My canon powershot a430 displays the message "lens error restart camera" when i turn it on. what can i do to fix it as i have had it for 3 years now and i think it is out of warrenty?

SOURCE: Canon PowerShot SD630 LENS WONT CLOSE,LENS ERROR RESTART CAMERA

I have the same problem. How do you restart the camera. I have pulled the battery and SD card, but can't get to a menu screen to restart to camera.

SOURCE: canon PowerShot A430 won´t start

get a bucket full of water, with a little bit of dreft. gently wash your camera; if this does not work, call thomas the camera-repair guy: he has 5 years of online-camera-repair-experience.

CameraR

• 4738 Answers
• Posted on Jun 28, 2009

SOURCE: Lens error, restart camera

Lens errors are fairly common. Usually it's sand or grit interfering with the lens extension mechanism. Or the camera's been dropped with the lens extended. Or the camera has been powered on, but the lens had been blocked preventing its extension. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended ...

Here's some things that you can do to try to correct it. They only seem to work for less than 50% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty, they're worth a try:

http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html

SOURCE: canon powershot A590 displayes lens error, restart camera.

I had this problem. Nothing was lodged between the body and lens, restarting multiple times did nothing, cleaning, torquing, twisting over several days - nothing.

So, figuring "what could it hurt?" I just smacked it on the heel of my hand a couple times. Now it works.

firm percussive maintenance saves the day once again.

SOURCE: Canon PowerShot A720 IS - "Lens error, restart camera".

This is probably THE most common failure among digital cameras. There's a halfway chance of fixing it yourself, described here:
http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html