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Hello Forum members. Need your help on deciding which part to purchase to fix my TV. Father gave me TV after he replaced the lamp. He said it worked great for 3 weeks. One day picture looked bad when flipping channels. Found example on this forum of what we are seeing (see attachment). Our TV pic does not look that bad but best example I could find. Hard to explain in words.
(1) I have removed back panel and cleaned TV.
(2) Checked lamp, it appears normal.
(3) Held rear door switch and watched color wheel run, and it does not appear to be broken. I don’t hear any funning noises. I did once hear a sound that reminded me of two speaker wires touching and making that cracking sound.
(4) I did the service menu trick and ran the dmd test or whatever you call it and all the colors and shapes appeared normal. (5) The TV will start, picture looks bad, if you shut down the TV you will have to wait for several minutes or hours before the TV will turn on. Runs the 3 cycles, lamp will not fire and shuts down.
What is really strange is the TV sat for 2 months before I tried it the first time. For the first 8 hours or so it looked fantastic on HD and PS3. Not until I turned it off and watched TV later that night did I notice the strange colors.
Anyway, I can’t determine if I should purchase a new lamp, color wheel, DMD board or ballast. If it’s the Light Engine then we will trash it. Hate to do that. Oh one test I have not done is plug in a device that uses something other than the component cables. My guess is they will do the same but plan to test so I can rule out the digital board. Any suggestions on what part your would buy first?? Thanks in advance for your help!

When the picture gets like that will the tv turn off? I justchanged mycolor wheel and now minehas done something like this 3 times and it won't turn off when it happens. It kinda looks like a drawing or a cartoon like the HD shading what ever is F-ed up but I don't know what it is so if you find out else where please let me know

I replaced the color wheel on Friday and it runs great! Looks like a new TV. Part was $100, very easy to install. TV repair place wanted to replace the entire light engine board for $700. Glad I did not listen and fixed myself!

jmchaney wrote:(3) Held rear door switch and watched color wheel run, and it does not appear to be broken. I don’t hear any funning noises. I did once hear a sound that reminded me of two speaker wires touching and making that cracking sound.

jmchaney wrote:I replaced the color wheel on Friday and it runs great! Looks like a new TV. Part was $100, very easy to install. TV repair place wanted to replace the entire light engine board for $700. Glad I did not listen and fixed myself!

JMChaney,

Thanks so much with reporting back the solution to your problem. What was your reasoning for starting with the color wheel? Cost?

Your symptoms sound very similar to those present on my Samsung HLR6168WX/XAA set. The picture reminds me of the look when a computer monitor set to display 256 colors and attempts to display a full color pictures. My first thought was a bad color wheel since mine is over 3 years old, but like yours there is no noise or vibration. The set had been off for a week or so prior to switching it on and noticing this. The issue is less noticable with HD feeds but noticable on all sources. Until I read your post I was resigned to replacing the video boards or the whole set, but now I think I will start with the color wheel and move on to the boards if it is still an issue.

Thanks again for the info. ...Mark

Happy for you sad for me I just replaced mine and right after I did is when mine started doing this it is doing it more and it's random and when I turn the power of the sound stops but the pic won't turn off I have to unplug if yours starts acting up pet me know