Sony Cybershot DSC-T7

I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-T7. My camera has been very good in the past, but recently it started flashing E:61:00 and became very blurry to the point where you couldn't take pictures or do anything with it pretty much. I googled the problem, and other people have had the same problem with the same camera. They suggested giving it a smack on your hand, so I tried that and the error message went away and everything seemed fine. The next time I turned on the camera it said "LENS COVER CLOSED" when it was clearly open. How can I fix this?