Casio Exilim EX-Z40 problem

Sorry if this has been posted before--I'm a noob here. I recently bought this camera (casio exilim ex-z40) from...a pawn shop, for $35. No battery, memory card or docking station--only the camera itself. As such I was unable to assess whether it worked prior to purchasing it--a bit of a gamble I know, but for $35 I thought it was worth it. On careful inspection there is a dent on the front upper right corner near the shutter release. For another $70 I purchaced a rapid charger ($40) and a Maxell battery ($30). Now it works--sort of. It will take pictures just fine, even without a memory card.

The problem is that when I press the green play button to view my pictures, the little green light next to the optical viewfinder flashes once, then 3 times and the camera shuts off. When I first got it, it would work, and I could view the pics just fine, edit them, etc. Then it started intermittently acting up like this and now won't view the pics at all. I can still scroll through the pics in the startup menu so they are still there, but the play feature doesn't seem to work. Anyone else have this problem and any ideas on how to fix it? I downloaded the owners manual and read the trouble shooting section, but this doesn't address this problem. I have not dropped it or allowed it to sustain any trauma while I have owned it.

TIA,

John

John-
It does sound like too good of a deal to pass up. Even if the camera doesn't work perfectly, if you can shoot and then get the images to your computer, I think you did good. That leads me to my next point - did you buy a memory card for it? If you have one, try transferring the images to your computer to see if they're ok. It may be that there is some damage to the camera. But as long as you can transfer the images, and they're ok, then you've got yourself a good camera, for a great price. If you don't have a memory card yet, go buy a cheap one - or borrow one - and get a card reader so that you can transfer the photos to your computer.

Sorry I don't have any direct experience with that camera. I have used the EX-S500 and the EX-Z750, but never had a problem like you're describing. Hopefully, even if the playback doesn't work very well, the camera shoots and saves photos correctly. If so, I think you should be happy. You can always try calling Casio customer service, too.