The projector powers up like usual run about 10 minutes and then start flickering through the colors and then powers down and the light bulb indicator comes on what is wrong it work fine one day and the next its doing this sort of thing its less than a year old.
Hi, My name is Doug Stanko.
I had the same issue and fixed the problem.
All you have to do is take a few screws out..... and blow out the inside VERY well with pressurized air. I have a compressor... and I set the regulator to 50 psi. But the KEY IS TO have the covers off so you can get between the circuit cards and blow them out. They were incredibly dusty. Even after I blew through the side vents.
I agree with all of you that say it is overheating. You are right. There was so much dust on the fan blades them selves... I'm suprised they were still spinning at all.
And like most of you... first I bought the $300 dollar bulb... put it in and 10 minutes later it was doing the same thing flashing through the colors. So trust me.
There are 4 screws on the back. Take these out.
There are 2 small nuts on the back around the VGA input. Take these out.
There are about 5 screws on the underside (think one was on the bulb changeout portion). These have long copper colored bars that go all the way from top to bottom.
All these have to be removed. Then you can take it apart. AND I PROMISE YOU WILL SEE TONS OF DUST ALL OVER.
Make sure you blow out the parts between the circiut boards AND the fan unit.
Put it back together... and remember to make sure that little latch on the bulb change cover makes the click sound ( it is a switch that must close or the unit will not power back up )..... and it will work great again.
No need for a huge fan next to it. Although I will admit that is an excellent idea.
I did this 3 weeks ago and have been watching it with no issues.
If you do not feel comfortable taking the screws out yourself..... I would take it to your local TV repair store and just ask them to take the covers off and blow out all the dust... and give it back to you. No troubleshooting... no repairs... no replacements... just blow it out.
I was an electronic technician in the US Navy for 10 years... Now I work at a nuclear power plant in Illinois. BUT I PROMISE with a good phillips head screw driver and a small crescent wrench you can do this yourself.
Good luck and you are welcome. I know how frustrating this issue is. But this is the fix.
Doug
Hey Guys. I fixed my HD70. Here is what I did:
Take the Lamp Access panel off
Remove Lamp
Remove all screws on the bottom side
Remove the screws on the back IO Panel
Remove the front part of the case, be careful of the IR Cable
Clean out all the dust bunnies you find
Here is what I did extra that seemed to really work. I suspected that when the heat got up there, it would be looking track of where the color wheel was, hence the color flicker.
Find the color wheel, clean that off with your canned air, and make sure you also get the little IR sensor on the drum of the color wheel. If you clean that area up really well, like I did, it should resolve the color flicker issue.
I had the same problem everyone else did here, and I replaced the bulb, fiddled with the settings, and tried to cool it the best I could, but still had the curse session of the flicker. This did fix my HD70
The issue:
solid red error light?
HD70 "die's" after few min with strage noise?
flickers different colors before complete self shutdown?
well try this....
Before replacing your bulb, fan or any other component try first cleaning your optoma realy good!! HD70 doesnt comes with any kind of filter so you can imagine the amound of dust can be.
The most importent thing is to blow away any dust from your color wheel + the sensor attached to it .
for farther troubleshoting clean your fan's.
there are 2 fan's insinde the HD70.
probably the most problems will be solved by cleening the color wheel!!
if the problem is not solved ,chack the lemp and the fans if they work properlly.
For fan replacing:
Fan Part number: GM1207PKVX-A
Good luck
I HAVE A HD72 DOING THE SAME THING, I PUT IT IN HIGH ALTITUDE MODE(WHICH MAKES THE FAN RUN FASTER) AND IT STOPED THE PROBLEM. I READ THAT DUST COLLECTS ON THE FAN AND IT DOESN'T CIRCULATE THE AIR, HEATING UP SOME OF THE CIRCUITS MAKING THEM NOT WORK CORRECTLY. I AM GOING TO CLEAN THE FAN AND I THINK IT WILL FIX THE PROBLEM
Two times this issue, both in summer (july 2008, now august 2009). Definitively, this problem comes from a malfunction of the RGB Wheel due to excessive heat and, probabily, dust accumulation. Turn on the "altitude mode" setting in summer can help (my projector is just working well now), but at the end it depends of the temperature of your room and if the fan can do enought to compensate it. Clean the dust can help the fan to refrigerate the system, that is all.
Mike
This seems to be a problem plaguing this model of projector, and I should have done research before I bought mine used off ebay for $450. It worked great for 3 months (about 300 hours), then it did the flickering thing after about 30 minutes. It seems like this model doesn't come with an air filter (not from my inspection, at least), so it's probably clogged with dust. I have not had time to take it apart, so I just duct taped an 80mm computer fan to the exhaust grill in the front, and it works great, and have had it on for hours at a time with no issues. Sure, it's loud as hell, but it's better than a broken projector, and I sit far enough away from the unit, with a loud enough sound system, that I don't notice. I might dissasemble it and clean it or buy and ultra-cool fan, but I don't really care.
Conclusion:
I just found a 12volt power brick and spliced it into a computer fan, duct taped that to the projector, and now it's fine.
I had the same problem and phone a couple of places and they told me it was probably the colour wheel or it just needs servicing(very good clean) they told me this would cost about £65 for full clean. I did mine myself, this is not an easy job at all and you have to make sure you remember to plug all the components back in when rebuilding. It took me about 3 hours to do as I wanted to make sure I didn't break anything. I even cleaned the colour wheel and lenses but you have to be so careful. The picture has been perfect since.....GOOD LUCK.....
I had the same problem as dropped my hd70 and it kept flickering after 10 mins of viewing then shutting off i tried opening it took it outside it was a nice windy so dust was blowing everywhere from the machine i ot a straw and had a good blow at all the components lots of dust but no joy a couple of hours later tried the same thing and it is working perfectly now even better than before
Cleaning the colour wheel is definatly the answer ive had the same problem but now my projector is working fine. The colour wheel is located at the front centre of the projector incase you cant find it. Thanks
I had this same problem and still have a two year warranty so I sent it back to Optoma because of the color flickering. I changed the setting to high altitude before sending it and had little problems for a week. It then started flickering again. The problem they said was dust/cleaning. I tried cleaning it before with dustoff. The projector has been fine since. If your warranty is up I would suggest googling a way to clean the inside of the projector.
I am having the same problem. after searching online for the last hour, i found a suggestion to turn AI off and run the lamp in high mode for 5-10 hours. i am going to try this tonight when i get home.
We've tried all kinds of solutions, many of them were discussed here, but the bottom line is that there was something wrong with the device itself - something was causing a short circuit (probably when it was warming up a bit) and all these other solutions were like putting a bandage over it instead of healing it.
Our main problem was that every time we took it to the lab - they couldn’t see the problem (maybe cause the temperature there was much lower? who knows…), so as long as they couldn't see it happening, they kept sending it back to us, saying that everything is OK and we went back to Google this problem and try all these types of work-around that allegedly were solving the problem.
The last time we sent it to the lab, we left it in the showroom to run in a different environment and that’s when it finally happened outside of our living-room, and once the lab guys saw it happening, they managed to pin-point the problem and fix it.
So the bottom line is that you need a good technician and patience, cause there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Better ventilation might reduce the times it happens, but it doesn’t really solve the actual problem.
Yup...same probem here but luckily mine ran for around 2 years before experiencing the same problem. I will try the abobe mentioned suggestions and report back...
7,961 views
Usually answered in minutes!
I have exactly the same problem - colors flickering, then shut down. Mine is also a year old. I called a projector repair business in Mass called "ProjectorPros.com" 800-649-9809. Pete suggested that I call Optoma (408-383-3700) for repairs, since it has a 2 yr warranty.
my HD 70 does the samething, it works fine one day then the next it's flickering and the shuts down...it's starting to piss me off!!!
same deal here all. the projector with flicker, colors get messed up, weird exposure issues and over heat. I actually rigged a vornado fan up to the side of it and am blowing it through the vent. Clearly this is a heat issue, I just don't know how to clean the dust out. Its ridiculous, this thing is barely a year old. Any specific idea on how to clean the lint or dust out?
thanks
David
Same problem here. After a year that the projector worked just fine - the flickering started (then it shuts down...)
we read about changing the mode (HIGH ALTITUDE = ON) and for a month or two it worked like magic.
Now the problem is back. Again - after reading about it on the Internet - we tried changing the AI mode to OFF.
But it didn't solve the problem.
The other annoying part is that there are no rules. We can watch a movie for 2 hours and everything is perfectly OK, then another day it's impossible to watch a movie because it starts flickering and shuts down every 5 minutes.
Pretty desperating :(
i have been putting a fan on my projector i had to remove it from the ceiling im not sure but i think it is just due to overheating when i run the fan on it, it will run for hours and i havent had a problem with it, i have taken it apart cleaned and still only running a fan on the left side of it works (if you looking at it right side up facing the lense) im not sure if a smaller fan will work or not but this works for me.
the projector powers up like usual run about 10 minutes and then start flickering through the colors and then powers down and the light bulb indicator comes on what is wrong it work fine one day and the next its doing this sort of thing its less than a year old.
same problem
I have the same exact problem. It started out as an every once in awhile problem and has turned into a every 5 minutes problem. I will try blowing it out with the air can and see if it works.
I just bought this from an add on a local newspaper. The kid who sold it to me obviously couldn't fix it so he was selling it for 400 $. I stupidly bought it and now I can't get ahold of the kid. Anyways, in my case, the thing runs ok for about 10 mins, then it flickers different colors then it shuts down with a weird whistling sound and the Lamp red light comes up. I bought a new lamp for 270$ and it did NOT fix it so it's not the lamp. I took it apart and cleaned the inside thoroughly with a vacuum cleaner. It did NOT fix the problem. Now after doing some more research I read it might be the color wheel. I read you can get it for around 200$ but its a pain to install... I don't wanna spend any more money on this! With 700$ I could've bought an HD65!!!! Oh and please! There's SOLUTION, CLARIFICATION, and I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!!! Please pick the right one!!!
I have the same problem, and while I wasn't able to troubleshoot the exact cause, I did manage to isolate the location. I took off the top and front of the projector using the instructions at
http://tantht.blogspot.com/
There is a block of power components underneath the PCB in the back right of the projector, directly behind the system fan. There was an all too familiar odor of burning circuitry coming from this area. I blasted it with air, and lots of dust bunnies came flying out.
I suspect that inadequate air filtration/flow, even with the fan directly on the other side, is causing one of these power components to fail in its job of supplying current to the lamp. I was not able to remove the PCB to further diagnose the problem.
I have the same problem. pj is 1 and 1/2 yr old. sent it into optoma to repair (still under warranty) last september. no explanation as to what was wrong from optoma. they reset counter on my bulb, and I didnt note the counter b4 i sent it to them. that pissed me off cause i have no idea how long my bulb has left now. they made me pay for the shipping. the problem was fixed, but now it is happening again. putting HUGE fan next to unit helped for about a day, but problem is much worse now. It is still under warranty. I will send it back in. I have no doubt the problem will return soon. I will never buy another friggin optoma product again! oh, and how do dust bunnies get INSIDE the pj so I cannot blow them out. This is a flawed design from optoma and they probably know it. hitting the power button just once when the flashing starts keeps it from shutting down. I use this pj for work and it really pisses me off that I lose jobs while it is away!!!!!@! any ideas? cause i am losing all respect for optoma!!!
Mine only happens sometimes - If I turn it off and then back on it doesn't make a difference but if I turn it off, unplug it for about 30 sec, plug it back in, and turn it on, it usually solves the problem for the night. It does take much longer to come on when I do this (2-5 min) and sometimes is not the final time of the night but usually I only need to do it once
I found that taking the projector apart and leaving the top case off allows more heat to dissipate and works fine for as long as i want. I spray it out ever day now. It does not look great but at least it works. I unscrewed the buttons on the upper case and taped them to the side of the remaining case so i could still use them. I have tried everything and this works flawlessly.
×