Samsung HLP6163 DLP HDTV - Power on issues

[Orion777]

I own a Samsung HLP6163WX/XAA DLP HDTV. Two months ago, I replaced the color wheel and the lamp. Colors are good. Brightness is good.

But when I'd turn it on, it would always make a strange high-pitched noise several times before it would turn on. This noise sounds just like some weird noise you'd hear in a cartoon when a bomb is falling just before it splats to the ground... I just don't know how else to explain it. Like an electronic sounding "whistle" of some sort that gradually decreases in pitch... and once it gets low in pitch, it starts all over again from a high pitch gradually lowering, and does that several times. It doesn't sound like something spinning up - it decreases in pitch, so I don't have reason to believe it's the color wheel. And the fans work just fine and are silent.

Now in addition to that high-pitched noise, the TV also clicks several times and takes a LONG time to turn on. But once the TV turns on, it stays on and doesn't turn off until I turn it off.

Today it took over two hours for it to come on. I'd power it on, it would click a lot, make the high-pitched noise over and over, and after a short while, it would do nothing (no picture) and the three lights on the power button on the front of the TV would blink. Then I'd power it on and bla bla bla, go through the same process. I did this almost a dozen times and FINALLY, the TV came on. Color and brightness are still good.

But on rare occasion (only maybe three times in two months or more), just after the TV does finally come on, I'd notice a very slight flickering in the screen with the color not looking right - as though the color wheel was slowing down below proper speed for just a second or two and then spinning back up to normal speed where all is well. I just saw it again today, but at the time of this post, I've had the TV on for quite a while and all looks great.

Do I need to replace the ballast? It's almost as though it may be a power problem or power irregularity of some sort, but I'm not sure.

As I stated before, once the TV comes on, it stays on and won't turn off (on its own) unless I turn it off myself. There are times I've kept it on all night just so I wouldn't have to go through the same process the next day that I mentioned above. And the whole time it's on, everything looks great as I've mentioned above. Because of this, I don't believe the problem is the color wheel or the lamp, otherwise, the TV wouldn't power on at all, and color and brightness wouldn't consistently look great for long periods of time, and wouldn't have over the last two months or so.

I'm thinking either ballast or power supply. But between the two, my instinct doesn't tell me power supply, otherwise, I'd think the TV wouldn't power on at all even though it takes a long time to do so now... so I'm thinking ballast. But then again, I'm no expert.

And I don't see anything else to pay attention to on the lamp. It's a bulb in a simple plastic and metal "cage" or shell that just slid in real easy and was held in place by one screw.

I don't know what else to add here.

Any ideas?