Casio Exilim EX-Z40 problem

[johngfoster]

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