Broken Sensor?

As some of you know, I have been contemplating upgrading from my Fuji Film Finepix J50. D-SLR in Focus, guest series. WELL, I am really sad to say, that now I don’t have much option because it suddenly stopped working whilst I was on Hol’s. It is only one year old (I think) and I did want to keep it as a purse camera. When I shoot a picture it lets so much light in that the final image is white. I did ask at my local Jessops and they suggested it might be the sensor. How annoying, especially seeing as the Fuji we bought 10 years ago is still going strong.