Poochie
06-05-08, 01:42 PM
Background: My Sony HS20 has worked flawlessly for over 4 years. The first bulb lasted around 2100 hours (low mode) - when it "died" first it exhibited problems striking - it would take 2-3 startup attempts before turning on, but once on would work until I was done watching. Naturally this was a good indicator that I should order bulb #2. That was over 18 months ago.
I'm on my second bulb, which is about 2600 hours old - this time around I'd estimate the average hours per startup is higher, so the longer life doesn't surprise me. So this makes the projector itself about 4.5 years old / 4700 hours of usage. I've also replaced/cleaned the air filter on occasion, but I wouldn't classify myself as a particularly meticulous person in this regard.
Problem: Over the last two evenings of usage, I've had an odd behavior, hence the purpose of this post to see if anyone else went through this/has any recommendations.
Tuesday night the projector was in use for a little while (1-2 hours?) when it died. As in, everything went off. No on-screen warning, no "pop" of the bulb, no running of the fan after the picture went dark, none of the status lights on the projector lit/blinking. Almost as if power was completely cut.
I checked the power, there wasn't a problem there- other (very-low-power) devices plugged into the same power strip were fine. I unplugged and replugged in the projector, no change - not even a lighting of the "standby" light. About 5 minutes later, the "standby" light gets re-lit. So I wait about 30 minutes to let things cool, then power it back on. To my surprise it fires back up again. (And quicker than a cold start, I actually get to see the "Cizena" splash screen that old bulbs don't typically show, yay!). It works fine for the rest of the evening, maybe another hour of usage until it's bedtime.
Same thing happened last night (Wed night) after about 2-3 hours of usage, except this time I didn't wait quite as long to re-start it. Again, it comes back to life just fine, and runs the fan on high for a bit, apparently to exhaust any hot air from before. We finish our movie, I believe it stayed on for at least 2 more hours from the latest hiccup.
So I figure the bulb itself it's dead yet, although its age might or might not have something to do with this.
If it matters, temperature in the room hasn't changed - it's been about 70F with low humidity that is typical for a Northern California spring.
Anyone ever see this? If so, what did you do?
I also have an interesting dilemma here. I was already on the fence about the "buy a new bulb" vs "time to upgrade PJ" thing. Now I have the added factor that buying a new bulb might be throwing money away if the PJ itself circling the drain.
I'm assuming that repair of a 4.5 year old LCD PJ with a mostly run-out bulb isn't economically viable.
Cliff notes: HS20 with aged bulb dies completely after a few hours' usage two nights in a row. Minutes later it shows signs of life with "standby" LED. Powering up after this results in the lamp coming back on and things working fine. Now I'm wondering if there's a "fix" / this is the fault of an old bulb / my PJ is about to die.
I'm on my second bulb, which is about 2600 hours old - this time around I'd estimate the average hours per startup is higher, so the longer life doesn't surprise me. So this makes the projector itself about 4.5 years old / 4700 hours of usage. I've also replaced/cleaned the air filter on occasion, but I wouldn't classify myself as a particularly meticulous person in this regard.
Problem: Over the last two evenings of usage, I've had an odd behavior, hence the purpose of this post to see if anyone else went through this/has any recommendations.
Tuesday night the projector was in use for a little while (1-2 hours?) when it died. As in, everything went off. No on-screen warning, no "pop" of the bulb, no running of the fan after the picture went dark, none of the status lights on the projector lit/blinking. Almost as if power was completely cut.
I checked the power, there wasn't a problem there- other (very-low-power) devices plugged into the same power strip were fine. I unplugged and replugged in the projector, no change - not even a lighting of the "standby" light. About 5 minutes later, the "standby" light gets re-lit. So I wait about 30 minutes to let things cool, then power it back on. To my surprise it fires back up again. (And quicker than a cold start, I actually get to see the "Cizena" splash screen that old bulbs don't typically show, yay!). It works fine for the rest of the evening, maybe another hour of usage until it's bedtime.
Same thing happened last night (Wed night) after about 2-3 hours of usage, except this time I didn't wait quite as long to re-start it. Again, it comes back to life just fine, and runs the fan on high for a bit, apparently to exhaust any hot air from before. We finish our movie, I believe it stayed on for at least 2 more hours from the latest hiccup.
So I figure the bulb itself it's dead yet, although its age might or might not have something to do with this.
If it matters, temperature in the room hasn't changed - it's been about 70F with low humidity that is typical for a Northern California spring.
Anyone ever see this? If so, what did you do?
I also have an interesting dilemma here. I was already on the fence about the "buy a new bulb" vs "time to upgrade PJ" thing. Now I have the added factor that buying a new bulb might be throwing money away if the PJ itself circling the drain.
I'm assuming that repair of a 4.5 year old LCD PJ with a mostly run-out bulb isn't economically viable.
Cliff notes: HS20 with aged bulb dies completely after a few hours' usage two nights in a row. Minutes later it shows signs of life with "standby" LED. Powering up after this results in the lamp coming back on and things working fine. Now I'm wondering if there's a "fix" / this is the fault of an old bulb / my PJ is about to die.