Can't see through viewfinder (it's all black) and cannot trip shutter or advance film. batteries are new and intact.

This camera is somewhere between fifteen and thirty years old. It is highly unlikely that spares would be available, and it would be extremely expensive to have it repaired in any case, most artificers familiar with the internal layout having probably retired years ago. Maybe the camera should be retired too ?

Open the back of the camera. **** the camera as if you were advancing the film. While looking in the back, push the shutter release, like you were taking a photo.
You see the mirror flip up and glimpse a flash of light as the camera cycles.
If you do not see the mirror flip up and return, the camera needs serious repair..
As for the LED Display, put some new batteries in it.

You can check the shutter without film in the camera. Remove the lens and open the film door. You will see the cloth curtains of the shutter in the center. Advance the film lever to **** the shutter and set the speed dial to a slower speed like 1/15. Hold the camera so it is aimed a a light source, (a window will do) and fire the shutter. You should see the light through the shutter for the time duration is is set to. (1/15). If you see the light source, repeat the process going up one speed setting until you reach 1/1000. If you see the shutter open and close as described, then try another roll. After you load the film and close the back door, make note of what the rewind knob is doing as you advance the film. It should spin counter-clockwise each time. That is a easy test to know that the film is traveling in the camera properly. Vary your exposures with the new roll at different speeds and f-stops. You should get exposures, but if not let us know.

The shutter could be stuck or the mirror could be stuck. (Guessing you have an SLR.)
The film advancing is normal; means it is cocked and ready to go but something is stuck.

Take off the lens and see if anything is keeping the mirrors/shutters from returning.

If your viewfinder is black, the mirror on the film camera is up. That usually means the shutter system is out of whack... Repair would be too expensive. You can by a used Vivitar, Pentax body as a replacement as they use the same non AF K-mount lenses for pretty cheap. But again, they would be old cameras.

Metering lights are the LEDs that light up in the viewfinder. Camera on, look in the viewfinder to the right side you will see some lights. As long as these lights come on, P, M, A, *, ^ ,- You have put the batteries in correctly, and they have juice. Otherwise, you got the wrong batteries or put them in backwards.
The Minolta X-series (X-300/370, X-570, X-700) were known for this issue. Two capacitors under the top and bottom covers go bad over time. They prevent the shutter from releasing, so you cannot wind to re-**** the shutter. If you're handy at these things, you can buy the caps, remove the covers, solder in the new caps, and be fine. This issue is well known and you can find instructions on the web. Or you can send it in for repair. Garry's Camera repair in Niles,ILL will do it cheaply at $58 incl return postage. Look him up on the web.

You are probably on the right track with the batteries. Stick some fresh ones in and the shutter should release. Your may need to use the advance lever to re-**** the shutter and drop the mirror down. You could also try removing the lens and manually pushing the mirror down to see if it stays in the down position.

There are several situations when this message happens and the camera locks up, and almost none of them has anything to do with the cause stated in the camera manual: film DX coding error. (If it is truly a DX-coding error, manually setting the ISO speed of the film should solve the problem. This could happen in cold weather.) Scenario One: when using Alkaline batteries and the batteries are almost exhausted, and yet one continues to shoot. The battery may not have enough power to complete the shutter firing operation (which usually includes: mirror up, close down diaphragm, shutter fire, mirror down, open diaphragm, advance film, and charge the shutter for next frame). The camera could be lock up in the middle of the operation, left with a dimmed viewfinder. Usually an indication appears quite early if one pays attention: when the batteries are almost exhausted, the film advance becomes noticeably slow. In normal situation film advance is very fast and one cannot distinguish it from other noise such as mirror flipping. When the batteries almost exhausted, the film-advance could take almost 1 second, and the noise of film advancing has been mistakenly identified by some as "beep". I think those is the result of over-adjustment for the Premature Battery Indication problem. This scenario is particular to using alkaline batteries, due to the peculiar behavior of the alkaline battery: even when its power is almost exhausted, it still has a pretty high voltage. Solution: replace the batteries and fire the shutter once should solve the problem. I am pretty sure this is normal, since it happened to me several times, and I once deliberately repeated this happening. Scenario Two: At the end of a roll, when the remaining film is too short for one more frame but long enough to fool the camera, the camera could end up with "Err" message. Solution: rewind the film and load with the new one, and possibly fire the shutter once could solve the problem. (This has never happened to me, but summarized from other’s reports.) Scenario Three: I've heard of two reports: happened in the middle of a roll, with sufficient battery power. I have no idea what’s going on. (Could be really a DX-coding problem, which does not necessarily occur just at the beginning of a roll.) Solution: probably should send the camera in for a check. (Also, both reports of this problem occurs while using Kodachrome films.)

Can you shoot rear curtain flash modes?

If not, try this:

Advance the camera.
Open up the shutter(set mirror lock-up). You'll have to remove the Winder CW to do this.
Push black Tap up to open up the shutter. Don't worry, lens is still closed.
You'll not see anything from the viewfinder, just black.
Trip the shutter button.
Now, check the images.
What do you get?
Try shooting under one second in low light.
Battery is new and not over 5 years old?

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