I have finally fixed my Samsung HLS5086WX/XAA, and I think I know what caused the problem.

I’ll relate my experiences and explain my repairs and conjectures as non-technically as I can. Any DLP experts are more than welcome to correct anything I have factually incorrect.

I bought the 50″ TV in late 2005 and it was trouble-free for about a year.

The first problem it had was shutting itself off intermittently and displaying the lamp door interlock LED code. I added some foam tape to the tab on the lamp door to hold the switch down a little better and that more or less corrected the problem for about another year. In Jan 2009, we moved and the TV started acting up again. This time it was giving me a lamp trouble code. I doubted that the problem could actually be the lamp because the picture was bright and clear (when it was on), and the lamp itself has no sensors or components. It’s just a bulb, right?

I also figured this would have excluded the colorwheel, since the set performed well before it shut itself off again. This left the Lamp Ballast. I replaced that, but the problem continued. I still didn’t consider the lamp itself as a possibility, so I replaced the colorwheel (there was a little bit of scuffing on the bearing, which should spin freely). That still didn’t correct the problem. Finally, I gave in and tried replacing the lamp. That fixed it!

The only thing I could figure was that none of these three components had failed exactly, but that they had degraded to the point where the sensors were faulting out. When I replaced any one of the new components with the original (leaving the other two new parts in place), the problem came back. This appeared to support my theory.

The three key (user-replaceable) components that are involved are:

1. the lamp (just a powerful lightbulb that provides a bright white light)
2. the lamp ballast (controls power to the lamp)
3. the colorwheel (a spinning disc with colored pie-shaped sections that filters the light into the different hues)

These are all separate components, but they are all interdependent and must operate together to make the TV function properly. If any one of them starts to degrade, it can cause a cascade failure in the other two. They also appear to burn-in together. This means that they all age at the same rate, so even though there may technically be nothing wrong with two of the three components, the may read a new replacement part as a fault simply because it’s new. Keep in mind, I’m stating this in very simple terms, but that’s basically what happened with my TV.

My advice:

Do the math. This TV’s street value is only about $600 and you’ll spend almost $300 in parts to get it working again. You’re probably better off junking this 780p DLP P.O.S. and buying a new 1080p LCD.

If you do want to fix it, then order all three components at once and save on shipping. At the first sign of trouble, leave the set turned off until you’re ready to repair it. The repeated On-Off cycle in a short period of time (less than 15 mintues) will kill your lamp, ballast and probably your colorwheel’s sensor and/or air-bearings as well.  Replace all three parts and enjoy your TV for another year or two when it will likely crap out again.