Flash won't work...flash icon on screen flashes when shutter button is depressed

i could be that the rechargeable batter is weak. try replaceing the battery for a new one. also check that the connections for the battery are clearn.

I hope this was useful.

Try a mode other than auto, and turn off the flash. Then try taking a picture. Did it work? If so, then your flash is either burned out, or the flash safety circuit thinks that the camera is open. If the flash is burned out, then professional repair is required, as a flash change-out is not trivial (Call 1-800-OK-CANON).
However, it's more likely to be only a break in the safety circuit. Many Canon cameras use some of the screws in the camera case to serve as a means of detecting if the case is open (and thus disables the flash to prevent shock). Examine all the screws around the perimeter of your case. Are they all there and tight? If not, tighten loose screws and try moving and replacing any missing screws with one of the others that are still there.
Finally, if it still doesn't take a picture, even with the flash turned off, then the shutter button itself is likely worn down. There's a little plastic protrusion that may wear down with camera use, preventing the shutter switch from fully engaging when the button is depressed. It's a very easy repair to replace the shutter button, IF you can purchase a replacement shutter button. They can be costly on eBay.

Besides the auto-flash mode, you can select fill flash, flash off, self-timer, and nighttime-view with or without flash.
Press the MODE-SELECTOR BUTTON until the desired indicator appears on the LCD PANEL.
Fill flash and flash off modes remain selected after you take the picture. To cancel the selection, press the mode-selection button or close and reopen the lens cover/flash to return to the auto-flash mode.
Fill flash
When bright light indoors or outdoors comes from behind the subject (backlighting), dark shadows (especially on faces) may occur. Use fill flash to lighten these shadows.

1. Open the LENS COVER/FLASH to raise the flash and to turn the camera ON.
2. Press the MODE-SELECTOR BUTTON repeatedly until the FILL-FLASH INDICATOR appears on the LCD PANEL.
3. Frame your subject within the VIEWFINDER EYEPIECE.
4. Partially depress the SHUTTER BUTTON. When the FLASH/CAMERA-READY LAMP turns off and the fill-flash indicator on the LCD panel stops blinking, fully depress the shutter button to take the picture.

Flash off
When you do not want to use the flash, especially indoors where flash is prohibited, such as in theaters and museums, or when you want to take twilight scenes or distant subjects that are beyond the flash range, or capture the ambiance of existing light, use the flash-off feature. Use a tripod or place the camera on another firm support, and use high-speed film because the shutter speed in these situations will most likely be slow.

1. Open the LENS COVER/FLASH to raise the flash and to turn the camera ON.
2. Press the MODE-SELECTOR BUTTON repeatedly until the FLASH-OFF INDICATOR appears on the LCD PANEL.
3. Frame your subject within the VIEWFINDER EYEPIECE.
4. Press the SHUTTER BUTTON to take the picture.

Self-timer with auto flash
Use this feature to include yourself in pictures.

1. Use the TRIPOD SOCKET to attach the camera to a tripod or place it on another firm support.
2. Open the LENS COVER/FLASH to raise the flash and to turn the camera ON.
3. Press the MODE-SELECTOR BUTTON repeatedly until the SELF-TIMER INDICATOR appears on the LCD PANEL.
4. Frame your subject within the VIEWFINDER EYEPIECE.
5. Press the SHUTTER BUTTON. The SELF-TIMER LAMP will glow and then blink during the last three seconds of countdown.
   • To cancel the self-timer selection before the shutter releases, close the flash.
   • The self-timer automatically turns off after the shutter releases.

Night-view with flash
In this mode, the camera balances the flash and existing light exposure so you can take beautiful pictures of people at sunset or at night. Use a tripod or place the camera on another firm support, and use high-speed film because the shutter speed at night will most likely be slow.

1. Open the LENS COVER/FLASH to raise the flash and to turn the camera ON.
2. Press the MODE-SELECTOR BUTTON repeatedly until the NIGHTTIME-VIEW INDICATOR with flash appears on the LCD PANEL.
3. Frame your picture in the VIEWFINDER EYEPIECE.
4. Press and hold the SHUTTER BUTTON for 12 seconds without lifting your finger. Note: If you remove your finger from the shutter button before 12 seconds, the shutter will time out immediately.
   
5. After 12 seconds, release the shutter button to take the picture.

Night-view without flas
In this mode, you can capture the natural existing light of city-night scenes or fireworks at night. Use a tripod or place the camera on another firm support, and use high-speed film because the shutter speed at night will most likely be slow.

1. Open the LENS COVER/FLASH to raise the flash and to turn the camera ON.
2. Press the MODE-SELECTOR BUTTON repeatedly until the NIGHTTIME-VIEW INDICATOR without flash appears on the LCD PANEL.
3. Frame your picture in the VIEWFINDER EYEPIECE.
4. Press and hold the SHUTTER BUTTON for 12 seconds without lifting your finger. Note: If you remove your finger from the shutter button before 12 seconds, the shutter will time out immediately.
   
5. After 12 seconds, release the shutter button to take the picture.

go into setup menu and turn on the smile detection. go to photo and press the right arrow should have a pict of flash icon . press until the flash says auto.

Err 99 usually means your lens contacts are dirty either on the lens itself or on the camera.

To isolate the cause of the issue, do the following: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the lens, battery, and CF card.
3. Allow the camera to sit without power for approximately 20 minutes.
4. Insert only a fully charged battery, and turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99" message appear? If so, the camera may be faulty and requires a service. If it does not, then: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Insert the CF card.
3. Turn on the camera.
4. Format the CF card in the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99" message appear? If so, then the CF card is faulty. Try a different card. If the message does not appear: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Clean the gold contacts on the lens by GENTLY rubbing them with a pencil eraser or soft cloth. Keeping the camera face pointing down, also clean the gold contacts on the camera, being careful that you do not let any debris fall into the camera body.
3. Reattach your lens.
4. Turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

If the “ERR 99" message only appears when one particular lens is attached, then that lens should be examined by a service technician.
If you see the “ERR 99" with a different Canon lens attached, then the camera is faulty and should be serviced.

My camera's shutter will not depress all the way due to a red flash light coming up all the time in the Flash-Ready indicator lamp (refer to pag 28 in the Nikon manual). It can be full sun outside but it will not work due to the red flash light coming on.

A work around is to select a flash mode of 'cancel'.
There is a button toward the front of your camera called the flash mode button. Click that until you see strike mark on the flash icon of your monitor screen (see page 32 in the Nikon manual).

The camera must have a malfunction of determining the lighting so it always thinks you need to have a flash on the picture. Of course this is not 'fixing' the flash/lighting issue but you can take typical day pictures for now with this work around.

This worked for me: I turned the ISO to 800 and set the flash to "auto" - even in quite bright light the flash still goes off so I'd definitely try this. To turn the image stabiliszer off, press the "unlock" button next to the shutter on the side of the phone.

ERR is i think an error message generated when the camera can not read the cf card ? have you had an problems with corrupted images ?

it seems that shutter blades are stucked and are not working. when you say shutter is fully open i think you are talking about the lense cover, not the internal shutter assembly. the red light is the indication of OUT OF FOCUS SUBJECT OR FLASH NOT READY. if the shutter blades aare not open the camera would not be able to do the focusing and will flash the red light thus you would not get any image. contact the repairer.

Turning the Flash Off and On: 1. With the camera in any user set, repeatedly press the Flash/ISO button on the lens barrel until the flash cancel icon (a lightning bolt in a circle with a slash through it) is displayed on the control panel and screen. 2. When finished, to return to the default setting, press the Flash/ISO button until AUTO and the lightning bolt icon are displayed on the control panel and no flash icon is displayed on the screen. If it still doesnt help: 1. Check that batteries are fresh. 2. Check that camera hasn't been set for no-flash mode. 3. Give the flash time to charge before pressing shutter.