FixYourDLP.com Forums

I have read alot of the forum on issues with Samsung DLPs, but to this point I have not found my exact symptoms. SO I will try to explain them here and hope for some good suggestions.

I bought the TV about 4 years ago, I think Feb of 05. About 2.5 years into it, I started noticing what I thought was dimness in the picture so I bought a new bulb, replaced it with not real noticeable difference (the point of that is that I have 2 bulbs that have both worked for my and still have up to last week).

A few months ago we started having issues were the TV would not turn on at all, if we unplugged it and let is sit for a minute or 2, it would turn on after plugging it back in. After a few weeks of that, it turned into the 'cable' setting was showing the famous green bars across the screen so the image was unrecognizable. We would leave the TV unplugged while we were not using it and that seemed to fix the issue. Some times it wouldn’t and I would swap out the bulb and that usually fixed it for a while.
Last week we tried to turn on the TV and nothing swapped out the bulbs and still nothing. Here is what I get:
-Plug in the TV
- I hear a click (not a pop like something bad but like a light bulb warming up) and a hear something winding up, (I am assuming the color wheel) it is not loud like other have described but noticeable when the room is quiet.
-I have taken the cover off the back where the bulb is and can clearly see the bulb is on.
-On the front panel, I see the 'Lamp' light only flashing about once every 2-3 seconds for about a minute and then it shuts down, and goes back to 'standby/temp'
-Without taking the light engine out I can see there are 2 fans that are running. I took a room fan back there and turned it on to see if that would help...nothing.

So from what I have read, the order of operations is, the color wheel starts up, then the ballast turns on the bulb. So if my bulb turns on, it is not one of those three parts? What are my other possibilities?
Please help, Thanks in advance.

Hi lazorbeam.

If you can see the bulb is on, but you have no picture at all, then most probably the problem is with the DMD board, it should redirect the light to the screen if everything is ok.

Another possibility is that DMD board could be detecting a problem somewhere, maybe the color wheel starts failing after the bulb is ON. I cannot be sure, however at this point it's preferable to discard any problem even when it's not logic, so take the color wheel out and check if it has any damage.

If the color wheel is not the problem then the DMD board is the most probable failing part.

Hope this helps

I finally got a chance to check out the color wheel, it looks to be in tact and spins freely.
Do you have any suggestions to verify if it is the DMD board?

Kevin

Actually there is a way to know if the DMD board is malfunctioning when you have picture issues, but in your case the TV turns Off immediately. So the problem is going to be with one of the components of the board, and it's a complex task.

I purchased a replacement DMD board from DM. When I put it in and got everything back together, (I hope I did it right), still the same end result, no picture.There are some minor differences. I get a very faint light on the screen. I won't call it an image, it kinda looks like blue fire, spread across the entire screen. This goes on for about 2-3 minutes and then the TV turns off.

The bulb turn on and and color whell is spinning (quietly) If I have the light engine not secured into the TV I can see that there is light coming out, (the source of the 'fire image'). It is not very bright.

Any suggestions?

I read the article on the front page about the 'foil ball' idea. I am hesitant to try that because a purchased a new DMD board, but am thinking about it, with the old DMD board.

Lazorbeam