Same here as above. it won't switch off. sometimes goes off for 15 secs or so and thend turns on again. switches bact to Pb mode even in camera mode which renders camera not usable. any help apreciated

sounds like a bad crank position sensor

Hi unplug machine and leave for ten mins this sometimes clears any faults on the computer.

Your batteries are too low.
When you switch on the camera, the lense go in. Then lense comes out fully. Then, if the batteries are low, lense goes in and camera turns off.
But if the batteries are too low, camera turns off before the lense retracts or even before the lense comes out fully.

I have the same problem. A workaround may be to take the tape out, turn on again, swith to "card P.B." mode, load tape in while in this mode, switch back to camera mode.
This seemed to solve it (temporarily?) for my NV-DS38.

Had the same problem twice. once solved it by taking out the battery.
This didnt work the next time it happened. but i could access the camera mode. reorded a short movie clip and problem was gone.

i know these cameras very well and if this unit is displaying switch off and then on again only in camera mode then you definetly have a lens fault. if it has been dropped or knocked hard then a qualified technicain is going to have to have a look at it.

This means you need to get it serviced, because it has detected a fault or error.

WARNING!!
This CF card cannot be read

I'm having a similar problem with a DSC S60: The camera will turn on in preview mode, but powers off as soon as I switch into STILL or VIDEO mode. I've changed batteries, done the full reset (remove the batteries and then hold the power button down for 15 secs.), and initialized all setting to factory defaults from the menu, and still get the same behaviour.

HI, are you sure that there is no conversion lens setting activated in the setup menu? It sounds like that to me. These modes limit the ranges. I hope it will help, otherwise you will have to bring it back.