I have a 2002 Sony DSC-P3 camera that takes fantastic pictures, until
today.

It had been unused for abut a month, and I plugged in the power supply
to top the battery off before going out to a granddaughters recital to
take some photos. With the power supply still connected, the camera
was very slow to come one, and when it did finally come on, it beeped
and the flashing display was "E:61:00 MEMORY STICK ERROR", with a
symbol of a memory stick also flashing. I unplugged the power supply
and restarted it. Same exact symptoms.
The battery indicator shows an almost full battery, and the memory
stick is empty.

The only thing I can think of is that it somehow got screwed up when I
last downloaded the camera pictures to my computer. But I have done
that hundreds of times with no problems.

The owners manual says if there is an eror code beginning with E, the
camera must go back to an authorized Sony dealer for service. I
really would like to figure out what the authorized dealer can do that
I couldn't do, if I knew the problem. This camera was a gift in 2002
from some very good friends in Tokyo and I would really like to be
able to continue to use it for a few more years. It has accompanied
me on climbs to most of the 14,000 + foot peaks in Colorado and
performed flawlessly in cold and high altitude, and now it dies just
sitting in my bedroom.

All suggestions for what to do will be taken seriously.

TIA,

Bob Hofmann

The last time you transferred pictures to your computer... Did you properly
eject the memory stick before removing it? If not, you could have damaged
the stick.

On Oct 23, 8:08*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
The last time you transferred pictures to your computer... Did you properly
eject the memory stick before removing it? If not, you could have damaged
the stick.

I transferred using the USB connector on the camera to download to the
computer.

On Oct 23, 11:34*pm, " wrote:
On Oct 23, 8:08*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The last time you transferred pictures to your computer... Did you properly
eject the memory stick before removing it? If not, you could have damaged
the stick.

I transferred using the USB connector on the camera to download to the
computer.

Pne of the most common causes of this error is poor contacts on the
memory stick. Remove the stick and burnish the contacts a little. Re-
insert the stick and try again. It doesn't take much to cause a
questionable connection at the pins. The contacts can fatigue a bit
as well.

Update this with your progress.

Dan

On Oct 24, 1:31*pm, abrsvc wrote:
On Oct 23, 11:34*pm, " wrote:

On Oct 23, 8:08*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The last time you transferred pictures to your computer... Did you properly
eject the memory stick before removing it? If not, you could have damaged
the stick.

I transferred using the USB connector on the camera to download to the
computer.

Pne of the most common causes of this error is poor contacts on the
memory stick. *Remove the stick and burnish the contacts a little. *Re-
insert the stick and try again. *It doesn't take much to cause a
questionable connection at the pins. *The contacts can fatigue a bit
as well.

Update this with your progress.

Dan

Well---I put the camera on the charger for a couple of hours while I
was doing household chores. Then about 1/2 hour ago, I connected a
USB cable to my computer, and turned the camera on. To my pleasant
surprise, the camera turned on normally and there was no error
mesage. Now I have turned the camera off, disconnected the USB cable
and set it aside until tomorrow morning. We'll see what happens. I
didn't take the camera card out since I did look at the card earlier
today, and was still getting error messages after I replaced the
card. Contacts looked fine when I had it out, and I didn't see
anything that looked like dirt inside the card housing and its
contacts. So, we'll see what happens tomorrow
and will report back. Thanks for your suggeston.

On Oct 24, 11:24*pm, " wrote:
On Oct 24, 1:31*pm, abrsvc wrote:





On Oct 23, 11:34*pm, " wrote:

On Oct 23, 8:08*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The last time you transferred pictures to your computer... Did you properly
eject the memory stick before removing it? If not, you could have damaged
the stick.

I transferred using the USB connector on the camera to download to the
computer.

Pne of the most common causes of this error is poor contacts on the
memory stick. *Remove the stick and burnish the contacts a little. *Re-
insert the stick and try again. *It doesn't take much to cause a
questionable connection at the pins. *The contacts can fatigue a bit
as well.

Update this with your progress.

Dan

Well---I put the camera on the charger for a couple of hours while I
was doing household chores. *Then about 1/2 hour ago, I connected a
USB cable to my computer, and turned the camera on. *To my pleasant
surprise, the camera turned on normally and there was no error
mesage. *Now I have turned the camera off, disconnected the USB cable
and set it aside until tomorrow morning. *We'll see what happens. *I
didn't take the camera card out since I did look at the card earlier
today, and was still getting error messages after I replaced the
card. *Contacts looked fine when I had it out, and I didn't see
anything that looked like dirt inside the card housing and its
contacts. *So, * * * * * * * * * * * * we'll see what happens tomorrow
and will report back. *Thanks for your suggeston.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Turned camera on twice today, everything appears to be normal, sure
would like to know what happened, but very happy it is working again.