Battteries depleted messageon Pentax Espio E40, even though have tried brand new batteries.

HI. this seems to be a battery scanning fault in the programming. try to reset the board by pulling the battery and removing all power of 30 minutes. completely drain all power from this unit for 30 minutes. if this message continues after you have rest the programming, this will confirm a serious fault within the internal program. you will have to send this device back to a pentax repair terminal for reprogramming.

Hi there - I just experienced this problem with a Pentax Optio S30 (it appears to be pretty common). The fix I discovered (that works), is to insert your batteries (make sure they're fresh), and then press and hold the "on" button plus "Menu" button, together at the same time. Hold until the firmware resets (a message will pop up on screen and the camera will reset). Voila! It works again for as long as the batteries are in and operational. Also note that in my case, if the batteries are taken out, I have to go thru the reset process again, but at least I have the camera back up and running. Hope this helps others!!