It froze while taking pics and optical zoom is still out- I thought that the battery needed to be recharged so I popped it out and charged it to full. I put it back in - it turns on for 3 seconds- the green light flashed 5 times and it shuts off again. Any way to fix this issue?
How old are your batteries? How long have they been stored in a charged condition? NiCad's don't like to be stored while charged. It really sounds like you have a power problem. Can you use alkaline cells to test this theory?