Lens cover stuck open

v12mike--you rock! this did indeed fix my stuck lens cover.  to add on to your solution, i had the top half of the cover stuck shut and the bottom half stuck open.  to get the bottom half to the shut position, i covered the lens with a little piece of paper and then used tweezers (VERY gently) to ease out the inner segment (segment 2 i think by your account), and held it in place as i reset segment 1.  this did the trick!  
appreciate your help immensely....cheers!

I recently had the lens cover stick partly open.  There are 4 segments to the lens cover, and if we number them from the top, number 2 was not closing.
I gently flicked the segments a few times, in case there was a grain of dirt causing it to stick (although the camera has never been in a dirty or dusty environment).  This caused the lens cover to close fully each time, but now it would not open fully, segment 1 would not open, although it would stay open if moved by finger.
Anyway, after a bit of fiddling, I got it working properly again.  The way that the lens cover appears to work is that only segments 2 and 3 are pushed open or shut by springs, segments 1 and 4 are pushed open and shut by tiny tabs that catch on segments 2 and 3.  If the segments somehow get pushed out of alignment, then they either bind (causing the cover not to shut), or they get disconnected (causing the cover not to open fully.
Now I am not sure exactly what I did to get the mechanism form the stuck open state to the not opening state, but from there the way to fix it is to:
-With the lens open...
- Hold segment 2 in the closed position with firm finger pressure (which will tend to push it towards the lens).
- Push segment 1 towards the open position until you can see that it has cleared the edge of segment 2.
- Lift segment 2 way from the lens so that it will rub past segment 1 as you...
- Move segment 1 to the open position.
- Repeat if necessary to get the technique right.

I can't provide any guarantees, and I am not about to repeat the excercise on my camera, but it was a lot easier than sending it off for repair.

my 2 lens got stuck at lens 1 ( the bottom and largest lens) It fell on the ground with the shutter lens hitting the ground first.