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[Resist58]

I am new to the forum, so be patient with me please. My HLN617WX/XXA was purchased in 2003 and had the color wheel replaced under warranty in 2005. I got 8181 hours out of the first lamp before replacing it in 2007. Last week this lamp finally failed at 4994 hours. I installed the new lamp today, the picture is scrambled but the audio works. I shut the TV off and waited until the lamp cooling fan shut off, then unplugged the TV and re-plugged it in and turned the TV back on. The picture is still scrambled, sometimes showing vertical black and white lines, so I shut it down again. A few hours later I turned the TV on and the picture was now working. Tried turning it on again later and the screen went black, then scrambled and black again, doing this over and over. I shut the TV off and waited a while, then turning it back on and the picture was working again. Thinking back, starting about a year ago every now and then the picture would scramble like it is now and after shutting it off and unplugging the TV, then plugging it in again seemed to cure the issue. Doing that doesn't help anymore.

I believe my TV has another issue going on, maybe the DMD board or light engine? I really want to save this TV as it still displays HiDef really well, but don't want to spend $1000 to fix it. At that point I might as well buy an new TV. Any suggestions?

[Resist58]

For whatever reason the picture on this TV is working fine now, so I have no idea what is going on. I hope it lasts.

[Jason1976]

What kind of lamp did you replace it with? You may need to go under the service menu. With the tv off press mute 1 8 2 power. Reset the lamp life and you can pick the kind of lamp you have installed. Did you clean all the fans when you had it apart? There are 3 of them you have to remove the back to get to all of them.

[Resist58]

The replacement lamp was the proper one, a Philips. Only this time I just replaced the bulb and not the entire casing, like I did last time. As I said before this is the second lamp I have replaced in this TV over a 7 year period. I already reset the lamp hours, but not sure what that has to do with my current issues. Also, there is no option for the type of lamp in my service menu. And no, I didn't clean the fans because I didn't have the back of the TV off, only the one side panel for the lamp.

It's now been two days and the TV picture on this TV has been fine.

[Jason1976]

take the back pannel off and clean the fans. thats a good start. when the pic is all messed up is it on all inputs? if you push your menu button does the menu show up fine when the tv is messed up? if the menu still shows up fine then i would say it's ether a antalog board or digital board depending if it happens on what inputs. If it happens on all inputs but the menu shows up fine then i would say it was the digital board. If the menu is messed up also then i would say it's the dmd board or dmd chip. but it could just need a good cleaning so start with that.

[Resist58]

Maybe I wasn't clear in post. My TV picture is working fine now. But when it was not working, all inputs were scrambled. Initially I couldn't get to the other inputs because I couldn't see the input to pick it, due to the messed up display. But no screen was coming up right, including the service menu. At this point I am not taking off the back panels just to clean the fans, as a dusty fan does not make the display scrambled or vertical black and white lines. The issue was more than just dust on a fan.

Let me describe what I mean by a scrambled screen. There were horizontal bands of colors, like what you get when a channel doesn't come in correctly. At times there were vertical stripes in black and white. Sometimes there were pixel like blocked sections that flashed. Then the screen would go blank for a few seconds and the scrambling would continue. When I look at the rear of the TV I could see that the Lamp was lit during all this, as there was light shining through the lamp vents. And as I stated before, this used to happen every so often years ago. When it did, shutting the TV off and turning it back on didn't clear up the screen. I had to unplug the TV to get the screen to clear up. But recently doing this didn't fix the issue.

So the DMD board is under the Light Engine?

[Jason1976]

The dmd is on the back of the light engine. If faces you when you have the back off. It has a lcd chip on it and has a heatsink with a fan. if it's full of dirt it can't cool the chip and can make this issue happen. Thats why i wanted you to start by cleaning the heatsink/fan. you may have to buy a new dmd board or a new dmd chip it could be one or the other since most likely it's been over heated, or it may just need a good cleaning. If you have pets its more likely to be full of pet hair and dust. It may take care o the issue. you can price a dmd board on www.samsungparts.com and get the part numbers from them. Then you can check out discount merchant to see if they have it in stock. Also check ebay.

[Resist58]

Thanks for the info, but my picture has been fine for 3 days now. Maybe when the lamp blew it screwed with the electronics and now it has corrected itself. I will try and get inside the TV and clean it out though just as a precaution.

[Jason1976]

You wouldn't beleave the number of computers I repaired just by cleaning the fan/heatsink. People had issues of them crashing all the time. Here they were over heating. I have 2 cats and 2 dogs so I clean my tv out about once a year.

[Resist58]

What is the best way to clean the inside of my TV? A can of compressed air? I certainly don't want to blow dust on the lens or mirror.

[Crowell]

The best way (in my own experience) is to have the following tools.
1.- a can of compressed air.
2.- a small vacuum cleaner (preferably a hand held).
3.- a mouth cover.
4.- a pair of latex gloves.
5.- a Philips (cross tip) screw driver.

Instructions.

-Put mouth cover and gloves on.
- remove the entire back of the TV.
- on one hand have the compressed air can and in the other the vacuum.
-start spraying the compressed air from a 6 inch distance and at the same time vacuum al the dust that starts flying around from the same distance.

Hope this helps.

[Resist58]

Interestingly my picture quality has continued to be perfect, without cleaning the inside of my TV. So I am still confused as to why I initially had a scrambled picture after replacing the burned out lamp. Very strange.

[Crowell]

Coincidence? My advice is that you start saving for the digital board, because sooner or later the picture distortion will probably return. If it dose, now you know why. Good thing tough that its now working like a charm.

[Resist58]

Last week my color wheel shattered. I took it apart removed the broken color wheel and cleaned the internals using a can of compressed air. I ordered just the color wheel itself, reusing the color wheel base. I also ordered a replacement white/blue color wheel wire. The parts arrived today and I put the TV back together.

Now I have another problem, the video has horizontal scrambling for about 5 seconds then the screen goes black for about 2 seconds, this repeats over and over. The audio works fine, I just can't get a viewable picture. I am positive I connected all the internal wires correctly.

I am so upset right now because I feel like I just wasted $90 for the color wheel. Is this a sign that the DMD chip or board, are finally bad? I hope not because I don't want to spend more money, but want my 61" DLP TV back.

[Resist58]

So after having the TV on for about an hour, I try shutting it off with the remote and the sound mutes, but the TV stays on. I had been able to turn it on and off earlier. I can see the front panel light blink when I use the remote, so I know the TV gets the signal. I even tried using the on/off button on the side of the TV, but that didn't work either. I would hate to have unplug it and thus not allow the bulb to properly cool down prior to shutdown. But at this point the TV isn't working and may have bigger issues than what I thought. I really hadn't planned on spending thousands of dollars on a new replacement TV!

[Resist58]

Well I ended up unplugging the TV and turned it back on after about 30 minutes, now the picture is back!

The only issue I am now having is that when the screen goes black there are lighter spots, like small balls showing up on the screen. They are more concentrated in the center of the screen.

[SuefUp]

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