The DLP died. (was: The DLP Lives (was: Bummer. The DLP is basically dead.))
It died again. I guess the hack fix was just too much hack and not enough fix. Ended up getting an inexpensive LCD to replace it. It is also a Samsung and is mostly pretty great. (It has kind of poor black levels, but oh well. It wasn’t an expensive fancy-pants THX TV or something.)
Woo. Well, once I completely gave up on the TV I figured I might as well try to fix it myself. I figured I would probably destroy it in the process, but it was already dead, so what difference would it make? I followed the example found at Home Theaters Hack, which is for a larger TV, and basically made a little “pressure screw” assembly (looks almost exactly the same as Iscallio’s) and installed it in the metal frame surrounding the lower of the two left boards (when facing the back of the TV). The plate on the end of the screw is pressing up against the DNIE BGA chip. I guess it was enough pressure to get the thing working again.
At first I wasn’t sure where the chip would be. I knew I was looking for a BGA chip but I didn’t see one on the upper left board, and I failed to recognize that there was a lower board, so I went for the center assembly instead. The problem chip is in fact in the lower board.
I took apart what turned out to be the light engine after seeing a few BGA chips in there. After realizing my mistake I managed to put it back together again and had it installed in to the TV, but the image was shifted about 6 inches too high. I had to unscrew and rescrew the light engine assembly a few times to get it right. In the final attempt I heard a sharp crack — I guess that was the sign I had it in the correct position! (or, I got lucky).
I’m feeling like a badass now.
Our Samsung DLP (HLR5067W), that I’ve had since 2006, is essentially dead. It first started having trouble after a power outage. I had it on a UPS but I neglected to turn it off before the battery ran down (which would have allowed it to cool off the bulb and all that). Once the power outage was over I tried turning the TV back on, but it took about 30 attempts (over 15 minutes) to finally fully power on.
That was a few months ago. This weekend I replaced some fixtures in our house, which naturally required turning off the circuit breaker. The TV had been off for hours so I assumed it would handle the situation just fine; the TV was fully cooled off and turning off the breaker is essentially the same as doing something innocuous like moving the power cord to a different outlet. Well, my assumption was wrong. The TV works for about 15 seconds, then the display freezes for about 10 seconds, and then it seems like the TV reboots.
I did some reading and found out it’s probably the DMD board (the motherboard) or the power supply. Either way, it’s hundreds of dollars to repair it. Plus it’s a four year old DLP, which means that the bulb is probably near EOL. So, it’s time to get a new TV.
Any recent brand recommendations? I guess it’ll be a side-LED-lit LCD TV. And it won’t be a 3D TV, ’cause, seriously. Come on.
You have flown too long without our guidance. Please come back now or you will crash and die.
PS. Please don’t piss on the heat registers. We don’t like that.
Smuggle my shoes in your suitcase.