FixYourDLP.com Forums

Ok, I just bought this TV from someone that claimed all it needed was a color wheel but the
more I am reading about Samsung problems the more I am thinking I have been taken here.

When I went to pick it up he ran it for me. Colors looked fine to me, no strange noises.

After about 2-4 mins of it running it, it kinda pixelates and freezes and fades to black, audio still works while
this happens.

After getting it home, I ran it once without cable hooked up (just static) and was playing with the menu,
the colors of the menu seemed normal, didnt go b&w or anything, it did not pixelate this time it just shut
the picture off and because during static there is no audio.

So I took the lamp out and looked in the hole, from the looks of it the color wheel seems fine. Again there
is no grinding noise, but I didnt own this when it was operational, but the noise I do here seems normal, no
louder then my PC.

Now when I try and power it up, the lamp light blinks on the front, I see the light come on in the back
from time to time as it trys to turn on, then it eventually makes a noise like it restarts/resets the tv, goes
through the process one more time, then eventually makes the power down noise and displays green, green,
red indicators on the front which is timer, lamp, temp.

One time I hit power, the lamp lit up right away and stayed on until I shut it down but there was nothing on
the screen. This happened right after I got the 3 lights.

I took the back off. There is a tiny fan on the lamp ballast and one next to the lamp, both of these are
working. I have not located the other fan yet to see if it works.

I am starting to think it is either the DMD or Analog/Digital board.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, decided to make a video.

Even though the lamp is out, this is exactly how it acts with it in except you can here the ballast
over compensating (Clicking longer then normal) because it cannot light the lamp because it is not in.

The more I hear the color wheel whine I am wondering if it is normal.

Please let me know if you think it is just the color wheel keeping the TV from firing up.

thats not a color wheel issue. ether a dmd board or a digital board issue. I am guessng more likely the dmd board.

Thanks for the reply, I looked up the DMD board (BP96-00249A) and cannot find anything under
$500. That is a bit steep.

So I read I could find the whole light engine cheaper and looked that up (BP96-00305A) and found
a few under $200.

My main question now is do I have the right part numbers and does anyone have any experience
dealing with any of these companies so I know who not to buy from.

List of sites selling the light engine:
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&sa ... price2=200

Well, I decided to say f*** it and try and order a refurbished engine (BP96-00305A). Has a 90 day
warranty, looks easy to put in and was under $100 bucks.

Will update once I get the engine in, looks to be 5-10 days from now.

cool. Let us know how it works. Your old light engine has a color wheel and other parts in it. You may want to keep it for extra parts.

Ok, well it did fix the major issue of the TV not staying on, now that I hear
this TV in working order, the other color wheel is much louder so that may
still have been a issue on the other light engine as well. Oh well, got this
cheaper then a color wheel.

But now I have a new problem, there is a discoloration on the screen. I do
not remember this being there with the other light engine the few times I
got the tv to boot w/ it.

Just curious if anyone has seen this and can point me on how to fix it. Also
does standard def/yellow rca cable always look as bad as when I hook up the
360 with it? Has all these lines going through the screen constantly. My LCD
does not do that with standard def inputs. I dunno if you can make out what
I am talking about, the 2nd video, the 360 is hooked up in SD mode.

Discoloration/Distortion?:


SD(Can also see distortion):

Kinda sucks there is only 1 guy on here that attempts to help, more need to contribute.

Thats the only reason I am posting to add something of value.

I figured out the distortion problem from the video above. Apparently "refurbished"
does not mean the same to the company I bought the light engine from as it does to me.

This one must have had an exploded/shattered color wheel previously, opened up the
compartment and there were color wheel fragments all over the place. At the end there
is a lens, and there was a thread dangling in front of it causing the distortion.

So cleaned it all out, tossed it back in and have a crystal clear image again.

Except with Standard def video, still has those horrible lines.