I was afraid that my trusty Canon S50 (7 yrs old this April!) died today, but was able to fix the dreaded E18 problem with suggested repair tip
#3 "Another method is to tap the padded USB cover part on a hard surface, for example, a desk. It sounds so simple, but very often in works." o_0 I did follow up with a healthy dose of repair tip #2, compressed air.
This was the
camera I got right before our group trip to New Orleans in April 2003, so I would've been really sad if I didn't fix it.