Lamp Fail

[psychofire]

i have an optoma hd80 and love it....till fairly recently its began randomly turning off and having the lamp fail light go on. and it will sit like that for several hours if left alone ( i don't know how long i got bored after like 3 hours) but if i unplug it re plug it and turn it on it works again. thats how it started then it would randomly do that then stay on for a bit and fail again. and after a couple times unplugging and replugging and turning it back on it works fine for...well tell im done using it. and its just gotten progressively worse so half the time it works fine the other half of the time its saying lamp fail.

its fairly knew, the lamps not dead or at least the lamp dying message majigger aint going off, not over heating just failing.

my conclusion.

i = boned x 2.

anyone familiar with this dookie? or perhaps someone would mail me a cookie.

[psychofire]

anyone know a site that might have insight into this problem. or know how to fix it cause im thinking my only choice is to replace the lampular device.

[Ben]

www.projectorcentral.com has a replacement lamp locator section that will lead you to online resellers of projector lamps. Check it out.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by psychofire

anyone know a site that might have insight into this problem. or know how to fix it cause im thinking my only choice is to replace the lampular device.

I'm just curious. By that you mean the lamp or the light engine?

[psychofire]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

I'm just curious. By that you mean the lamp or the light engine?

itd be nice if i knew. all i know is it shuts off mid use and the handy lamp light goes on so i looked up in the manual and it means lamp fail.

doesnt offer a solution or what i should do or what that means to me. just
oh that means the lamp failed.


i checked the lamp hours and its at like 1279 or so and its rated for 2000 hours in full power.

and when i unplug it replug it and turn it back on it runs like normal till it fails again.

[guitarist155]

yep sounds like your bulb failed to me, just because it is rated for that many hours does not mean it will get that many and that amount is getting close enough i would say its the bulb

[psychofire]

Originally Posted by guitarist155

yep sounds like your bulb failed to me, just because it is rated for that many hours does not mean it will get that many and that amount is getting close enough i would say its the bulb

but would it work after unpluging it and re pluging it?

[guitarist155]

Originally Posted by psychofire

but would it work after unpluging it and re pluging it?

yeah it probably has a safe mode after it has done so many hours it will tell it the bulb need replacement i know some people have over used the bulb and had it blow up inside the projector. but i can't say for sure. if you can, i know my projector has a reset lamp hours setting where you can tell it you have a new bulb i would try this and if it works i would change the bulb soon after

[psychofire]

Originally Posted by guitarist155

yeah it probably has a safe mode after it has done so many hours it will tell it the bulb need replacement i know some people have over used the bulb and had it blow up inside the projector. but i can't say for sure. if you can, i know my projector has a reset lamp hours setting where you can tell it you have a new bulb i would try this and if it works i would change the bulb soon after

well im having a guy i know who runs a hdtv store in my area order me a new lamp which i should get next friday. so ill try reseting the counter.


my projector should have a message that pops up saying the lamp is nearing the end of its life cycle but no such message has been see. so ill try reseting it and see what happens.

[psychofire]

just tried it.


you bastard guitarist155 my entire house esploded. no. jk.

but it failed just like usual. so no difference but it had 1309 hours on it is that a normal lifespan?

and gvortex7 said something about light engine or lamp. how could i tell which it was...and what would that mean or....hmmm this is my first projector so im still sorta new to it all.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by psychofire

just tried it.


you bastard guitarist155 my entire house esploded. no. jk.

but it failed just like usual. so no difference but it had 1309 hours on it is that a normal lifespan?

and gvortex7 said something about light engine or lamp. how could i tell which it was...and what would that mean or....hmmm this is my first projector so im still sorta new to it all.

If your light engine failed, then you'd most likely see a distorted or discolored image of some sort. On the other hand, if you your lamp failed, then you'd have no image at all. Just a big black screen.

[DavePS3]

There are two reasons for lamp fail... the obvious one is that the lamp is indeed bad. All projo manufacturers warranty lamps for 90 days because they are after all, just light bulbs. One can last years... or seconds. You never know. Osram and Phillips make most of the lamps for DLP projos and one is not really any better than the other but make sure you get the correct lamp for the unit. There'll be quite a few that will fit but only one is made for that unit and there are reasons for that.

The other reason you'll get lamp fail is because of a bad PCB (power board). The formatter board could be bad as well but it's failing is not as common as the PCB. Ther fact that the lamp does come on periodically and then shuts down suggests the PCB. Usually, if the lamp is bad, it simply wont fire up at all. If it powers up and then down after a time and can do it every time you turn it on, it's likely the PCB. That's not major surgery but will require a tech to do it.
The most common reasons why lamps have short life spans are: too many power ups and downs in an average day. If you turn it off for a hour or two then turn it back on, it's better to actually leave it on during that hour or two. The other reason is heat. If the unit can't breathe right, it'll fry the lamp. Get a UPS hooked up to the unit so tht if you have a power failure, you can shut off the lamp and let the fan cool it down rather than let it cook which drags the life down massively. Hope that helps you a bit.

[guitarist155]

i would say it is probably your lamp, ether that or the thing that tells you its the lamp but with that many hours i would say there is a good chance the the bulb has failed prematurely

[psychofire]

thanks for the info DavePS3 ill try replacing the lamp and if that dont work theres a shop that repairs projectors in seattle i hear so if its still screwed up after the lamp change ill seek them out. yeah i turned mine on and off alot.


and here i thought i was saving hours. psh.

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

There are two reasons for lamp fail... the obvious one is that the lamp is indeed bad. All projo manufacturers warranty lamps for 90 days because they are after all, just light bulbs. One can last years... or seconds. You never know. Osram and Phillips make most of the lamps for DLP projos and one is not really any better than the other but make sure you get the correct lamp for the unit. There'll be quite a few that will fit but only one is made for that unit and there are reasons for that.

The other reason you'll get lamp fail is because of a bad PCB (power board). The formatter board could be bad as well but it's failing is not as common as the PCB. Ther fact that the lamp does come on periodically and then shuts down suggests the PCB. Usually, if the lamp is bad, it simply wont fire up at all. If it powers up and then down after a time and can do it every time you turn it on, it's likely the PCB. That's not major surgery but will require a tech to do it.
The most common reasons why lamps have short life spans are: too many power ups and downs in an average day. If you turn it off for a hour or two then turn it back on, it's better to actually leave it on during that hour or two. The other reason is heat. If the unit can't breathe right, it'll fry the lamp. Get a UPS hooked up to the unit so tht if you have a power failure, you can shut off the lamp and let the fan cool it down rather than let it cook which drags the life down massively. Hope that helps you a bit.

Very good explanation.

I wish to add that the projector cooling system is used to cool down the electronics that surrounds the lamp in addition to cooling the lamp itself. When lamp is switched off, the heat stored in the lamp/holder dissipates into the relatively cooler surrounding areas and heats up surrounding electronics. This will lead to premature failure of these components if the cooling system does not continue after switching off the lamp unit. So it is very important for the cooling system to continue after the project is powered down.

[psychofire]

So I've gotten my new bulb after what seems a life time with no screen.

I had started watcing on my old 17'' screen. Went from 100'' to 17''.

Lots of squinting lol.

Anyways new bulbs in works just fine again.

Though now I've got a new issue. I think its a hair in my projector.


I'm pretty sure its a hair or something that was in there when I put the new bulb in but figured I'd see if anyone could identify it as something else before i went and opened it up to clean it.

I've cleaned the lens. Its across all inputs and its not on the screen.

[psychofire]

so i took my projector down, took off the mount pulled out the new bulb looked for any hairs or anything cleaned them put it all back together. and back up.

aaaand that lil freakin thing whatever it is is still there. it wasnt always there so how did it get there.
and how do i get rid of it more importantly.

any ideas? thanks either way.

[WriteSimply]

Follow the light path. The hair may not just be at the bulb or at the front of the lens. It could be in front of the DLP chip or the prism/mirror.


fuad

[psychofire]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Follow the light path. The hair may not just be at the bulb or at the front of the lens. It could be in front of the DLP chip or the prism/mirror.


fuad

that sounds like the right thing to do.

but how do i do that without disassembling it completely?

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by psychofire

that sounds like the right thing to do.

but how do i do that without disassembling it completely?

Obviously you created the problem when you had to install the new bulb. :P Try either a USB vacuum cleaner, like the one for laptops and computers, or a compressed air canister that can dislodge the hair from the light path. If that doesn't work, off to Optoma it has to go.


fuad