I have a SONY DSC-P72 digital camera. The camera lens will not open.
It makes a grinding noise when I turn the camera on. It appears that
this is a common problem with this model. My question is: can you find
directions for taking the camera apart and fixing the problem? I would
like to try and fix the camera on my own before throwing it away. It
seems to be more economical to buy a new one rather than having it
sent in to be repaired.

Hi - I had a camera go wrong like this myself after a holiday on a
sandy beach. There was also a E120? code that flashes on the screen as
well as the grinding noise but the camera still worked. I claimed a
repair on the insurance but after a few days at the repair shop they
informed me that it was a non repairable fault and sent the old one
back to me. I recieved a new camera shortly afterwards but as the
original camera was no longer on sale the replacement camera is much
better.

So I have a working spare camera that makes a grinding sound and a
brand new upgrade camera.

As a further twist I tried to claim on my holiday insurance but that
only covered £250 and the replacement cost £280 so I had to claim on
the house insurance.

Shortly after this incident I heard of some other Sonys at work that
developed this fault and were sent back to the manufacturer.

Hope this helps SA