Top 20 Canon PowerShot A540 Digital Camera Questions & Answers

it seems to be the memory card slot is damaged normally 9 contacts connect with MC if any of it doesn't contact, will not work, open and takeout card slot if the contact is bend align it to touch the MC's contacts.

In the menu there is a 'clear all settings' function which will put it back to factory settings

You cannot. Your camera is far too sophisticated and its sensor produces high resolution images, so to hope it can produce low resolution 320 x240 images as streaming video is not realistic.

What type and size memory card are you trying to use? The A540 works with MMC and SD cards, which max out at 2GB. It will not work with higher-capacity SDHC cards, even though they fit into the slot.

is your battery charged

check your battery

Press cursor-up (marked with a lightning bolt) to cycle through the various flash modes. For fill flash, select the lightning bolt without the letter "A" to force the flash to fire. See page 8 of the Basic Camera User Guide http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/2/0900001192/01/PSA540_530CUGba-EN.pdf

On the A540, press cursor-up (marked with a lightning bolt) to cycle through the flash settings. Details are in the "Using the Flash" section of the Basic Manual (page 8 in my copy).If you need the manuals, you may download them from here.

It's a lost cause. The A540 works with SD cards. While SDHC cards will fit into the slot, they are electronically incompatible and will not work in devices not designed for them. You need to stay with SD cards, 2GB and smaller.

Are you sure it's an SD card? Even though SDHC cards will also fit into the slot, they will not work in the A540. If the card is larger than 2GB then it will not work.

Replace the date battery by following the instructions beginning on page 114 of this manual.

Take the battery out, that will turn the camera off.

I recommend getting a USB card reader for your memory card.

You should make sure that the camera is on for the transfer. If that doesn't work, try another USB input.

It depends upon how big the latest photos are and if it has over written the area where your old photos are located then there is no chance of recovery.I suggest you run the recovery program before you take any more photos to see if you can recover these photos.If you do not have a recovery program then try this. Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted from your iPod, or by bugs, crashes and viruses!

• Put the memory card into an USB card reader and plug it into the USB port in your computer, then run the Recuva program.
• Simple to use interface - just click 'Scan' and choose the files you want to recover
• Easy to use filter for results based on file name/type
• Simple Windows like interface with List and Tree view
• Can be run from a USB thumb drive
• Restores all types of files, office documents, images, video, music, email, anything.
• Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5 , NTFS + EFS file systems
• Restores files from removable media (SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MemoryStick, Digital cameras, Floppy disks, Jazz Disks, Sony Memory Sticks, Compact Flash cards, Smart Media Cards, Secure Digital Cards, etc.)
• Restores files from external ZIP drives, Firewire and USB Hard drives
• It's fast, tiny and takes seconds to run!

Go to these WEB sites to down Recuva http://download.cnet.com/Recuva/3000-2242_4-10753287.html www.filehippo.com/download_recuva

The best way to download pictures from your camera to your computer involves removing the memory card from the camera and plugging it into a card reader (either built-in to the computer or connected via USB or FireWire). This is likely to be faster than connecting the camera to the computer, and won't run down your camera's batteries.Once the card is plugged in, it will appear to your computer as a removable drive. You can use the operating system's drag&drop facility to copy pictures from the card to the computer's hard drive, the same way you copy any other files. Or you can use any photo cataloging program such as Picasa.

The best way to download pictures from your camera to your computer involves removing the memory card from the camera and plugging it into a card reader (either built-in to the computer or connected via USB or FireWire). This is likely to be faster than connecting the camera to the computer, and won't run down your camera's batteries. Once the card is plugged in, it will appear to your computer as a removable drive. You can use the operating system's drag&drop facility to copy pictures from the card to the computer's hard drive, the same way you copy any other files. Or you can use any photo cataloging program such as Picasa.

Hi there:Some symptoms of a defective CCD include distorted images or abnormal colors, scratchy purple lines, blank or black pictures, and/or black videos with good sound being recorded on the camera's flash card.A CCD problem would explain the lines on your pictures and the lines on the LCD (since the CCD is used to feed the live image). CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is one of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras.When a picture is taken, the CCD is struck by light coming through the camera's lens. Each of the thousands or millions of tiny pixels that make up the CCD convert this light into electrons. The number of electrons, usually described as the pixel's accumulated charge, is measured, then converted to a digital value. This last step occurs outside the CCD, in a camera component called an analog-to-digital converter.In order to correct this issue, the repair facility needs to replace the CCD. This is not something you may do on your own; check this article for additional details:Bad CCDs. This, isn't a good new, but hope helps to solve it.Hope this helps; also keep in mind that your feedback is important and I`ll appreciate your time and consideration if you leave some testimonial comment about this answer.Thank you for using FixYa, have a nice day.

There are several possible causes for "memory card locked", "memory card error", or "no memory card". The most common cause is having the tiny slide switch on the side of the card in the wrong position. The second most common is trying to use a 4GB or higher SDHC card with an older camera made before SDHC format came out. Please note that your particular model camera can only use up to 2GB standard SD cards. These are relatively inexpensive these days, and may be purchased on Amazon if your local store no longer carries them. There are also other common causes if the above didn't help, with troubleshooting steps for this problemlisted here.