Trouble with hot shoe

[shuet]

Hi everybody !

it's my first message here, but I think I went over a great deal of users post, but I've not found anyone experiencing the same kind of trouble as me :

Sometimes, my G3 seems to detect an (absent) external flash and de-activate the built-in one. I must touch the connector, sometimes several times to establish some kind of electrical contact, whih sometimes re-activate the built-in flash.

Can anyone help me to solve this great problem which occurs each time I want to take indoor photos with flash ?

Thanks a lot !

Steven

[LaiLai]

I am experiencing the same problem, which ultimately I am sending it in for repairs. Everytime I took off my 420ex the internal flash still wasn't activated. What the problem is the little 'lip' that is folded down (on the left side of the closest contact or dot to the lcd screen) If you look at it carefully, it kind of looks like it is bent down, all I did was stick a small flat head screw driver (the small ones intended for reading glasses or what not) in that space and lifted up slightly and gently. I don't have as many problems with it as I did ever since. The other reason it is going in is because I have a small 'smudge' somewhere on the inside of the lens, I have no idea how it got there, I cleaned off the exterior part of the lens and it is still there, it is only noticeable when the area around the 'smudge' is light for example sky shots. I have posted the 'smudge' in question. Hope I helped with your flash problem!
Lai Lai
http://thumbs.deviantart.com/300W-96A096/large/photography/photosky/problem.jpg