Hi,

I have had an Optoma HD72 for a year and a half. About 2-3 months ago I replaced the lamp. No big deal since when I bought it I got a free spare lamp. After about 72 hours on the new lamp I started smelling something strange. My wife and I have tried to characterize it as maybe metallic or possibly electrical. After reading something related to the subject I tried turning the fan up with the "High Altitude" setting. Sure enough, it does seem to clear out the smell for a few days. But, it's awfully loud, so I go back to normal and then in a few days the smell comes back.

Anyone find a solution to this? I was going to run in full brightness mode for a few days and see if that "burns" off whatever the problem is, but I'm doubtful. I love this projector, but fear it might burst into flames or something. On the bright side,good 720p projectors have gotten much cheaper in the last 31 months. :)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Jay W

Do you notice any abnormal symptoms other than the smell? I've often seen PC power supplies have a smell similar to that (once had someone at work refer to it as smelling like a strong permanent marker or something) when they are about to fail. I think its due to the capacitors or transformer windings burning or getting to hot.

Might be a sign the ballast or power supply is about to go. What doesn't make sense is kicking the fan up causes it to go away totally? Maybe its dust burning on something that when you kick the fans up is not getting as hot? Or it could be electronics that are running a little hot but with the more air flow it runs cooler and doesn't smell?

If it's something in the PJ getting to hot you should be able to smell when the pj is off. The nose is vary good at this stuff..........my advice is take it down off the mount, and get up close and sniff the heck out for the unit on all sides, particuley the exhaust vents, and blub housing.

Also when its down check the bulb connections, loose or dirty connection can cause an electrical arcing....... this burns off ion's, if my brain is remembering right.

Trusting my memory is a iffy at best as I get older......LOL:eek:

Taking it down of the mount (which will be necessary to check the lamp connection anyway) is a pain in the butt, but I think that's a good idea.

I ran the projector for about 3 hours last night. Tried in "full brightness" mode to see if it would burn of the offending substance if there was one. If anything, it was worse. In fact, the smell was the worst ever last night.

I'll try taking it down and sniffing around. I hope that it is the lamp connection as that would be an easy fix.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Jay W

OK. Took the HD72 down of the ceiling and took it apart. Really don't see anything all burned up or black or anything. Took the opportunity to vacuum out the fan and air passages. Put it back together and still smells. My daughter nailed the smell as "like a hair dryer".

As an experiment I put my old lamp back in. This one had the issue where after 5 minutes it would shut down. But you never get the "lamp" light. That's why I replaced the lamp about 100 hours ago. Anyway, interestingly with the other lamp there was no odor at all. Of course it was only on for a few minutes, but the new lamp smelled almost right away. Funny that it took about 70 hours on the new lamp before the odor and it keeps getting worse and worse.

I'm at a loss. Anyone have any ideas?

Would you send it off to Optoma for repair? I don't know how much it will cost and I'm skeptical it will be worth it since some good PJs with similar performance are less than $1k.

Opinions? I love/hate projectors. :(

Jay W

OK. Took the HD72 down of the ceiling and took it apart. Really don't see anything all burned up or black or anything. Took the opportunity to vacuum out the fan and air passages. Put it back together and still smells. My daughter nailed the smell as "like a hair dryer".

As an experiment I put my old lamp back in. This one had the issue where after 5 minutes it would shut down. But you never get the "lamp" light. That's why I replaced the lamp about 100 hours ago. Anyway, interestingly with the other lamp there was no odor at all. Of course it was only on for a few minutes, but the new lamp smelled almost right away. Funny that it took about 70 hours on the new lamp before the odor and it keeps getting worse and worse.

I'm at a loss. Anyone have any ideas?

Would you send it off to Optoma for repair? I don't know how much it will cost and I'm skeptical it will be worth it since some good PJs with similar performance are less than $1k.

Opinions? I love/hate projectors. :(

Jay W

Is the new lamp an OEM lamp or an oem replacement lamp?

The cheaper replacement lamps are remanufactured and it sounds like the epoxy used to hold the bulb in the lamp assembly is creating the odor.

I'd call the supplier of your new lamp and get it exchanged.

This is a OEM lamp that came for free when I bought the projector. It was sitting in the box unused for about 2 1/2 years.
Jay W

So, I'm going to swap the new lamp into the old cage. Since the pj didn't smell with the old (now burned out) lamp, IF it's the lamp it's the plastic in the cage. Wish me success.

Found a picture of just the lamp to use as my guide.<br>
http://purelandsupply.com/images/products/pb6039.jpg

I'll let you all know. This might help someone else some day.

Jay W

Yes, that actually fixed it. I left the projector on for 3.5 hours. Watched a couple of HD shows and Indiana Jones 4 and no smell. Hard to believe that it would be the lamp cage thing because it's actually almost all metal. But, it does seem to have fixed it. I had three of us check it out and nobody can detect the smell which had been getting progressively worse the past few weeks. Last night it was intolerable(!) (Indiana Jones reference)

Anyway, perhaps the lamp leads were arcing and causing ozone, but I saw no evidence whatsoever of that. For now we're chalking it up the Optoma lamp cage. The new lamp is now in the old cage.

FWIW, that's my story for now and I'm sticking to it. Thanks to reconlabtech who suggested that maybe the lamp carrier (cage) itself was the source of the odor. Who knew?

Thanks to all,

Jay W

Well well, thanks to all that picted in to help. Happy ending

Yes, nice find on the issue. Bookmark this one away for future reference.

Great job on the process of elimination, most don't take the time.:)

Just as a follow up, a month later and the projector is still odor free. That really was the issue.

JayW