Anyone ever have a projector bulb go out?

[Serren]

Yesterday on my Optoma HD70, the colors on the image started going all funky, with all colors looking green and then black and whiteish, then reds. Just all messed up. It would do this for a few minutes and at first get better for a few minutes, then get bad again, and then the projector would got off. The LED's are indicating Lamp Fail per the manual. The bulb only has about 1000 hours on it. Is this the way a bulb looks like when it is on its last leg? I thought it would not work at all, like all or nothing. Before the flashes start though, the buld is as bright as normal. I even cranked it up to high and turned the AI on to see if I could "fix" it as mentioned on a few internet posts. Didnt fix it, but boy was it bright!

Anyone think this is just a normal end of bulb life experience?

Thanks!

[Crippler]

Not personal experience, but my mother-in-law has had to replace her bulb twice already. No signs of craziness, it just goes out and then won't turn on.

[Jon Liu]

My brother just has bulb go out a couple months ago on his Infocus 4805. For him, the projector was really dim for the last month prior to it going out. He was watching a movie and then the bulb just popped and that was that.

It may be signs that your bulb is going, though.

[Serren]

Someone on AVS said its my color wheel! He said that bulbs get dimmer and diimer or just go POP, and go black. My bulb is very bright. And since he mentioned the color wheel thing, I can see why the colors would look like they do if the wheel is sputtering or such.

I went home at lunch to get the serial number to get Optoma involved, and noticed a bunch of dust at all the air vents. I took the HD70 down, removed the front and back panels and sprayed a bunch of dust out. I think alot of the dust just went in deeper though. If this thing was not under warranty, I would remove the main case and give this thing a real good cleaning.

I didnt have time to test it at lunch, but I am HOPING it was just dirty or something and will at least gimp along until after the Olympics. My wife is very upset about this timing...

[MadBryan]

I'm up to 2,000 hrs on my Panny and I want a new bulb cause I can see some dimming but everyone that comes over says I'm nuts

[Serren]

Well, I think for sure its the wheel. It kept going off, and I kept forcing it back on, and the last time it came on, it make this screeching/yelping noise and has been going strong for the last five hours. I am thinking about letting in run 24/7 until the Olympics are over. Im afraid it will not be able to spin up again...

[MadBryan]

Did you clean the filter often Serren?

[Serren]

Nope. Not one time in 14 months... I guess I should in the future though. DOPE!

[MadBryan]

Do it before you send it in under warrenty. Don't give them any ammo to not cover it

[Serren]

Yeah, I took the front and back plastic panels off yesterday and cleaned everything as good as I could.

[KEEZY]

Serren that sucks man. I'm very scared for my HD70 now too

[Serren]

Did you get yours at Costco also? I got my RMA number today, and they say that it will take 5-7 days to repair plus shipping both ways. Suck.

Tonight it lasted from 3 to 45 minutes per boot up before it starts flickering green. At that point I turn it off, otherwise, I have to unplug it, and that is a pain since it usually misaligns the projected image.

The projector image still rocks though. Stupid color wheel. Hopefully yours will be fine. How many hours do you have on your bulb so far?

[Serren]

Video of my projector f'ing up:

+ YouTube Video

[KEEZY]

I think I'm at 1000 or so. I ordered mine through Dell (hell yes financing!). Good luck man, let us know how it turns out.

[Jon Liu]

Wow, that's pretty bad Serren. Hopefully you can get it taken care of swiftly.

[Serren]

I just caught my projector on fire! TWICE!!!

I got a can of spray air with the long plastic straw attached and sprayed a blast of air into a side air vent. A huge blast of flame leaped back at me! The projector kept going though! I thought, wow, that was some fluke. So I tried another air vent/port, and an even larger flame came boiling out. It was crazy rolling flames, like you see in nuclear bombs. This one "rolled" out about two feet! My wife was freaking out. After this one, the projector smelled really bad. Almost like the smell a bug makes when burning up in a lamp. An icky smell.

Before I blew the air, the image was flickering. Its been 10 minutes now, and since the flames, not a single flicker yet!

Bitchin!

[A SpecialFriend]

It definitely sounds like a color wheel issue. I have had the InFocus SP4805 for a few years now and had to replace the bulb once so far, but when I did it didn't pop. It justwouldn't turn on. I also had a small yellowish tint from top to bottom on the screen, which was anoying but I dealt with it. A few months after replacing the bulb, (for $330!!) I was playing Halo and POP, just like a Firecracker it went out. The color wheel actually shattered! YIKES! I found another one on EBay for around $300 and it's been going strong for a while now. However I now have that Yellowish tint again on the screen and it makes me nervous. I read somewhere that it's a light tunnel issue, or something along those lines. It could be quite pricey to fix. I think they said about $400. Hopefully this one will last a bit longer though. Good luck with everything!

[Peench]

Crap dude! That's awesome!!!!

Do it again but take video this time!!!

Originally Posted by Serren

I just caught my projector on fire! TWICE!!! <