I took the ****** apart and found two spring-loaded black triangular plastic pieces poking out of two rectangular chips about 2mm square, just below the circular piece on the outside of the camera that changes mode – play, video, camera. Actually I found one of the above, because the second triangular piece was stuck in the closed position. A bit of jiggling and voila the problem was fixed.
That was the good news. The other news is that I must now reinsert inside of the shell a black circular piece of plastic that affixes to the rotating circular piece on the outside of the camera that changes the mode. When properly attached this circular piece manipulates the triangular pieces to change the mode.
I think that the likelihood of getting this piece properly aligned and affixed so that it moves the triangular pieces properly when the mode knob is rotated falls into the statistical probability range of pork taking wing. But worth a try.