luck mashing the record button, but others disagree.

Since [Hugh] did do the firmware reset and updating steps, and even inserted a whole new working camera module, it would seem to narrow the problem down to a board-level issue. Whatever the case may be, it’s a frustrating issue with a rather expensive device.