No power? No image display, lens won't move

Several times now, my camera has "frozen," sometimes with the lens open, other times with it closed. I can't take photos or review them. I don't get a low battery message and it can happen even with brand new lithium batteries. In the past I sometimes was able to get it going again by taking the batteries in and out or replacing them, but now even that doesn't work. It really seems like there's just no power at all. It made me wonder if there's another battery somewhere that's past its useful life.

I will say that this camera has had a pretty hard life. I take it with me everywhere (not in a case), and I've dropped it or thunked it against something more than once or twice. If it's time to say good-bye I couldn't complain. But if there's a straight-forward fix, I'd be delighted. Thanks.

First thing I would do is reset your camera. This can be easily done by choosing "reset" in the menu settings. Next, I would go to Canon's website and see if there's a firmware update. It may be that the firmware is corrupted and doing these two things will help it to run smoother. Next, I would use batteries with an mAh over 2500 and make sure the battery contacts are clean (use a pencil eraser for this).

If these things don't work, it may be that you've taking this camera to the point where the hard life has taken it's toll. It would probably cost more to fix than it's really worth (rule of thumb is that if it costs over 50% to repair, you're better off buying a new one).

This is exactly the sort of answer I was hoping for and I'm sure it will be helpful to the next person. In my case, however, I can't get to the menu--or any other function on the camera--so the reset option won't work. I did clean the battery contacts, to no avail.

Thank you, James. I really appreciate your taking the time to address this for me.

Happy to help. Good luck.