Troubleshooting with Nikon D3000? - 1

I'm a beginner in photography and am having trouble shooting. My pictures won't take, and I don't know what's wrong. My camera will focus but will not shoot. Depending on what I'm shooting, they will take. It seems that it will shoot darker areas rather well-lit areas, like near a window. It says to use a flash, but I turn on the flash and they still will not take. What's wrong?

Added (1). EDIT:
I only use the P, S, A, M modes, and it still tells me to use flash.
My ISO is set on 100.
Max ISO is 800.
I'm using the kit lens 18-55 mm lens.

It seems that I have everything set correctly, doesn't it? Any other advice?

Check your shutter speed when using flash. If it's faster than the max sync speed of the camera- which is 1/200th of a second- it won't be able to fire its flash. To lower the shutter speed when using flash, use a lower ISO setting, like ISO 100. If you're not in any of the auto modes, set a faster shutter speed or a smaller aperture setting.

My suggestion is to move out of the auto or scene modes and use the P, A, S, or M modes instead so that the camera won't tell you to use flash; and not fire if you don't.

I would get into the menu and find the default restore, or whatever it is called, and set the camera to default, original settings, somewhere along the line something got switched. Put the shutter back in auto mode, and see what happens. THen you can make your changes from there.

First, try different scene modes and let the camera automatically try to resolve the problem.

Next, reduce your ISO setting; if it's a dark area, perhaps try an ISO of around 600-1200 or so without the flash. When using the flash, lower the ISO to 100-300.

Also, what lens are you using? If you are trying to use auto-focus using the D3000 and the lens doesn't have auto-focus, you will not be able to shoot. The D3000 doesn't have auto-focus on the body and relies on the lens to do that. If you have the kit lens 18-55mm, you should be fine.

Finally, regarding your previous question about soulmates… I'd love that talk about that with you!