Warranty just expired, it needs the lamp driver (probably) and most likely a new bulb. Quoted cost is around $675 so it seems pretty pointless to repair it since I see new ones for $799. Optoma told me they would not repair it under warranty despite the known lamp driver issue.

They also told me they knew of the AVS thread regarding the lamp issues but that most people on this forum just don't want to buy a new light bulb and that there is nothing wrong with most of our projectors. That was from their tech support department this morning.

Guess I'll be ordering a new projector today although it won't be an Optoma.

Sad to hear that. Not good if you are thinking about buying an Optoma...

Optoma's whole presence in front projection appears hit and miss, albeit with more misses than hits. Their projectors seem to skip generations in terms of their performance quality- the HD72 was a sound projector and the H79 is considered a great deal today and the HD70 was quite the bang for the buck.

The HD-81 and the LV were disappointments as was the HD73, 7100, (sorry to any supporters that got good units with lasting performance) among others, but the they seem to save their biggest mishaps for poor quality control in general and back this with crappy customer service.

At least Samsung that released one of the faultiest pjs, the 710 have seemingly done a lot to make up for their mistake- and, not for nothing, it was considered an outstanding unit in terms of pq when it debuted at 7k.

I don't how Optoma remains in the marketplace; maybe their business pj's are more reliable.

Dino

Anyone tried installing a new lamp driver themself? The part is only $99 so I'll give it a try if its possible.

i just returned my (hd6800) after almost 2 years of happines, b/c of the "black screen" problem, thanks God for "that" store, to bad they changed the policy.

Yes, with all the choices out there, why chance Optoma's dodgy customer service (speaking from experience here)?

Optoma says installing the $99 lamp driver is easy to do yourself. Unfortunately, its back ordered for 2-3 weeks. Risking $99 seems like a safe bet though.

Please help. What exactly are the SYMPTOMS of the lamp driver failure?????

My HD72 just died tonight. It was working perfectly a few days ago. It only has about 300 hours on the unit. Now it won't even come into the "standby" mode. I turn it on and nothing happens. Even the standby light won't illuminate. ??????

You might be surprised by what you can get for it by putting it on ebay. Some people will buy broken units for repair incase their color wheel or something goes out.