Help with a frozen HP Photosmart 720 camera please!

June 16, 2004 2:19 PM

My digital camera is frozen. (more inside, of course.)

My HP Photosmart 720 just quit working the other day. The lens is frozen in a partially-out position, and turning it on and off no longer retracts and extends the lens. I hear a faint rapid clicking as the motors try to move the lens. Replacing the batteries and doing a power reset doesn't help.

It was working fine up until the moment when it abruptly quit. Any ideas?

Barring any ideas, any recommendations for a repair place in NYC?

posted by Vidiot to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Take this with a grain of salt, but I have a Canon S30 and the same thing happens often. There is probably a piece of sand stuck somewhere in the chasis. Repairing it would probably cost more than the value of the camera. My solution: shake it like a polaroid picture. A few violent shakes and same solid thunking against the flat of my palm usually gets things going again. YMMV.
posted by tcaleb at 3:52 PM on June 16, 2004

repair technique # 1
(always worth a shot)
posted by milovoo at 4:14 PM on June 16, 2004

This happened to me. We weren't able to shake it loose the second time.

No more HPs for me.

s
posted by answergrape at 6:55 PM on June 16, 2004

I just had the same problem with my Canon A70. In my case it worked after changing the batteries (even though the batteries I was using had plenty of charge left) but I'm worried it will happen again.
posted by JoanArkham at 7:45 AM on June 17, 2004

my HP camera died as well, i was able to get the pictures of with a card-reader (25 bucks from office depot), but the camera never worked again, it seemed like more of an OS problem than a physical problem with mine.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 9:50 AM on June 17, 2004

Hmmm. Shaking it doesn't seem to help. Any ideas for repair places in NYC? Is it even worth repairing? How is HP's own support?
posted by Vidiot at 11:20 AM on June 17, 2004