Things your mother won't tell you: Hitting things solves problems

So Katie and I have this great digital camera: a Sony DSC-S40. We took it to Europe with us and took a ton of pictures, and continued to use it as much afterward. In fact, almost every picture on our flickr account was taken with this Sony camera. So, you can imagine our dismay when the LCD screen just went blank--pure white as soon as you turn it on--when we were on our trip to Charleston last weekend. So, today I was surfing around Sony's troubleshooting website, which was most unhelpful. Most of the hints told you to dig around in the menus to reset certain parameters. I can't see the darn screen, so how in the world is that advice helpful?!

Google to the rescue! I found a discussion group in which MANY, MANY people had faced the LCD "white screen of death." A certain man named Bob from Allentown, PA had posted a "quick fix" for which most of the respondents were professing eternal thanks, since it fixed their camera at no cost to them. I was skeptical at first, but so MANY people claimed that it worked, that I decided to give it a try. Here's the text from the website:

"I fixed the camera myself as follows:

1. Hold camera firmly in left hand
2. Smartly rap front of camera with knuckles of right hand on the 'Cyber-shot' logo.

It worked, now the LCD is working again for free.

Guess I don't need to pay Sony $111.00 for repair service."


Sounds crazy, but I tried it. HOLY CRAP, IT WORKED!! So our camera is back to normal and I only had to hit it to fix it. Apparently, Sony customer service knows about this "quick fix" but understandably does not share it with angry customers. What self-respecting company would advocate violent, but corrective, abuse (at no cost to the customer) to fix its products?

I wonder if fixing children's behavior problems will be that straightforward? Hmmm....