Well...here's what happens...

That is interesting that you said that...I just tried exactly that, connected the camera via USB without any SD card inserted. The camera connects to my Mac and I can "see" the contents of the memory -- the two photos I had stored in internal memory and a UNIX executable file that I assume is the firmware (it is a locked file). When I plugged up the camera, I was encouraged that it forced me to reset the time and date immediately.

However, as soon as I inserted an SD card and rebooted the camera, it still shows "DON'T FORMAT" in REC mode and "01046 03837" in PLAY mode. Still virtually useless.

Any other ideas before I throw in the towel and get it repaired??