Picture goes blank or the picture freezes up and looks like a negative, replaced the color wheel and checked all the fans. Thier are no lights on the front of the TV.

The colors wheel could dies at any time of the tv life,at any monent without any period of times.The colors wheel run at RPM spinning revolution are 1000 RPM a min. to make colors for this tv.The problems u discribing are one problem of the effect of the colors wheel is dying and worn out.The colors flashes like film negative,the picture flashes Black&White withtin the picture.Replace the colors wheel again,will solved this problems.

Go ahead and change your color wheel,.... see if this doesn't fix it. If it doesn't, post again.

I think you have a colorwheel with bearings that are noisy and theres no telling how long it will last . Could be days or years, just noisy. But a colorwheel will not cause a picture to freeze. Sounds like two problems- a questionable colorwheel and a failing dmd board .
Most likely your problem is on the DMD Assy Board P/N BP96-00249A . More presicely there is a few bad electronic components on that board that are bad. That board can be repaired by replacing the bad components (and the other few compoonents that are probly going bad and will soon cause your tv to lockup and lose remote and button functions when it fails so you will need to unplug it to get it on again).
Or the DMD board can be replaced .But it is not a cheap board.
For removal and Installation of the DMD board I would reccomend a tv service person because it is in the heart of the television and there are some adjustements to be made when the new board is installed.
To get the new board you could probably find it by just gooogling the part number.
Component level repair would require some experience in desoldering and soldering SMT,SMD , and or surface mount components.The actual components are about $15.00 total so just repairing your board should cost about $125.00 by a qualified servicer (if you were to remove and install it yourself). This DMD board is used in many models and can has few common problems.
HLM437W HLM4365W HLM5065W HLM507W HLM617W HLN437W HLN4365W HLN467W HLN507W HLN50665W HLN567W HLN617W ( L2 and L5 chassis )
SYMPTOMS:
-Intermittant picture freezing with a negative looking B/W frozen picture.
-Intermittant loss of pic with/without shutdown
-abnormal color wheel noise if attempted to start right after shutdown.
-lockup of tv control functions . Remote and front keypad do nothing , TV must be unplugged to reset .
-horizantal tearing, distortion , flippnig , solarization , red picture, leading to blank screen and lockup.(tv menu would be affected by all picture defects if caused by DMD board).
Hope this helps someone..

replace the color wheel p/n BP96-00674A

Your loosing the color wheel or have lost it

There are only two moving parts in this set. The fans and the color wheel. Typically when the color wheel starts to break or go on the fritz, the tv stops working. Count your blessings you've still got the picture. Open the back and turn the tv on. The color wheel is located on the optics block tray. The fans are very visible with the back off. Stop the fan for a second and see if the sound goes away. If not, you might want to start looking around for a replacement color wheel. Rivervalleyelectronics.net is a good place to start. Sometimes Discountmerchant.com carries them too. Be aware that there two different wheels available. If the fan is the culprit of your problem. Radioshack will likely have a replacement for you. If you need further help, post a comment or email me and I'll send you pictures of what to look for. [email protected]
Good luck.

The color wheel can cause a black and white picture but not the jumpy or negative look.
Those symptoms are usually caused by the DMD assy which drives the color wheel and is somewhat expensive, most of the time you can purchase the whole Light Engine which includes the DMD assy for the same price.

Sounds like the color wheel has shatterd, thats a fairly common problem with that model.

If it is on cable it is not your tv.

It could be the color wheel and in fact probably is. I've seen them shatter which would explain the noise. They are glass and spinn at 9000 rpm. An involved repair though definatley a job for a pro. It could be worse, probably a few hundred will do it. Was the TV begining to be a little loud before the failure? Could be a sign, i've seen many noisy color wheels.