Canon A510 recovery time?

Hello everyone,
I am new to this site, so I hope someone can help me. My Dad has a Canon A510. We are having a problem, because when he takes a picture, it displays for 3 secs. then the display goes dark for about 5 seconds, while the orange light flashes next to the viewfinder. I have been trying for days to get it not to do that. I have checked all of the settings, I even reset the defaults, and I can't get it to work. I hope I haven't left out any details of the problem. Thank you in advance for your help.