does not take photos.

Hi,

Try leaving a fully charged main camera battery in the camera for about 4-5 hours before you attempt to turn it on and see what happens.

I suggest this as usually with cameras (and computers) there is a set date and time message shown when the device's settings' backup battery has either gone flat, in the case of a coin cell battery or has failed, in the case of a capacitor which is used instead of a coin cell battery.

I do not know what type of backup device is used in your camera. I suspect that you have a capacitor in your model as all that the user guide p.18 states is that the date/time battery takes about 4 hours to charge, (and you cannot charge coin cell batteries).

If trying this still doesn't resolve the problem it may be that the settings have become corrupted and are being held by the back up capacitor.

You have 2 options to possibly resolve this.

1. Remove the main camera battery and then press and hold the on/off button or shutter release button for a few or more minutes to hopefully completely discharge the backup battery, in the hope that the settings will be restored to their default state. Then reinsert the main battery and see what happens.

2. Remove the main battery and disassemble the camera to gain access to the motherboard where I think the capacitor is located, so that it can be replaced.

Here is the Ifixit motherboard repair guide for the camera. Unfortunately it doesn't show the capacitor in any of the images. It could be on the other side of the motherboard as most cameras have double sided boards. It should be easy to identify as it will be one of the larger components on the board and may even look like a coin cell battery with leads attached.

Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS Motherboard