FixYourDLP.com Forums

Hi,

First off, great site, been reading posts for a couple hours, lots of great info.

So a couple of months ago, my TV started to dim badly, so I replaced the lamp with one that I had bought a couple year ago online. Everything was fine until today when my wife went to turn the TV on... and no picture.

I put back the old "dimmed" lamp back in hopes of watching the TV for another day, while my new lamp arrives from DM, and still no picture.

What happens is that I hear the normal click at power up, the green lamp LED flashes for 15 sec, then another click (it powers off), and the red standby/temp led comes on. It then performs that cycle one more time by itself then shuts off for good (until the next time I try to power it on).

The part that's bothering me is I don't hear the normal whining of the color wheel spinning up when I hit the power button (plus the fact that the original dim bulb isn't working). From what I read on this site, sometimes the color wheel not spinning can look like a bad bulb... or even the ballast being bad.

So, a few questions from this newbie... Does the color wheel spin up even if the lamp doesn't light? Is there any way to see if the color wheel is spinning? Or am I just freaking out, and should wait for the new bulb to arrive before losing any sleep?

Thanks

Hi DomP.

The color wheel starts spinning before the ballast try to turn the Lamp ON, so you might have a problem with the color wheel, however I'd wait for the new bulb before making conclusions. If you want to check it physically you can use this replacement guide: http://guides.fixyourdlp.com/samsung/bp96-01579a.php. If the color wheel is fine and the new bulb doesn't solve your issue then try with the ballast.

Hope this helps.

//New lamp or ballast or color wheel?

Try the next troubleshooting list:

//Check the background of the TV
If your TV is more than 2 years old
If you haven't changed the lamp before
If the TV is on for about 4 or 5 hours per day
Then it sounds more like the lamp

//Check for lamp symptoms
If you get a dimmer picture (Lamp symptom)
If you heard a loud popping sound (Lamp symptom)
If your TV shuts off after a couple of minutes (Lamp symptom)
So if you get any of the previous symptoms then it is most likely the lamp

//You can also take the lamp out of the TV and if you see:
Black lines or black dots around the center of the lamp
A fog stain in the front glass of the bulb
If the "glass" filament shattered...
You'll need a new bulb

//Check for other symptoms

If you hear or see any one of the following symptoms, then the lamp is not the problem:

If you hear a buzzing, humming or rapid clicking noises (Ballast symptoms)
If you hear any winding, whirling or screeching noise (Color Wheel symptoms)
If there is any vibrations in the TV (Color Wheel symptoms)
If you get poor color, under saturated or over saturated (Color Wheel symptoms)
If the picture is in black & white (Color Wheel symptoms)
If the picture is intermittently in color and black & white (Color Wheel symptoms)
If the picture is showing the wrong color like the skin tones are pink or green (Color Wheel symptoms)
If you get green vertical bars or green dots in the picture but not in the menu screen (Digital board symptom)
If you get green vertical bars or green dots in the picture and in the menu screen (DMD symptom)
If the picture freezes up (DMD Board)
If you get White or black dots all over the screen (DMD symptom)
If you get a pixilated picture (DMD Board)

//Here you'll learn more on the anatomy of the lamp: http://www.discount-merchant.com/how-dl ... a/141.html

//You can learn more on DLP technology at: http://www.howstuffworks.com/dlp.htm

Thanks all, very useful information.

Well I put in the new bulb and... nada.

Basically I hear nothing but the sound of a relay click when I hit the power button and also there's a cooling fan running. No normal spin up of the color wheel, etc.

Based on all your info, It doesn't sound like the ballast... I'm guessing the color wheel? I suppose I need start pulling things apart.

Dom