I live in london england, where can i go to fix this camera.the battrie is not staying in the slot,neither the sd card. and the covering is not staying shut.I want to secure it but don't know where to go and get it repaired, as I baught the camera in America.Hp Photosmart R847 Digital camera. please help

hi,
oh, the remedy is to open the cam then desolder the memory slot's casing very carefully, fix the spring in proper position, then solder the cover.

is the lock on the card by chance. also depending on how old the camera is and how big the sd card is in gb. the lumix may not be able to handle that size of card, too many gb. My lumix would only accept up to 4 gb, so when I moved to 16 they did not work.

hi Jfurbees.
this is all i could think off just to help you out in till you can get it fixed.

I don't have a permanent fix, but one thing that works is folding up a small piece of paper and holding it over the memory card while closing the cover so that the cover pushes on the paper which holds the memory card in place automatically when the cover is closed. You just have to experiment to get the folded paper the right size and thickness. Again, its not a fix, but it has worked for me.
I shone a really bright light into the SD slot and sure enough, behind the gold springs at the bottom of the card slot, was a tiny black sliver of plastic that moved slightly when I tipped the camera. About 3mm long.
I removed the camera battery. Then I got a big long sewing needle, and with some very gentle manouvering, so as not to scratch anything inside the camera's SD slot, it fell out just when I was about to give up.
After I'd got the plastic sliver out, I trimmed the splintered edge of the SD card and put it back in

this is not to say it will work for you but give it a try but this will be at your own risk.

Take the camera for professional repair. It's probably a manufacture fault, or a transport damage.

The Z740 takes SD cards. Cards bigger than 2GB are SDHC cards, as you've mentioned. While SDHC cards will physically fit into an SD slot, they are not compatible. SDHC devices will accept SD cards, but not the other way around. it's a hardware issue; you can't fix it with a firmware update. You will have to stay with cards 2GB or smaller for this camera.

See fix 4 http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2009/07/simple-fix-for-memory-card-locked-error.html?m=1

This camera only supports an SD card of 1GB maximum. I tried a 2GB SD card and the camera reported the error you describe, that the card needs to be formatted (and it wouldn't format in the camera, either). I purchased a 1GB Duracell SD card P/N DU-SD-1024-C at Wal-Mart, and it was actually a 2GB card (tested in my desktop PC's SD slot and it was fine). Nice deal, but this camera can't use it. I bought a 3-pack of Kodak 1GB SD cards at Wal-Mart and they worked great in this camera.

The SD slot of the camera got damage somehow. The SD slot contains thin copper prongs that locks the card in place and comes in contact with the surface of the card. If these prongs are damaged, then it cause a read failure of the camera.

Try to use another SD card in your camera. If the phenomena is still exist, the problem is with your camera (in most of the cases it is a broken plastic part of card's "house").