No solder sucker, since there is no 'hole' to suck the solder out of. There's about 1/8" of capacitor leg that is laying soldered to the pad beneath, and it's a matter of heating the pad and slowly lifting the cap till the leg is no longer soldered. It's a bit tedious, since it's hard to gauge progress as you go. I didn't try wicking the solder either, as there's not much room to get the wick in place, and I don't like the idea of extended heating on those pads.

You may try practicing and developing your own technique. The more I think about it, the more I think ripping the cap out first is better to preserving the integrity of the solder pads. Ripping with a twisting motion though, not straight up/out. I'll try that and see how it goes.

My 62525 is dead - and I'm not sure if I should spend the cash to get it repaired or not!??

Here's what happened: The set has worked very well for the past 3-4 years that I've had it. About 11 months ago - I finally had to replace the lamp - which I did through "dlplampsource.com". I bought the lamp - mounted it in the lamp "housing" - plugged it in and it worked perfectly - again! Then - about a month ago - the TV was fine one night - and the next morning I went to turn it on, and (this was very strange) no picture came up - but there was this very strange white, wiggly "ball of light" that showed up in the middle of the screen, surrounded by the default blue background (like there was no signal??) I checked the cabling - no problem. I checked the A/V head - no matter what input I tried - same thing - no picture - just a "ball of light" wavering in the middle. Out of curiosity - I hit the "menu" button and strangely enough, the menu came up just fine - *over* the ball o' light/blue background??? Now I'm really confused because it appears that the lamp was working just fine - so the problem seemed to be with the "signal processing"?? So - I did a couple of resets on the TV to see if that would change anything - and it did!....the TV stopped working altogether - NOTHING was coming on the screen, and the "lamp light" was on solid red!? I contacted DLP Lamp Source about the lamp and since the lamp was still under the 1 year warranty, they agreed to replace it free of charge (very cool!) BUT - got the new lamp - put this one in the lamp housing (yes, paper shroud and all!) - plugged it in, and....nothing! I left the lamp covering off (but pressed the little "trigger" so it would think that the cover was on) and watched when I turned the TV on - sure enough, the lamp *starts* to come on after about 10 seconds - but stays on for only 2-3 seconds - and then goes dark again!!?? So I'm thinking that the lamp is fine - and there's something wrong inside the TV!?? I finally found a Mitsubishi authorized repair place to come look at it (next Tuesday) - but I've got no idea what he's going to tell me at this point? I'm figuring that if the repair costs are over $500 - I'll bag it and find a new set - but I'm hoping that he's going to look at it and say, "...well....here's yer problem!!" - and it'll be fixed for $300-400?? (BUT - I'm kinda doubting that.....;-)

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Is this TV "done for"? Should I not even waste my time by having a technician come out and look at it?? (I've been eyeing the 73835 anyway - but didn't want to shell out $3000 if a $300-400 fix gets me back in business.....??)

Thanks.....

Ay....I know this is a huge thread, but if you have time, you should read it. Or at least the last half of it. It will help you decide if you think it's worth getting it fixed. Really just probably some cheap component replacement, but finding a good tech to do it right is a different story. See if your repair tech has even heard of the cap problems with is series of sets. Good luck.

Hi,
I have read a bunch of posts about the BGLOD in WD62725 and similar sets, I am curious to find out what levels of success other users/owners have had getting support or any reimbursement for expenses from Mitsubishi? My set is about 3 1/2 yrs old and is suffering from bad caps (out of warranty). My chassis is at a local repair shop now and he is working with Mitsu tech support regarding the chassis rebuild.

If you guys don't mind sharing, I am asking for specifics of what Mitsu offered in compensation, if any, for the repairs of your sets so I can go and argue with them regarding mine. They have acknowledged that the caps are bad and even mentioned to the repair shop that this is common. Either reply to this or send me a message at my home
bmd115 at gmail . com
Thanks

They paid for the parts plus $100 on mine...I had to pay about $300 out of pocket which included a $100 pickup fee.

Update on my chassis rebuild which initially failed on install, with the error code 35 (chassis fan). The technician simply replaced the fan (took two weeks to get the part), and it works. After getting it up and running, he went ahead and cleaned the front mirror, and was done. I was hoping for a "fail" to get a new TV, but for now I have an apparently fully working 52525 that boots properly and stays on for hours, vs. minutes. I never had the other issues with wavy lines that others had, so I'm fine with the picture in Antenna, Component, S-video and HDMI. I haven't tested the VGA input, or the firewire inputs, but I never used those anyway. I still have until July on my extended warranty, so I'm torn on trying to abuse it to death in the next 7 months, or hope for at least another four years of life after a great rebuild, and hoping that bulbs will still be around for it. (The tech was trying to get his work done, so I couldn't see what Mitsubishi did on the DM and FMT boards, but had the shields off to replace the fan, it looked like they did some replacements on the Power board... no more Jamicon capacitors.)

Update on my chassis rebuild which initially failed on install, with the error code 35 (chassis fan). The technician simply replaced the fan (took two weeks to get the part), and it works. After getting it up and running, he went ahead and cleaned the front mirror, and was done. I was hoping for a "fail" to get a new TV, but for now I have an apparently fully working 52525 that boots properly and stays on for hours, vs. minutes. I never had the other issues with wavy lines that others had, so I'm fine with the picture in Antenna, Component, S-video and HDMI. I haven't tested the VGA input, or the firewire inputs, but I never used those anyway. I still have until July on my extended warranty, so I'm torn on trying to abuse it to death in the next 7 months, or hope for at least another four years of life after a great rebuild, and hoping that bulbs will still be around for it. (The tech was trying to get his work done, so I couldn't see what Mitsubishi did on the DM and FMT boards, but had the shields off to replace the fan, it looked like they did some replacements on the Power board... no more Jamicon capacitors.)

I hear ya...they took mine back to the shop Tuesday of last week and I keep hoping to get a call that Mits is going to just replace it. Nothing yet, though, so I doubt that is a good sign. Of course, with the holiday and all they might not have even really looked at it yet. I was glad that I left the set in the 'failed state' so the field tech could see what I was talking about. He was even able to duplicate the failure, so that helped, too.

Anyway, I'll let you know if they offer a replacement...if they don't, I'll be in a similar situation to you, though. Since it failed this time without any 'special effort' on my part, I'll probably just use it normally if they fix it and return it. Hopefully it will go belly up with regular use if it is going to die before the warranty runs out. YMMV, of course....

Good luck...

Randy

10 weeks and still nothing. Lots of phone calls to Mits and Fry's to find out what is going on. Ends up I have to deal with Fry's after all because my warranty is through them.

I was supposed to hear back from Fry's last Wed., Nov. 19th, but heard nothing. A call to my local Fry's didn't do anything because they have not received any paperwork (from their main office) about the replacement. Was told they would look into it. So then I called Mits back to see if they knew anything. Mits says they submitted the paperwork for replacement to Fry's (main office, not my local one) two weeks ago and that I should have heard something by now. They said they would follow-up and resubmit the paperwork to Fry's.

I tried to get both Mits and Fry's to tell me what replacement TV I would be getting, but neither one knew. I even tried to persuade Mits to request the 65835 so that I could "remain a loyal Mitsubishi customer", but that didn't seem to go anywhere.

I do have to say that the Mits reps have been more than helpful through this ordeal. They even told me to call them back this week if I still had not heard back from Fry's.

For those who don't know, I had the BGLOD and scrolling horizontal lines on my 62525. Repair company picked up TV, sent off the chassis for repair, repaired chassis didn't work, and a decision was made to replace the TV. Oh, and my loaner TV from Fry's is a 32" LCD.

I suspect that you guys don't really want to hear this, but after removing every SMD and radial cap from one DM, and many SMDs from other DMs and FMT boards, I have found that most have low capacitance (typically 50% or lower than rated value), high ESR (typically twice what is considered normal for the voltage rating) and some have high DA and leakage (as tested with the Sencore analyzer). The conclusion, IMO and IME, which covers nearly three decades of service, including all of the Mitsubishi sets that have had capacitor problems, is that unless you change every capacitor in the sets, you are unlikely to end up with a reliable repair on the V26 chassis. I have removed hundreds of caps and found that nearly all of the Jamicon radial caps are failing, and approximately 90% of the SMD caps are not within spec at this point in the life of these sets.

lcaillo -

Welcome to the "cap relacing club". I too have several years of Mits repair experience and you're right, Mits (and others) have seemed to have their bad batches of caps throughout the years. I was floored, though, at the amount which failed here from more than one manufacture.

You can never get a perfect reading in circuit but it was interesting to see them read close to "ok" in circuit but after pulling them out they'd go belly-up on our ESR meter (we also used a Sencore to check leakage on several). I wonder if it's because they were in parallel with another cap upstream or if the desoldering process finally killed the cap?

Either way, it's not good. I do disagree a bit as far as the "why". While I don't think they are purposely abusing these components, it is extremely warm in these units whenever they are plugged in (moreso when running). We also measured higher than expected voltages on the main supplies (+/- 17 volts on the 15 for example) which means they are pushing the voltage ratings of some of their bigger filters.

It's all speculation, of course. Without a schematic we're all taking educated guesses.

When we used to work on the V11's, etc it seems I remember that there were more than just 3 or 4 thousand hours before failures (due to caps). Remember the days of their modification packages Mits would send? (I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. CMK kit? or something.) They seem to be failing much earlier these days. This was many years ago though.

I appreciate all of your input on this forum. It was your (and others of course) wisdom that helped me down the path of getting my set running again. If I have any other problems, there are still about 60 caps that I didn't change!!!! ;-)

Cheers.

You may be right about the temps. The caps that are in the set from the factory are 85 degree C rated, and I hear that the ones they are putting in the rebuilds are 105 degree rated.

There is also reason for optimism in the rebuilt chassis. Mits is changing more than 100 caps that are possible failure points on every chassis before even testing and troubleshooting for other problems. This alays my worst fears about the rebuilds. At a retail price of $500 to rebuild the chassis, it is not an unreasonable proposition to have it done if they are doing it right. It certainly does not make sense to try to field service them from my perspective if they are going that deep on the rebuild process.

My 52525 (purchased Dec 04, no extended warranty) suffers from the wavy line problem and the HDMI input no longer works. I had previously had some problems with the set and kept all of the records of my repair expenditures. I faxed this information to Mitsubishi and at the same time opened a complaint with the BBB. Mits responded stating I need to get the set diagnosed and they would then discuss possible compensation. I refused to pay for the diagnosis and they are actually sending someone out to look at the set on their dime. We'll see where this goes after they get the repair estimate from the service company...


The service company came out on Monday 11/24 and spoke with Mits and determined the set needs a chassis rebuild. Mits called me and agreed to cover parts for the repair. I just need to pay labor ($250).

At this point I have told them to come out and do the work. This will be the last $$ I will spend on this set other than bulbs.

Well, the wavy lines reappeared in my WD62825 10 months after my latest chassis replacement (I've had three) so the warranty company is replacing it with a WD65835. In a set this size the only affordable options given... another Mitsubishi Diamond or a Samsung. Does anybody have experience with the WD65835 to know if fan noise is an issue?

I have the WD-65835 and love it I have no Fan noise and my old 62725 did not have fan noise. The pitcher is awesome on the 835.

Well, the wavy lines reappeared in my WD62825 10 months after my latest chassis replacement (I've had three) so the warranty company is replacing it with a WD65835. In a set this size the only affordable options given... another Mitsubishi Diamond or a Samsung. Does anybody have experience with the WD65835 to know if fan noise is an issue?

Question about the wavy lines.

I notice really bad wavy lines when I watch use my DVD player and it isn't set to progressive scan mode (sending 480i to the TV).

If I DO switch it to progressive scan mode (480p), the lines disappear. I really don't see them at 480p or higher resolutions.

Is this typical of the wavy line problem?

With my wavy line problem, the lines were visible specifically when the TV was sent 480P (via component) but not when sent 480i (via S-video). So the problems manifest as an input issue.

With my wavy line problem, the lines were visible specifically when the TV was sent 480P (via component) but not when sent 480i (via S-video). So the problems manifest as an input issue.

Hmmm.

This was noticeable for me with items that were connected with component cables (I saw it if I set my Tivo S3 to output 480i, or on the DVD player as I mentioned earlier).

I don't actually have anything hooked up via Svideo or composite...

My extended warranty was from Good Guys (RIP) and is now being handled by GE. Thanks to this thread, I was able to work with the servicer to pressure both GE and Mits to admit the tv cannot be fixed and give me a replacement. It only took two days of incessant calling before GE told me they were making a recommendation to replace the tv, and it will be about another week before it is formally approved.

I don't know what tv I will be offered, but I'll bring up the fact that some people have received a 835 series as a replacement. Since I spent $4,000 for the tv and $450 for the extended warranty, the 736 would seem kind of cheap on Mits' part. Anyone able to suggest more ammo I can use when I try to negotiate the replacement?

Well, after about a dozen phone calls to GE and my servicer, GE finally agreed that my tv 62725 could not be fixed. GE doesn't replace tv's, they just offer payment. So they priced a 65735 at $1,800. I tried to argue that the true replacement should be a 65835 or at least a 65736, but wasn't getting anywhere. Since I wanted to move on quickly, I accepted the money and bought a 58" Panny Plasma for an extra $1k.

So after a brief 4 years, my relationship with my beloved Mits DLP comes to an end. Thanks to all who contributed great info on this thread.

My 62525 is dead - and I'm not sure if I should spend the cash to get it repaired or not!?? ....Thanks.....

What you describe sounds like swollen 3300 uF caps on the power board. Dozens of participants to this forum have made the fix, I think it's worth giving it a shot. Read through the forum, I think one person even submitted a how-to-fix-it document with photos. If you lack the experience to do it yourself & need to have a shop do it, hopefully the charge won't be too much if you exactly point out to them what the problem is.

No solder sucker, since there is no 'hole' to suck the solder out of. There's about 1/8" of capacitor leg that is laying soldered to the pad beneath, and it's a matter of heating the pad and slowly lifting the cap till the leg is no longer soldered. It's a bit tedious, since it's hard to gauge progress as you go.

Thanks for the tips you've been providing. I'm going to take a crack at replacing my caps soon, but right now, my antenna picture is perfect and I can't bear to risk a down-time that carries over into NFL game time.

Newbie with a problem here and yes I have been reading the posts.
I have error code 34. First replaced lamp, no help. Replaced ballast board, no help. The two DM board 3300uf caps were swollen and now replaced. J14 now has 5v, but I still have code 34 and a steady red light after the TV trys to start a few times. Checked the lamp to ballast connection and is good. The lamp does not light at all. Any ideas on where to look now? Thanks.

I pulled the light engine and the wheel looks good and spins freely. Re-checked for any bulging pots and I do not see any on any of the boards. I hear the fans and the ballast firing a few times before the red light comes on about a minute after the power button is pushed to start it up. Any ideas would be greatful. Thanks.

I pulled the light engine and the wheel looks good and spins freely. Re-checked for any bulging pots and I do not see any on any of the boards. I hear the fans and the ballast firing a few times before the red light comes on about a minute after the power button is pushed to start it up. Any ideas would be greatful. Thanks.

Interesting, as that is what my 62725 is doing. This happened after I put a new bulb in it, after letting it sit without AC for about 10 days. TV was working just fine prior to that (except for the wavy lines issue). My 3300uF are good, but I had bad 1000uF/16V caps on the PS board and FMT board. The 3300uF are on the power supply board, btw. I've read that the 3300uF should fix the power up problem, but apparently not in your case, and I doubt it's the bad part in my set as I've removed them and checked them.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you if/what will fix it for me, as I'm in the process of doing a mass replacement of caps. I'm sure you've read the history here, and you understand :) Whatever fixes yours, please report back. Good luck.

You may be right about the temps. The caps that are in the set from the factory are 85 degree C rated, and I hear that the ones they are putting in the rebuilds are 105 degree rated.

There is also reason for optimism in the rebuilt chassis. Mits is changing more than 100 caps that are possible failure points on every chassis before even testing and troubleshooting for other problems. This alays my worst fears about the rebuilds. At a retail price of $500 to rebuild the chassis, it is not an unreasonable proposition to have it done if they are doing it right. It certainly does not make sense to try to field service them from my perspective if they are going that deep on the rebuild process.

Is Mits doing the rebuilds, or supplying repair shops with the details for them to do? Do you think Mits would share the full details of what exactly they are doing now for a chassis rebuild? I know I'd appreciate a 'starting point' sort of list, with replacement part numbers/vendors, as that would save me alot of time researching what's in there now, and what a better replacement is. Maybe you could ask one of your friendlier MIts contacts if it's possible to share this info, for those of us who have chosen to do this ourselves (for various reasons).

Mitsubishi has their in-house rebuild people doing the work. You will not likely get the list of parts that they are changing (when asked, the answer was...no), but I was told that they are changing far more than a hundred SMD caps before they even troubleshoot the boards. Then they go through several levels of testing, repair, and burn-in.

Thanks for the response. Never hurts to ask. I hope it pays off for those who endure the wait; my friend just had his tv hauled off agian. His chassis rebuild/repair was estimated to take 4-6 weeks. We'll see if I get my set fixed before he gets his back, though honestly I've moved on to other projects before winter really gets here.

My WD52525 now experience a new problem after I had 2 caps replaced last yr (picture issues).

Now I have lines (2" wide) from top to bottom moving left to right and this problem comes from all sources - DVD, HD and Digital channels; thus I don't think it's the signal.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

:(

I had a format board replaced in my 52725 warranty TV in Feb 08 and I am already starting to see faint wavy lines in my component inputs. So I would not hold my breath on the fact that Mitsu is replacing all the caps on all the boards they rebuild/refurbish. I would tear it apart and replace the caps myself as I have already fixed my 52725 and 62825 but I am going to make the warranty company do it.

My 62725 is fixed. Reinstalled the old lamp. So it was the two 3300uf caps after all.

I'll be rechecking the new lamp and harness tomorrow.

If they are and then the sets are going bad agian, this would be proof of a design flaw.

I had a format board replaced in my 52725 warranty TV in Feb 08 and I am already starting to see faint wavy lines in my component inputs. So I would not hold my breath on the fact that Mitsu is replacing all the caps on all the boards they rebuild/refurbish. I would tear it apart and replace the caps myself as I have already fixed my 52725 and 62825 but I am going to make the warranty company do it.

The new lamp installed again and the TV will not light. Good sound. Reinstalled old lamp again and the TV works great. The new one is an identical Osram and no obvious defects. I guess if your caps are good and the TV won't light, try another lamp.

Thanks for the follow-up. This is something I've had in the back of my mind, since I'm sure I read that the 3300uf caps are most likely responsible for these symptoms. My replacement bulb was nekkid, so I had to install it in my existing housing, which was a bit of a pita (gluing the paper backing). Unfortunately, the clowns that came to look at my tv didn't bother trying their new bulb, since I told them I had just put in a new one. I guess this confirms that I may have a bad new bulb. I did get tv audio the first time I powered on the tv after instaslling the new bulb, but now I get nothing till I get the red lamp light.

I just called to get an update on my set, and found out that the chassis has been shipped off to Mits for a second time. I was really hoping if that needed to be done they would just replace it...apparently I'm not that lucky.....

Randy

Here it is, Monday Dec. 8th, the beginning of week 12 since they hauled off my 62525.

Mits called again this morning to check if Fry's has called me yet. Answer was still no. However, I finally found out what is going on. Fry's wants to repair the TV, not replace it. Mits has decided they want to replace it, not repair it. Therefore Mits is crediting Fry's for a certain $$ amount and it will be up to Fry's to decide which replacement to give me.

The frustrating part is that Mits has submitted the paperwork to Fry's corporate office at least 3 times, but still haven't heard squat from them. This mornings phone call was a little more serious on Mits' end. I actually have a rep whom I am supposed to ask for when calling. She was a lot more knowledgeable than the past couple I have spoken to. She sent an e-mail to someone within Mits that is responsible for directly contacting Fry's to see what is going on. She apparently didn't have the authority. She said she would follow up no later than Wed. morning.

To quote Randy, "Ugh"

Hmmm...maybe 'lucky' wasn't the right word for me to use...sorry to hear about the troubles, Dub.

Randy

I just called to get an update on my set, and found out that the chassis has been shipped off to Mits for a second time. I was really hoping if that needed to be done they would just replace it...apparently I'm not that lucky.....

Randy
That sucks.

During my process I found out that Fry's wanted to replace the chassis. I was told that the replacement cost was/is $800. Hard to believe they would want to shell out another $800. Make me wonder how some are going about trying to fix these things.

Hmmm...maybe 'lucky' wasn't the right word for me to use...sorry to hear about the troubles, Dub.

Randy

Right now it seems the troubles are all with Fry's. Mits has been very good through this process (i.e. actually calling me to check up on the situation and apologize for all the inconvenience). Yes it was/is their TV, and for that they should apologize, but they want to make things right....which is good business ethics.

Now there is Fry's, who I bought the warranty through, and who has only called me once in the past 11 weeks. The one call I did receive was to see if I was happy with the repair.....ummmm, repair of what??? Since then I have called them about 5 times, each time getting a poor guy in the service department who keeps telling me that there is nothing in their system other than my TV is supposed to be getting a new chassis. No apologies, No "I will look into it", No "let me talk to my manager", and No follow up. 11 weeks and nothing.....now that's typical.

Right now it seems the troubles are all with Fry's. Mits has been very good through this process (i.e. actually calling me to check up on the situation and apologize for all the inconvenience). Yes it was/is their TV, and for that they should apologize, but they want to make things right....which is good business ethics.

Now there is Fry's, who I bought the warranty through, and who has only called me once in the past 11 weeks. The one call I did receive was to see if I was happy with the repair.....ummmm, repair of what??? Since then I have called them about 5 times, each time getting a poor guy in the service department who keeps telling me that there is nothing in their system other than my TV is supposed to be getting a new chassis. No apologies, No "I will look into it", No "let me talk to my manager", and No follow up. 11 weeks and nothing.....now that's typical.

That is pretty much why I bought my Panny plasma from Best Buy...they matched Fry's price and I didn't have to deal with Fry's...although I admit the salesman I talked to at Fry's was very knowledgable, straightforward, and didn't hit me the way some of their guys do...

I wonder if the fact that I bought my set from Ultimate Electronics so there is not really a store presence here to deal with has any bearing on what is happening with mine. I'm dealing directly with Warrantech. Since I have the other TV I have been really patient, but I will say that if something happens and it has to go back a third time (assuming it gets fixed this time), I am going to start getting a little more aggressive about things....

Keep us in the loop on what is going on with your deal, Dub...I hope it gets resolved soon.

Randy

When you deal with a warranty company, they may or may not use a Mits ASC for the local service. They are often unaware of what is going on with parts availability and service policies at the manufacturer.

Some dealers actually pay attention to these matters and are ASCs themselves. Most are just moving boxes and there is a large disconnect to service.

Wow... I read the last 6 months of posts.. I signed on originally and kept up with this thread until late 2005. My original purchase date was 08/2004. I'm thinking I have the only good (or better) Mitz.. I currently have 3400 power on hours and I am on firmware 04.03 if I remember correctly from the old posts. I realized that this TV was bleeding edge technology when I bought it and until it now I have never questioned the purchase. I realized that on the front end of the technology the equipment costs and like most of you I paid handsomely for the opportunity to have the technology at the start.

OK, My history..

I replaced the lamp last year because picture was dim and I cleaned up the mirrors that is all. I have had my share of no power on and BGLOD but a unplug, in some cases, multiple unplugs, have returned the set to service. The TV is not in a harsh environment and there are no children here (left long ago) to have the TV on for hours. A 23" Sony LCD in the kitchen takes the brunt of the viewing and power on hours. Currently the HDTV picture is what I would characterize as very very good.

My problem, if I can say that after reading the last six months of posts, is that I bought a Blu-Ray disk player and I am not getting as good of a picture as I think I should. I was hoping to see if the was firmware upgrades that maybe have addressed HDMI input picture or improvements due to aging circuits in general. In short, get a better picture from component that from HDMI and I use multiple inputs. I used HDMI for a standard and then an up convert DVD and it was a 'good' picture. I have OTA antenna and have a IPTV (AT&T U-Verse) connection using component. I have noticed a intermittent wavy interference on component as I was trying to determine why HDMI was not living up to my expectations. Up until now the picture on OTA or IPTV on an HD station has been great.

Can someone point me in the direction of where I can get or see what firmware was available or how to obtain it via download from someone that has it? I looked at the Mitz web page and there is nothing there.

I assumed that this forum would be better informed that anywhere else so I'm posing the question..

I might not want to do anything and put up with an occasion poor movie if firmware might drive me hotter or make me susceptible to other issues. I have already decided that I will not get it repaired after reading all the posts. I never had an extended warranty.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Right now it seems the troubles are all with Fry's. Mits has been very good through this process (i.e. actually calling me to check up on the situation and apologize for all the inconvenience). Yes it was/is their TV, and for that they should apologize, but they want to make things right....which is good business ethics.

Now there is Fry's, who I bought the warranty through, and who has only called me once in the past 11 weeks. The one call I did receive was to see if I was happy with the repair.....ummmm, repair of what??? Since then I have called them about 5 times, each time getting a poor guy in the service department who keeps telling me that there is nothing in their system other than my TV is supposed to be getting a new chassis. No apologies, No "I will look into it", No "let me talk to my manager", and No follow up. 11 weeks and nothing.....now that's typical.

If you have the time, the way I got my Mits replaced under extended warranty was to repeatedly call Mits, the warranty company and the service company -- often all three multiple times in the same day. And escalate at each company. Some phone reps tell you they can't escalate issues, and some tell you they can, so "shop around." I got Mits and the service company to admit the set couldn't be effectively repaired, then got them to convince the warranty company of the same. Took many tries and escalations within the warranty company, though.

Also, I don't know what the laws in your state might be, but in California I think the warranty period is extended under law for any amount of time you are without your tv.

Wow... I read the last 6 months of posts.. I signed on originally and kept up with this thread until late 2005. My original purchase date was 08/2004. I'm thinking I have the only good (or better) Mitz.. I currently have 3400 power on hours and I am on firmware 04.03 if I remember correctly from the old posts. I realized that this TV was bleeding edge technology when I bought it and until it now I have never questioned the purchase. I realized that on the front end of the technology the equipment costs and like most of you I paid handsomely for the opportunity to have the technology at the start.

OK, My history..

I replaced the lamp last year because picture was dim and I cleaned up the mirrors that is all. I have had my share of no power on and BGLOD but a unplug, in some cases, multiple unplugs, have returned the set to service. The TV is not in a harsh environment and there are no children here (left long ago) to have the TV on for hours. A 23" Sony LCD in the kitchen takes the brunt of the viewing and power on hours. Currently the HDTV picture is what I would characterize as very very good.

My problem, if I can say that after reading the last six months of posts, is that I bought a Blu-Ray disk player and I am not getting as good of a picture as I think I should. I was hoping to see if the was firmware upgrades that maybe have addressed HDMI input picture or improvements due to aging circuits in general. In short, get a better picture from component that from HDMI and I use multiple inputs. I used HDMI for a standard and then an up convert DVD and it was a 'good' picture. I have OTA antenna and have a IPTV (AT&T U-Verse) connection using component. I have noticed a intermittent wavy interference on component as I was trying to determine why HDMI was not living up to my expectations. Up until now the picture on OTA or IPTV on an HD station has been great.

Can someone point me in the direction of where I can get or see what firmware was available or how to obtain it via download from someone that has it? I looked at the Mitz web page and there is nothing there.

I assumed that this forum would be better informed that anywhere else so I'm posing the question..

I might not want to do anything and put up with an occasion poor movie if firmware might drive me hotter or make me susceptible to other issues. I have already decided that I will not get it repaired after reading all the posts. I never had an extended warranty.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

There is newer firmware than what you're reporting, but it does nothing to improve HDMI picture. I believe firmware updates mainly addressed HD tuner performance/stability and cable card compatibility. There are sites where you can obtain the firmware with instructions on how to properly copy it to a CF card, but it's just as easy to call Mits and request it if you want it.

What you've reported with HDMI is not uncommon. These MIts actually don't maintain the HDMI signal as digital, so they don't stay as clean as hoped. Most have reported component quality being on par with HDMI. Some have reported color quality being inferior when using HDMI, so do a good cal and see if you can improve it. I use HDMI, and I can't report a clear pic quality advantage over component, except for HDMI pic being free from the wavy line interference that you're seeing. As you've read, the wavy line interference is a known issue, and can be fixed.

You can add another Mits owner to these issues. I have a 52525. It started Saturday night with some strange waviness of the picture to the blue screen with white lines to now turning on the tv and having it shut off. I have had both BGLOD and red lamp light.

The TV is still under warranty through BB and I have a tech coming out on the 17th to diagnose the issue. I have had both the light engine and lamp replaced in the last 6 months. I am hoping my outcome is not as long as some of you have been dealing with, but I will keep you all posted as to what happens. At any rate it does not sound very promising from what I have read!

Wish me luck... I am stuck watching TV on my 22" computer monitor or my 27" 12 year old tv.... needless to say, it is no fun!

Thanks for the reply.

I only see the wavy lines when I do extreme changes in contrast, sharpness and brightness. Late last night after my wife went to bed, I messed around again with normally available picture controls and I don't see the wavy lines that seem to be reported with normal viewing levels.

Unfortunately you are telling me what I didn't want to hear. Since experienced people consider component input about as good as it gets I will concentrate on getting that as good as I can. I read some other threads over the last few days about doing calibrations using a PC with some sensors and I might try that. Probably better that trying to get a calibration service out on a one time shot. Once I have the skill and the equipment it won't be much of an issue going forward. I think I remember that early in the forum posts it was determined that internally this chassis was really a 720P technology. Has that assumption changed?

I really don't want to replace the set at this time. It is really is still working and it was expensive so my costs for equipment are still well over a dollar per hour of use and will be for the foreseeable future. I will need to get another two years of use to even break the dollar mark.

I see in the calibration thread quite a mostly references to the newer Mitz TVs and I was wondering if there was any place that someone on here knew of where there was documented calibration procedure posted somewhere for this specific chassis or was calibration really generic for three color sets. I have a WD-62735 with the V26 chassis as far as I can make out from the screens.

Again thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. I look forward to becoming active again on the forum while I work through my tasks. I do have electronic skills as I have worked in electronic/computer repair for almost all my life. I won't even attempt SMT replacements. I might try the other CAPs but my eyes are not what they used to be and I really don't have a good work bench or the time I need to devote to the task.

Jack

Thanks for the reply.

I only see the wavy lines when I do extreme changes in contrast, sharpness and brightness. Late last night after my wife went to bed, I messed around again with normally available picture controls and I don't see the wavy lines that seem to be reported with normal viewing levels.

Unfortunately you are telling me what I didn't want to hear. Since experienced people consider component input about as good as it gets I will concentrate on getting that as good as I can. I read some other threads over the last few days about doing calibrations using a PC with some sensors and I might try that. Probably better that trying to get a calibration service out on a one time shot. Once I have the skill and the equipment it won't be much of an issue going forward. I think I remember that early in the forum posts it was determined that internally this chassis was really a 720P technology. Has that assumption changed?

I really don't want to replace the set at this time. It is really is still working and it was expensive so my costs for equipment are still well over a dollar per hour of use and will be for the foreseeable future. I will need to get another two years of use to even break the dollar mark.

I see in the calibration thread quite a mostly references to the newer Mitz TVs and I was wondering if there was any place that someone on here knew of where there was documented calibration procedure posted somewhere for this specific chassis or was calibration really generic for three color sets. I have a WD-62735 with the V26 chassis as far as I can make out from the screens.

Again thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. I look forward to becoming active again on the forum while I work through my tasks. I do have electronic skills as I have worked in electronic/computer repair for almost all my life. I won't even attempt SMT replacements. I might try the other CAPs but my eyes are not what they used to be and I really don't have a good work bench or the time I need to devote to the task.

Jack

This TV calibrates like most other Mitsubishi's. You have to do the calibration in the service menu and the only calibratable values are for contrast, brightness, and grayscale. You can't calibrate the color points in the service menu, you can only use perfect color to change the luminance of each primary and secondary. You have to use Tint to move the secondaries as close as you can to their proper values.

To do this, you really need to have someone who knows what they're doing work on it. You need to have calibration software and meter to do it right. I own a 62725 myself, so I know this TV well. :)

now that my mits 62825 has gblod again (after just getting it back from light engine repair) I am looking at new sets... in particular the Sharp Aquos LC-65SE94U... any body have any comments as to this choice?
wife has a 42 inch Aquos that she just loves...
Thank you for all the help now and in the past
Hal
Never mind... my dealer is replacing this set with a 65835... so i guess I don't need to know what others think of the sharp...
Woo Hoo...

This TV calibrates like most other Mitsubishi's. You have to do the calibration in the service menu and the only calibratable values are for contrast, brightness, and grayscale. You can't calibrate the color points in the service menu, you can only use perfect color to change the luminance of each primary and secondary. You have to use Tint to move the secondaries as close as you can to their proper values.

To do this, you really need to have someone who knows what they're doing work on it. You need to have calibration software and meter to do it right. I own a 62725 myself, so I know this TV well. :)

I might be mistaken but when I looked at the calibration thread it said the equipment costs would be less that $150. I'll have to look again. I didn't think that was too unreasonable.

I might be mistaken but when I looked at the calibration thread it said the equipment costs would be less that $150. I'll have to look again. I didn't think that was too unreasonable.

That's correct. It depends on what equipment you buy. You can get a decent colorimeter for around that price and you can use the free HCFR software. If you look in the calibration forum, there is a ton of good information.

That's correct. It depends on what equipment you buy. You can get a decent colorimeter for around that price and you can use the free HCFR software. If you look in the calibration forum, there is a ton of good information.

Thank you. That is what I needed to know. I started reading it and there seemed to be references to my TV but I did not want to invest the time reading it when there was a better source for the information.

Jack

I'm having a issue with my 52725 and wonder if someone can tell me what is going on, so that when I have it worked on under warrenty, what I should be looking to have the repair man do.

I have a noise area on my tv that is about 3" by 5" in size and it moves ! It slowly moves from the bottom to the top of the tv...it take around 30 minutes for it to go from bottom to top. I took some pics of it if someone wants to see. I also see sometimes horizontal lines that move slowly up too. Any ideas ??? it stays the same distance from the side, but moves up. It is now more noticable since i replaced the bulb.... but was there before also.

I will gladly email my pics to someone if they would look at them

thanks for any help...here's a pic..see the blue ?? .please let me know what you think??

Tim

Hi guys. I am a newbie here. so please bear with me. I have a wd-52525 that works great for a few minutes to a half hour, then gets a blue screen then shuts down with the light blinking for about a minute. I can then turn it back on till it does it again. I have had someone tell me it is probably bad capacitors on the power supply, but I see no bulging or leaking caps. Someone else said to get a new Signal board. Where would you guys start? Replace the whole power supply board or the signal board, or what? Please help out. Also, should I post this somewhere else?

Ok. Can someone help me out here. I've got a wd-62725 that just started acting up this week. Last Sunday after about 6hours of operation the picture began to flicker very quickly. It was as if the bulb was losing power momentarily. I shut off the tv and allowed it to cool for a bit. When I powered it back on it was fine for awhile but them began flickering again. Since then, each day that I run the TV for an extended period of time it will eventually start flickering again.

I'm pretty sure I've ruled out the bulb, as I have installed an old bulb that was not yet burned out and it is doing the same thing. I have noticed that while the picture is flickering if I hold my ear to the front of the set I can hear a slight buzzing/hissing noise durring each flicker. My gut is telling me that it is likely in need of a new ballast, but after doing some reading here I'm a little paranoid about the capacitors that everyone is complaining about.

What do you all think? Caps, or just ballast???

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

I finally got around to doing the wavy line repair. Prior to doing so, several other problems emerged, including vertical purple bands (I posted a picture in a previous post) and horizontal purple bars. I was a little worried that new solutions would need to be found for them.

First I replaced five 1000 uF's on the power board (originally, I had only done the two 3300 uF's). Turned the tv on ... no improvement. Next, I replaced the four 1000 uF's on the DM board and the DM board SMT electrolytic caps that tbully marked as the wavy line fix (i.e., the ones in the left black circle in the photo he posted). I also started replacing the FMT caps to fix the BGLOD problem as well, but after replacing 2 of them (the ones closest to the "troublesome" IC), my patience wore out as I began worrying that all these efforts would be in vain due to my poor workmanship.

So I put it all together and ... (drum roll) ... the HDMI picture is perfect now! No wavy lines, no purple bars... simply perfection. Much thanks to tbully for posting on his work!

Replacing the SMT's was a pain. Removing them was easy (thanks to garcia -- I simply twisted them off with a needle-nose), but putting the new ones in was a bear. Unfortunately, I didn't buy the leaded caps like tbully did -- I realize now that he made a smart move there. I did a lot of continuity checking and rechecking with my DVM. I also touched each cap before packing things up to make sure none were loose.

Now that I have a little more confidence in my ability, I'll probably finish the BGLOD repair next time I'm in there. For now, I'm still using the switch fix.

Next up ... trying to figure out why my WD5000 hard drive (made in 2007) won't work. 20 seconds of the hair dryer on the circuit card brings it alive. Too bad there isn't a forum like this for every piece of hardware out there.

What do you all think? Caps, or just ballast???

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Does the on-screen display flicker as well? If so, the ballast sounds like a good suspect.

You should try send an note to UMD_terp. I believe he found the generic part number for the ballast board, and it could be bought on-line for $60-$70.

Does the on-screen display flicker as well? If so, the ballast sounds like a good suspect.

You should try send an note to UMD_terp. I believe he found the generic part number for the ballast board, and it could be bought on-line for $60-$70.

Yes the osd flickers too. I'll try to contact him. Thanks for the reply!

Caught this post in another thread about a problematic Mits:

"Has any one used a kit similar to servicemanuals.vstore.ca/product_info.php/pName/v26-chassis-block-capacitor-kit for $115. This kit does all the caps in the chassis. Is the best thing just to replace it all for longevity sake or will the smaller $35 DM kit take care of the blinking timer light? Is the V26 chassis problematic?"

I emailed them to ask if the replacement caps were upgraded in temp/voltage, and he responded by saying they were more durable than the originals. Thought others might use this info, and not seen it in the other thread. The kit is a great idea, just not convinced it's as good as I'm personally looking to get. Or I'm a sucker for punishment :)

Or I'm a sucker for punishment :)

Out of curiosity, are you using similarly-sized SMT metal can caps as your replacement parts ... or are you using radial leaded caps? If the latter, did you bend the lead tips (e.g. bottom 1/4") for better pad contact?

Yes the osd flickers too. I'll try to contact him. Thanks for the reply!

I remembered I have his old note in my mailbox here:

"the Mitsubishi part # is 939P978010 just for your reference. It is a OSRAM PT-VIP 2AC/380 lamp ballast that is used in other TV sets as well."

I suppose there's an outside chance that the problem originates in the light engine card since it sends a sync signal to the ballast, but if I were you, I'd try the cheap fix first. If a new ballast card doesn't fix it, you could likely resell it on ebay without much overall cost. Buying a new light engine on the other hand, I believe is pretty costly.

I have had someone tell me it is probably bad capacitors on the power supply, but I see no bulging or leaking caps. Someone else said to get a new Signal board. Where would you guys start? Replace the whole power supply board or the signal board, or what? Please help out. Also, should I post this somewhere else?

Sounds like something is getting hot. If you set the electrical chassis on a chair behind the tv & run it with the covers off, does it still shut-down? If not, you could try the fan fix that someone mentioned in this thread several pages ago.

As for caps, replacing the clusters of 4 1000 uF's on the FMT, power, DM, and signal boards would be a nice first stab. I think it's been stated here previously that poorly filtered supply lines increase heat generation.

I'm having a issue with my 52725 and wonder if someone can tell me what is going on, so that when I have it worked on under warrenty, what I should be looking to have the repair man do.

I have a noise area on my tv that is about 3" by 5" in size and it moves ! It slowly moves from the bottom to the top of the tv...it take around 30 minutes for it to go from bottom to top. I took some pics of it if someone wants to see. I also see sometimes horizontal lines that move slowly up too. Any ideas ??? it stays the same distance from the side, but moves up. It is now more noticable since i replaced the bulb.... but was there before also.

I will gladly email my pics to someone if they would look at them

thanks for any help...here's a pic..see the blue ?? .please let me know what you think??

Tim

Hopefully the repairman will have access to a Mits solution that describes this perfectly and includes a fix. But if not, these are my thoughts ...

The service manual flow diagram shows the OSD getting added near the end of the FMT/DM flow. So if this noise disrupts the OSD letters as well, then it seems that the problem would likely be in the light engine. If it doesn't, then I'd ask the repairman to replace the entire electrical chassis. I've heard too many times on here of techs "guessing" the wrong board to replace.

Out of curiosity, are you using similarly-sized SMT metal can caps as your replacement parts ... or are you using radial leaded caps? If the latter, did you bend the lead tips (e.g. bottom 1/4") for better pad contact?

Well, it's been rough going for me, and I've been spending most of my time finishing my a/v furniture for my new 65735. I've dabbled in the repair a tiny bit at a time when I have time.

Heck, I haven't even actually received suitable upgrade replacements for the 1000uF/16V failures. I'm upgrading those to 25V, and of three batches that I've found, all were too big in diameter.

But, to your question. I will likely replace the SMTs with the same metal can type. But if I do find a need to absolutely use the different style like TBully, I'd give the legs a little bend for more solder surface. More of a physical advantage for the long term.

Troubleshooting the SMTs has been fun. I don't know where to draw the line in deeming them bad, with my ESR meter. I thought I'd check them after removal, but as TBully mentioned, the heat seems to destroy them. Raised some questions for me as to the best way to install the replacments.

I remembered I have his old note in my mailbox here:

"the Mitsubishi part # is 939P978010 just for your reference. It is a OSRAM PT-VIP 2AC/380 lamp ballast that is used in other TV sets as well."

I suppose there's an outside chance that the problem originates in the light engine card since it sends a sync signal to the ballast, but if I were you, I'd try the cheap fix first. If a new ballast card doesn't fix it, you could likely resell it on ebay without much overall cost. Buying a new light engine on the other hand, I believe is pretty costly.

Thanks for the info and the reassurance. I have ordered a new ballast on eBay. I decided to go with the new OSRAM part rather than the refurbished Mits part. My thoughts on it were the same. If this doesn't fix it I'm sure I can get most my money back out of the ballast, and move on to the next step.

Actually if this doesn't fix it I may just get lazy and buy a whole new set. It's kinda hard to not notice a 65" 1080p for $1500.:rolleyes:

Thanks again!

I finally got around to doing the wavy line repair. Prior to doing so, several other problems emerged, including vertical purple bands (I posted a picture in a previous post) and horizontal purple bars. I was a little worried that new solutions would need to be found for them.

First I replaced five 1000 uF's on the power board (originally, I had only done the two 3300 uF's). Turned the tv on ... no improvement. Next, I replaced the four 1000 uF's on the DM board and the DM board SMT electrolytic caps that tbully marked as the wavy line fix (i.e., the ones in the left black circle in the photo he posted). I also started replacing the FMT caps to fix the BGLOD problem as well, but after replacing 2 of them (the ones closest to the "troublesome" IC), my patience wore out as I began worrying that all these efforts would be in vain due to my poor workmanship.

So I put it all together and ... (drum roll) ... the HDMI picture is perfect now! No wavy lines, no purple bars... simply perfection. Much thanks to tbully for posting on his work!

Replacing the SMT's was a pain. Removing them was easy (thanks to garcia -- I simply twisted them off with a needle-nose), but putting the new ones in was a bear. Unfortunately, I didn't buy the leaded caps like tbully did -- I realize now that he made a smart move there. I did a lot of continuity checking and rechecking with my DVM. I also touched each cap before packing things up to make sure none were loose.

Now that I have a little more confidence in my ability, I'll probably finish the BGLOD repair next time I'm in there. For now, I'm still using the switch fix.

Next up ... trying to figure out why my WD5000 hard drive (made in 2007) won't work. 20 seconds of the hair dryer on the circuit card brings it alive. Too bad there isn't a forum like this for every piece of hardware out there.

Thanks for the props, Noplasma.

I'm sorry to hear you still have the BGLOD issue. Let me know if you get the energy to get it fixed. We were almost certain that the issue was in that area. Honestly, though, we were changing 6-10 caps at a time between tests so I suppose we could have missed it.

Got a call from Mits today and was told that they sent another e-mail to Fry's and will give them until the close of business today to respond to their request. Mits told me they will give me the 65736 as a replacement, which I know is much better than my 62525, but I haven't given up the fight for the 65835. Guess I should start brushing up on the "Official 65735/65736/65835 Thread".

I love my 65835

I love my 65835
Did Mits authorize the 65835 or someone else? If Mits, can you give me a name I can drop to my rep.?

Yes they did. It was to replace my WD62725 and not a 525.

Yes they did. It was to replace my WD62725 and not a 525.
Should have phrased the question differently. Did you deal directly with Mits or did you deal directly with the warranty/service company, who in turn dealt directly with Mits?

Reason being is that I would like to tell them that they have in fact replaced one of our DLP's with a 65835. Their reasoning for not giving me the 65835 is that my TV was/is not a Diamond Series.

I did it all with Mitsubishi. I spoke with customer service and gave them all the info on the problems I had. I did push for the 835 because I spent $4000.00 on the 725 pluse there stand.
All I can say is talk to them and be very nice and do not get mad. That is how I took care of it It took all about 2 weeks to get it done.

I did it all with Mitsubishi. I spoke with customer service and gave them all the info on the problems I had. I did push for the 835 because I spent $4000.00 on the 725 pluse there stand.
All I can say is talk to them and be very nice and do not get mad. That is how I took care of it It took all about 2 weeks to get it done.
Same boat I'm in...$4,000+ for TV and bought matching stand. I have been talking to Mits for 5 weeks now. Granted they have been waiting on a response from Fry's, but I have been very nice and have appreciated everything they have done. They have in fact been very good through this process.

If you don't mind, could I use your name if they won't budge on the 65835? Could you PM me your name, if it is not Daniel Murray? My customer service rep would be able to pull up your history and see how they processed the 65835. If I recall you got a 5 year warranty as well!!! Thank you

Yes you can use my name. By the way I had no ext.warranty

I know that this is the thread for xx725, but I take it that the 52825 is probably the same.

so my wd-52825, about 4 years old now and out of warranty and have already changed the freaking lamp, is having these wavy lines all over the screen when I use my component inputs, let it be DVD or cable box. I am trying to go through all 175 pages of this thread and haven't been able to find the right fix.

to add to all my problems, I just moved and now whatever connection I use for the cable box (HDMI or Comp) gives me terrible noise on the screen and the images shift all over the place.

is there an easy fix for this? I read the posts above about uF's and have no idea what that is.

thanks

Well the tech was out yesterday and he replaced the 2 capacitors (3300 uF's) on my power board and that fixed it. Now I hope the rest fail before June when my ext warranty runs out.

kermalou this sounds like what I was seeing as well. I have the 52525 at any rate it was a 20 minute fix and the tv is at least working again.
Thanks

I know that this is the thread for xx725, but I take it that the 52825 is probably the same.

so my wd-52825, about 4 years old now and out of warranty and have already changed the freaking lamp, is having these wavy lines all over the screen when I use my component inputs, let it be DVD or cable box. I am trying to go through all 175 pages of this thread and haven't been able to find the right fix.

to add to all my problems, I just moved and now whatever connection I use for the cable box (HDMI or Comp) gives me terrible noise on the screen and the images shift all over the place.

is there an easy fix for this? I read the posts above about uF's and have no idea what that is.

thanks

"uF" is microfarad -- just a short-hand way of describing what capacitors were being changed out by naming their values. It's quite possible that if your set uses a similar design, the same fix could work for you (look at tbully's post history to find info on the solution -- he once posted a picture of a cluster of caps on the DM board that he put a black circle around). Unfortunately, these caps are surface-mounted, which increases the difficulty in replacing them. It's definitely not an "easy" fix, but I think anyone with basic soldering skills can do it if they replace the SMTs (surface mounted caps) with radially leaded caps. Just be sure to verify each solder contact you make with an ohm-meter and verify discontinuity between any points where your solder runs close to other points of exposed circuit metal.

Thanks for the props, Noplasma.

I'm sorry to hear you still have the BGLOD issue. Let me know if you get the energy to get it fixed. We were almost certain that the issue was in that area. Honestly, though, we were changing 6-10 caps at a time between tests so I suppose we could have missed it.

Since I only replaced 2 of the caps there, the problem could still easily be in that area.

The entire time I was thinking "all this work probably won't fix the 'straight-lined scrolling horizontal purple bar' problem that I don't recall anyone else reporting". I was very pleasantly surprised when it was fixed at power-up. I think that replacing the DM 1000 uF caps fixed that particular problem.

So a general word of advice to all -- when your board's main power filters (i.e., the board clusters of four 1000 uF caps) start to go, strange things will happen.

The next time I'm "in" there, I'll try the BGLOD fix. But for now, I don't have the heart to open it all up again. :-)

For the public record, I also had intermittent large fuzzy VERTICAL purple bars -- I think that is related to the wavy lines issue and was solved by replacing the "wavy line caps".

I am a tinkler in all these so bare with me.

I have the Mitz WD-52525. I changed out my lamp, i can see it light up for a few sec. then goes out. and then the dreaded steady red light. I took out the back and all its 1000's of screws. Not sure what im looking at. Do you have the "manual" I did order the 6 cap. that you did. (3-16v 3300uf and 3-3300uf 25v) do i need to order any thing else?

Also should i test the ballast first (don't know how) before changing the caps? or just change it out with a new one

Also where is this mirror eveyone is talking about to clean. I don't see anything. (doesn't this make for a better picture) I did clean my filter tho.

One last thing - i read about the diamond cover, or something to put masking tape around it as well for a better picture do you know about that

thank you for all your help. I just have a big mess going on with a pile of screws.

I am a tinkler in all this so bare with me.

I have the Mitz WD-52525. I changed out my lamp, i can see it light up for a few sec. then goes out. and then the dreaded steady red light. I took out the back and all its 1000's of screws. Not sure what im looking at. Do you have the "manual" I did order the 6 cap. that you did. (3-16v 3300uf and 3-3300uf 25v) do i need to order any thing else?

Also should i test the ballast first (don't know how) before changing the caps? or just change it out with a new one

Also where is this mirror eveyone is talking about to clean. I don't see anything. (doesn't this make for a better picture) I did clean my filter tho.

One last thing - i read about the diamond cover, or something to put masking tape around it as well for a better picture do you know about that

thank you for all your help. I just have a big mess going on with a pile of screws.

I have the Mitz WD-52525. I changed out my lamp, i can see it light up for a few sec. then goes out. and then the dreaded steady red light. I took out the back and all its 1000's of screws. Not sure what im looking at. Do you have the "manual"

Your old lamp might still be good. I could see mine light for a few seconds behind the access door with the lights shut off in the room, so I saved myself from an unnecessary expense. If that's all that's wrong with your set, replacing those bulging electrolytic capacitors is all you need to do (unless you want to do some proactive repairs).

I sent you a PM regarding the manual. You need the chassis replacement manual for this repair, though you should have the service manual on hand as well.


Also where is this mirror eveyone is talking about to clean. I don't see anything. (doesn't this make for a better picture) I did clean my filter tho.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10226485#post10226485

Thank IronHorse and noplasma for their contributions to this thread. My Mits would have been outside at the curb years ago if not for their posts to this thread.

I would love to see the pics. my e-mail is xonforefunx@bellsouth.net thank you

Is it true the main board on these units are no longer aval. for tv tech to get to replace ? I was told that and if my tv has a bad one, it will have to be sent in to have rebuild by mitsu and will take 6-8 weeks !

Can it be upgraded to a 1080p ?

thx

no your mits 720p dlp can not be upgraded to be a 1080p display.......unless you get mits to give you a completely new model replacement set like they did for Daniel Murray.

Since so many of these sets have needed repair they probably have used up all the new boards kept for replacement and you will need to have your board sent in for repair.

Contact Mits and see if they can help you with the repair cost or replacement.

xonforefunx,
I replied to your PM. I will email the manuals to the address you posted above. They total 7MB in size.

I haven't checked back in this thread for a long time. I had a slight problem the other week though. I usually leave my set plugged in, via UPS, all day every day. When I went out of town for a few days, I unplugged it. After returning home and pluggint it back into the UPS it took about 15 minutes and several power up / power down's to get the set to boot completely up with no error lights! So now, I leave my set plugged in ALL of the time.

Also, here's a reposting of my writeup on changing the larger power capacitors on the power board. Kind of a how-to.


http://www.chevelle-ss.com/temp/Mits_DLP_TV/52525_DLP_TV_Repair.htm

Thank you for info. I appreciate it. Wish me luck

Anyone know what these tv's are worth ? I will probally be selling mine soon as the static/noise issue is fixed. Other than the small area , it still gets a pretty good picture. With the new blub in it is really bright again. I may just use it in the bedroom. But wow the light it puts out at night in a medium size room would be huge. :)

Depends on the market. One sold here recently for about $600, after the chassis was rebuilt by Mitsubishi.

Ok - I had the solid red light. I replaced the lamp with a new one. Then I replaced two caps. Put everything back together turned the set on, Clicked on yes when it asked to reset the bulb message and BAM it worked fine. (I have Direct TV) Then I woke up and turned the set on and it blinked green for a bit and low and behold the solid red light of death came on. I watched to see if the lamp came on and it did not. I took out the lamp and shook it up and tried again and nothing same thing. What do I do now?

Oh yeah it is the 52525

Ok - I had the solid red light. I replaced the lamp with a new one. Then I replaced two caps. Put everything back together turned the set on, Clicked on yes when it asked to reset the bulb message and BAM it worked fine. (I have Direct TV) Then I woke up and turned the set on and it blinked green for a bit and low and behold the solid red light of death came on. I watched to see if the lamp came on and it did not. I took out the lamp and shook it up and tried again and nothing same thing. What do I do now?

It seems a little coincidental for the lamp to suddenly die so soon after making the repair. I'd recommend verifying your cap fix by seeing if you get 5V at the 5V test point on the the power board. Perhaps there's a crack in your soldering?

I have had it with this stupid TV. I can not look at it for a second longer.

Yeah, i changed the bulb out because of the steady red light, the next day i took the circuit board out saw two bad caps and had someone solder the new ones on. Like i said got it all back together and worked fine. Went to bed and in the morning just blinked green, turned to the steady red, and did not see the bulb light up. I am fed up

ok - dumb question - can someone please tell me what the voltage should be that is comming out of the caps should be. (what are they rated) for the 3300 and 1000 i guess, i am going to have my neighbor test them and that is what i think he is asking me to find out

ok - dumb question - can someone please tell me what the voltage should be that is comming out of the caps should be. (what are they rated) for the 3300 and 1000 i guess, i am going to have my neighbor test them and that is what i think he is asking me to find out

I doubt you're exceeding a capacitor maximum voltage rating. Just measure the voltage at the 5V test point on the power board (it's a little metal tab with the letters "TP5V" next to it). If you don't get ~5 V after plugging in the TV, then the caps likely not connected properly. Two common newbie mistakes are:

a) putting the capacitors in backwards
b) letting the solder congeal into a small sphere -- therein, the contact to the board metal will be minimal and will easily crack with vibration and/or temperature changes; you need to be sure to create a little solder "cone" around the capacitor lead where there is a circle of contact to the board metal. Buy some solder flux and apply it to the board before soldering if you have trouble making your solder "stick" to the board.

If the TV worked immediately after the fix but then not the next day, I'd put my money on (b) above.

Thank you so much, i will check that. I'm taking it apart again on Tues. and i will let you know.

NOPLASMA - We just took the 52525 apart again. The brand new caps that we just replaced , 3300 16v, were blown again. They are both blown out on the top. What do you think? The TV was not plugged in but the heat shield around the circuit board was real warm.

NOPLASMA - We just took the 52525 apart again. The brand new caps that we just replaced , 3300 16v, were blown again. They are both blown out on the top. What do you think? The TV was not plugged in but the heat shield around the circuit board was real warm.

Sorry to ask the obvious, but are you certain the caps were installed with the correct polarity? (i.e., each of those caps has a positive and negative lead -- if you reverse them, the caps will have a very short life).

As for the heat shield warmth, that's pretty typical. These sets run pretty hot, which is probably why we are reading about so many issues.

Thanks. (Told you i was a newbie) I didn't even know there was a neg/pos side on the caps. We even took it to a shop to have them soldered. Is there a way you can tell? ok about the shield, i guess thats why there are so many fans huh? lol Okay i will tackle all this today. aaaaggggggggg!!! I will let you know. I sure hope this thread is helping other people especially the "newbie do it yourselvers"

Thanks. (Told you i was a newbie) I didn't even know there was a neg/pos side on the caps. We even took it to a shop to have them soldered. Is there a way you can tell? ok about the shield, i guess thats why there are so many fans huh? lol Okay i will tackle all this today. aaaaggggggggg!!! I will let you know. I sure hope this thread is helping other people especially the "newbie do it yourselvers"

The caps will usually have a minus sign indicating the negative lead. The board backside, I believe, also marks one of the polarities (next to one of the lead holes). If you took it to a shop ... well, I'm surprised that someone with experience would fail to consider polarity. But I can't imagine why else your caps would burst in 1 day.

Good luck, hopefully you will have a working tv again very soon. If you still get a red light after replacing the caps again, we may want to talk more about the lamp you mentioning shaking...

Xonforefunx,

Did you happen to note the brand of the original failed caps? I'm just wondering, as I'm scoring at home :)

Also, I just made a discovery about the SMT caps relating to the service manual. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find the reference designator for any of the SMTs in the parts list. Turns out, Mits didn't list these caps by reference des. Instead, they just listed these components by their part # (Mits') and value, in a table labeled "CHIP Type Capacitors (Listed by Value)". I am now in the process of compiling a parts list replacement to go along with TBully's recommended replacement guide. Not for ALL of the SMTs, just the ones he highly recommends. I'll keep track of what I replace, in case everything isn't fixed on the first 'clean sweep'.

I gave up on trying to find bad ones with my ESR. Without knowing what's in parallel with caps under test, it's impossible to know what's good/bad. Removing them destroys them, and I can't seem to find a 'pattern' as to what's a good/bad read for each value. Measuring the pads after removing the cap gives interesting results as well, so it appears to be in vain to bother. I'll just go with TBully's recommendations and get on with it.

when you have a cap not installed yet and you look at the leads one is longer than the other which one is the positive and negative. i don't see the - or + on the caps i just see a stripe on one side. I am starting to think like you said it is backwards..

The more i look at this thing, the more it looks like it is reversed. I hope it didn't do any damage. Its okay, right it i use the 3300uf 16 volts right?

The longer lead is the positive side.

i do have some 3300 25v which are fatter and shorter on hand can i use those instead of the 3300 16v?

Icaillo - Thanks for the fast reply - sure enough - the shop i took it too put it on backwards. I hope it did not cause any more damage. He guarantees his work, but I am scared to take it back but I had to pay $50 for him to sodder the two caps. He owes me (LOL)

You all have been GREAT helping me with this mess. I cannot thank you enough. I'll keep you posted!!! Oh and Happy Holidays!!!

Icaillo - Thanks for the fast reply - sure enough - the shop i took it too put it on backwards. I hope it did not cause any more damage. He guarantees his work, but I am scared to take it back but I had to pay $50 for him to sodder the two caps. He owes me (LOL)

You all have been GREAT helping me with this mess. I cannot thank you enough. I'll keep you posted!!! Oh and Happy Holidays!!!

The voltage rating is the max voltage that the capacitor can support. So if the 25V ones fit on the board, use them.

Xonforefunx,

Did you happen to note the brand of the original failed caps? I'm just wondering, as I'm scoring at home :)

Also, I just made a discovery about the SMT caps relating to the service manual. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find the reference designator for any of the SMTs in the parts list. Turns out, Mits didn't list these caps by reference des. Instead, they just listed these components by their part # (Mits') and value, in a table labeled "CHIP Type Capacitors (Listed by Value)". I am now in the process of compiling a parts list replacement to go along with TBully's recommended replacement guide. Not for ALL of the SMTs, just the ones he highly recommends. I'll keep track of what I replace, in case everything isn't fixed on the first 'clean sweep'.

I gave up on trying to find bad ones with my ESR. Without knowing what's in parallel with caps under test, it's impossible to know what's good/bad. Removing them destroys them, and I can't seem to find a 'pattern' as to what's a good/bad read for each value. Measuring the pads after removing the cap gives interesting results as well, so it appears to be in vain to bother. I'll just go with TBully's recommendations and get on with it.

When you say SMT caps are you refering to those tiny rectangular deals? I thought is was the aluminum can type (surface mount) and the larger plastic wrapped (through hole) that were needing replacing.

what would be the cost for someone to come out and fix the board, if that is at all possible?

When you say SMT caps are you refering to those tiny rectangular deals? I thought is was the aluminum can type (surface mount) and the larger plastic wrapped (through hole) that were needing replacing.

I am referring to the aluminum can type.

what would be the cost for someone to come out and fix the board, if that is at all possible?

Hard to say. As you've read, some shop just charged a feller $50 to install a couple of caps, backwards! If you are in the DFW area, I'd help you for free.

i do have some 3300 25v which are fatter and shorter on hand can i use those instead of the 3300 16v?

I'd recommend making sure they are 105C rated as well. They are usually labeled on the body. And as has been mentioned, the stripe indicates negative, and there's sometimes a dash marking within the stripe. I can't believe the shop installed them backwards, and charged $50!

I am referring to the aluminum can type.

Whew! Glad to hear that! When you look up SMTs they always show those ceramics and some of those are as small as ants I would hate to have to change any of those out, you'd almost need a microscope to do the job.

I know it's terrible. I did call him and he agreed to redo it and I told him basically I did not trust him. He is returning my $50 and paying for the two caps plus the postage. I will practice on an old board and just do it myself. You guys were sooooooo helpful. I cannot thank you enough.

Hello all, Out of the blue I lost speaker volume on my Mits. Pre out works fine and I can listen thru the HT fine. The mute button does not seem to be the culprit as I have pressed it on and off about 20 times. Also the yellow lamp light just came on about a week ago. Any suggestions? Thanks tons guys.

Well, add me to the list of folks with the wavy line issue. So far though HDMI is fine and that is my main viewing input (D*TV). I have an extended warranty when I bought the set in 2005 at Tweeter, but since they've gone belly-up I hope the warranty is still valid.

I know it's terrible. I did call him and he agreed to redo it and I told him basically I did not trust him. He is returning my $50 and paying for the two caps plus the postage. I will practice on an old board and just do it myself. You guys were sooooooo helpful. I cannot thank you enough.

I know it's terrible. I did call him and he agreed to redo it and I told him basically I did not trust him. He is returning my $50 and paying for the two caps plus the postage. I will practice on an old board and just do it myself. You guys were sooooooo helpful. I cannot thank you enough.

One thing to remember: Replacing the caps (and observing polarity) may not correct your issue. You may have new issues because of the bad repair.

Hopefully the caps opened up (exploded, in this case) fast enough to not load down the switcher and short it out. Many times, backwards filter caps will short the bus causing more issues up stream.

That's not a "for sure" scenario, though. I've been known to put caps in backwards and the supply turned out to be OK after correcting. (ssshhh, don't tell anyone)

UPDATE:
I decided to tempt fate the other night and reboot my set to see how the repair is holding up. Everything booted up fine and the picture still looks perfect. Woo Hoo!

@ BKWELLS:

My WD62725 came from Tweeter in Feb 2005 as well, and I also got the extended service plan through them. The warranty is handled through The Warranty Group, and it has been valid even though Tweeter has vanished. I've suffered the wavy lines, which were remedied. I've also dealt with the BGLOD for the past 7 months or so. After 4 tech visits and two rebuilt chassis, they're replacing the set with a 65735. Good luck with your set. If you need any contact numbers for The Warranty Group, I'd be happy to oblige.

@ BKWELLS:

My WD62725 came from Tweeter in Feb 2005 as well, and I also got the extended service plan through them. The warranty is handled through The Warranty Group, and it has been valid even though Tweeter has vanished. I've suffered the wavy lines, which were remedied. I've also dealt with the BGLOD for the past 7 months or so. After 4 tech visits and two rebuilt chassis, they're replacing the set with a 65735. Good luck with your set. If you need any contact numbers for The Warranty Group, I'd be happy to oblige.

Thank you for the info! The number I have is 1-800-587-6485. In fact, I'm currently on hold now waiting to speak to someone. Been about 30 minutes so far:mad: No BGLOD issue yet. Maybe they'll just save themselves some time and effort and just replace my set:D.

I have not posted to this thread in over 3 years. I have a 62725 from summer 2004. After some initial setup quirks, it ran perfectly for almost 3 years and I drifted away from this thread

Last year the set died. I use the generic term because I do not remember what exact issue I had. It was a very busy time at work and having an extended warranty, I called and they took the set away. I got it back after 3 months, but most of that was due to poor service from the Queen City Appliance. Once they actually looked at the set it seemed to only take a week or two to have it back.

A few months after it came back, I began to notice the wavy line issue. I also had an issue on the VGA port. Began to read this thread again. I decided to wait to sent it in for repairs knowing the hassles that everyone else has been through.

Christmas day 2008. Got a new PS3 as a present. Went to hook it up using the HDMI port. Nothing. Composite worked fine. Maybe just a handshake issue. Let's rebbot. Shut down the set. Unplugged. Came back 15 minutes later. Plugged it back in. Blinking Green Light. Damn!

They carried my beloved 62725 away yesterday. Maybe I am overly sentimental bacause it was my first HDTV. I am not sure if I want it back, or not. Rationally I should probably push hard for a replacement set now. Did anyone here decide to keep their old set vs. a new one? Anyone unhappy with the replacement they received?

I also wonder how many original owners simply don't have any problems. Seems rare here, but without issues maybe they drifted away like I did a couple of years ago.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

I'm very fortunate that I haven't had any issues with mine, but I still keep track of this thread since my set is obviously getting up there in years. If I were you, I would see if you could get a replacement. The newer Mitsi's are very nice and contrast is MUCH MUCH improved over our sets. Not that I don't like mine because it still has a very nice calibrated pic, but if I could, I would get a replacement just to have the newer dlp chipset. My $0.02.

I got my TV repaired for the HDMI port about 6 months after I bought it so haven't had HDMI problems since. Now, I only use the component connections because it's in the bedroom so I don't know how the HDMI port is anymore.

Is everyone who is replacing their sets (or getting them replaced under warranty) happy with the new sets? Every time the set is disconnected from power i get the blinking green lights (in addition to the component wavy line thing as well). in the past, a few hours of combinations of unplug/resets have always brought it back to life. my UPS died a few weeks ago (power loss when i had to plug it into to a surge protector) and today we lost power for a few minutes (my fault for not replacing the UPS). So far a good few hours in, it hasn't come back to life.

I'm really just about done with Mitsubishis and likely DLP as well. But the cost difference between a 65 inch flat panel and a 65 inch DLP is absolutely crazy. I'm hoping everyone hates their new DLP sets which gives me a reason to look elsewhere :)

I'll also call around to see who has some good cap replacement experience in the area.

I just love my WD-65835 my old WD-62725 can not match it in any way

I'm not happy with mine. I have the blobs, the fan has already gotten louder (still not nearly as loud as the Mits it replaced under warranty), it has a handshake issue when multiple hdmi devices are input.

This is for sure my last Mits tv!

Great picture though.

Thought I'd chime in on the subject of caps.

First, thanks to tbully and all the rest for the work on this thread. Truly amazing.

I've done a lot of vintage audio rebuilds and find that caps are a main source of problems. Often however, it is not the cap itself -- it is poor power supply design that is the fault. Engineers (or bean counters) specify caps with too small a uF value and/or too small a voltage rating. This causes premature failure.

Voltage ratings are often incorrect: if the rectified output of the transformer is temporarily loaded with a resistor to equal the current draw and the line voltage is increased to 135VAC or so (not uncommon in the real world) the peak voltage (read on a scope) often exceeds the cap value. A little extra margin is a good idea.

Second, many engineers do the cap calculations and settle on a value that is incorrect. Caps are rated +/-20% which often means that over time the value of the cap will decline to the -20% level and still meet the cap's original spec. If this is not taken into account there is an increased chance of failure. Also, the cap needs to be de-rated (increased in uF value) due to temperature degradation. Caps of equal value often exhibit different impedance (up to 4X) which affects internal heating and therefore lifespan. A cap with better specs (read: more expensive) will typically last longer.

In short, caps that swell up and rupture might be just fine but they are the wrong choice for the application -- just plain old bad design practice. This means that any replacements run the risk of failure just like the originals.

Everybody has their own technique for re-capping their gear but for filter caps I determine the maximum diameter and height available on the board and find a line of caps that are rated "low impedance" and/or "long life" I happen to like Nichicon UHE 105 deg C series but there are many others equal or better. Then, I select the biggest uF value that will fit the board and, if available in the same size, upgrade to a higher voltage. In switching power supply applications the filter caps are a part of the network including a small inductor (coil). The bigger cap might not be as effective in higher frequency filtering as the original. To offset this (plus good design practice, in general) I solder in a .1 uF 100 volt ceramic cap across the two electrolytic leads on the back side of the board. In theory, this improves high frequency noise rejection. I do this on all the electos now -- just a habit.

Here is a quick (but not so accurate) way I use to tell if the basic power supply design is at fault. Power up the unit for a couple hours of normal operation. PULL THE PLUG, take off the covers and touch the filter caps with the tip of your finger. Conservatively designed supplies will be not much more than lukewarm, or much above the surrounding sheet metal. If they are hot to the touch then they might be a problem. I use a infrared thermometer ($10 at Harbor Freight Tools) and figure if the caps and the internal enclosure temps are more than about 110-120 degF then there is some cause for concern. Adding a fan or ventilating the enclosure, in addition to upgrading the caps, helps.

The problem with surface mount electros is another can of worms. Since the elimination of lead in solder, components are exposed to much higher temps during soldering. So much so now ICs must have a minimum of residual water vapor present in the plastic to avoid damage when soldered. You can imagine that this might not be too good for the surface mount cap's electrolite gel. I would expect them to have diminished lifespans and values as tbully has discovered.

Finally, if you are handy at soldering be aware that 4 year old broken Mitsubishis are showing up on Craigslist begging for a cap change. I got one for free, and another for $75, both with new lamps (naturally).

I like making lemonade out of $4,000 lemons.

Ok guys ...I got a offer of $620 credit from my warrenty company....it is owned by the place that sold me the tv.....I think I'm going to take the $$ and buy a 40 sony xbr4 for our bedroom.... they have one that is a floor demo that i can get for $1100 .....
I'm going to take the credit because I think it would be hard to sell the older tv for much more than that...... your thoughts ? The $620 is the cost to rebuild the tv.
Also they are going to keep the broke mitsu too.

Thoughts ?

It's too bad that they are going to haul your Mits away, because you probably can sell or donate the parts off if you couldn't repair it yourself. $620 sounds ok, because it will take months to do a chassis rebuild, and you'll get something before your warranty is done, but I think you should push for a real replacement, if your set was a lemon with a history of issues, and your contract allows for it.

Guys I have a pretty basic question, but I cannot find an answer in the manual and I am little concerned about doing a total reset.

My service guy from Tweeter deleted all the input devices except the 3 I was using. Now I am trying to add a playstation and the HDMI is not listed as one of the devices.

I am not using Net Command and I cannot find a way to add all of the devices back.

The tweeter guy fixed all of my alignment problems and I am concerned if I do a total reset that they will go back to the original settings which were incorrect. Tweeter is out of business and I am dealing with the extended warranty company and they basically referred me to Mitsubishi since the TV is not broken.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

Garry

Garry,

The input for the HDMI is called MONLINK, so go into the TV Menu, select Net Command, and Review, then check the box next to MONLINK, and you will have the HDMI port on your device list.

I do wish I could get the Mitsu, back and maybe sell parts off it...it was working, before, just had a noise issue...once they got the tv it died, they couldn't get it to start up.... they were going to send off the unit for a rebuild, but never really got to work on my main problem ( noise/ flickering pixels) ....so I just back with my XBR4 40" ...I had already bought a Sammy 750 series to replace the DLP. So If the XBR is as good as some say , then I'll be really happy with it in my bedroom....Although it's too big for the room ! :)

This was the 1st issue, except a dead card reader, and I just replaced the bulb too.

see ya

Daranman thanks for your help. That fixed my problem.
The Playstation 3 on the 62527 works great.

Garry

Hello All,
I'm here because I'm having an issue with my WD-62725. I received the solid red light today. I know this is most likely a bulb issue. I pulled the bulb out and took a look at it and it seems fine. Is there a way to really tell it is bad? What else could it be. I would hate to purchase the bulb and that not be the problem.

Thank you to all that can help.

Hello, I have a question for noplasma. I have the exact same tv and exact same problem as notnormal13. I am going to attempt to fix it on my own. Hopefully it is the capacitors. How will I know if it is the power supply? The symptoms are the same (lamp fires up for a few secs then shuts down and lamp light stays on solid red, no blinking). From reading the threads here I gather that it could be the power supply or the capacitors. Does the manual explain which caps are the ones to focus on and how to replace them? If it is the power supply, how much will that cost and can I replace that without a serviceman. I know nothing about tv circuit boards, but I believe we can fix it. I was one day away from trashing my tv until I found your threads. Thank you. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello All,
I'm here because I'm having an issue with my WD-62725. I received the solid red light today. I know this is most likely a bulb issue. I pulled the bulb out and took a look at it and it seems fine. Is there a way to really tell it is bad? What else could it be. I would hate to purchase the bulb and that not be the problem.

Turn the lights out and try to turn the TV on. If you see a flash of light behind the lamp cover (through the gap), you know it's not the bulb. Or, if you can't see through the hairline gap, remove the cover and jam a screwdriver or similar into the door switch (or just press on the switch with your finger) so the TV thinks the cover is present.

From reading the threads here I gather that it could be the power supply or the capacitors. Does the manual explain which caps are the ones to focus on and how to replace them? If it is the power supply, how much will that cost and can I replace that without a serviceman.

This guide, kindly written by BB_Mike, should give you what you need. I think the capacitor & power supply issues you're referring to are one and the same. Just check those two 3300 uF caps and replace them if they are swollen.

http://www.chevelle-ss.com/temp/Mits_DLP_TV/52525_DLP_TV_Repair.htm

Thought I'd chime in on the subject of caps.

Thanks for the write-up. Originally, some of us were crying "capacitor plague!" when the failures started. But once we started seeing widespread issues across caps from several mainstream manufacturers, the idea of a bad batch or a single company "getting the formula wrong" began to appear untenable.

Everything you describe makes sense, although it's somewhat surprising to me. I work in a field that requires very high reliability, but I would think that the big-name outfits (like Mits) would be doing the standard good engineering practices (conservative deratings, worst case analyses, temperature-accelerated life-tests, etc) needed to ensure their products work for many years beyond the warranty period.

I would think that Mits must already be suffering greatly from this. Do 3rd party vendors still offer 5 year warranties on their new sets? I think anyone would be nuts to do that, unless the price tag very high. Based on the number of original posters to this forum who have returned reporting issues, I think the % of failed sets is quite significant.

Turn the lights out and try to turn the TV on. If you see a flash of light behind the lamp cover (through the gap), you know it's not the bulb. Or, if you can't see through the hairline gap, remove the cover and jam a screwdriver or similar into the door switch (or just press on the switch with your finger) so the TV thinks the cover is present.

I have done what you stated and there is a faint light that comes on underneath the lamp case. So would It be pretty safe to say it is the CAPS? and if so would this work for the model I have?

Mits_DLP_TV/52525_DLP_TV_Repair.htm

I have done what you stated and there is a faint light that comes on underneath the lamp case. So would It be pretty safe to say it is the CAPS? and if so would this work for the model I have?

Mits_DLP_TV/52525_DLP_TV_Repair.htm

Models with this power board design are WD-52525, WD-62525, WD-52725, WD-62725, WD-52825, and WD-62825.

And if I were an owner of a later model that exhibited similar symptoms, I'd still start troubleshooting by checking the power board for swollen caps.

Models with this power board design are WD-52525, WD-62525, WD-52725, WD-62725, WD-52825, and WD-62825.

And if I were an owner of a later model that exhibited similar symptoms, I'd still start troubleshooting by checking the power board for swollen caps.

Ok I have it tore apart and the CAPS seem to be fine. I see no bubbled out caps. The tops are flat as they should be. Is there anything else I should look at?


http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh216/Cablegodz/P1050525.jpg

Correction
After looking a little harder, I did notice this CAP bowed out on top. Would this one cause the issue? With the board still attached to the frame it would be in the upper right.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh216/Cablegodz/Editedpic-1.jpg

I inherited a WD52725 with what seems like the typical bad power supply caps -- doesn't start and shows the red lamp LED.

It was carefully loaded into my truck's camper shell, secured with padding, roped in place, carefully driven 20 miles, and gently slid off the back of the tailgate on to a table in the garage. No hard jolts.

After about 5 seconds of power the unit started to make a LOUD growl -- about the usual time for the lamp to light. I was watching for the lamp to try to light but it didn't. By the time I got to the power cord I heard what seemed like glass breaking inside the unit. With the covers removed I could see some tiny chips of glass below the optical assembly - between the lamp housing and the DMD area. Also there was a loose "c" clip visible in the same area -- might mean things came apart in transit. The lamp shows no sign of damage so I assume the chips of glass are likely from the color wheel.

I pulled some more covers off and powered up again. The noise does not seem to be coming from any of the fans -- they all seem to be running smoothly. The noise seems centered in the light engine but its hard to tell because it is so loud. I doubt it is coming from the ballast but I could be wrong. Anyway, this time it made the loud growl for about 5 seconds paused, three seconds more, another pause, repeated a couple more times then went silent. The diagnostics show the useless code 34 with the red LED set. I assume the system monitors the light engine and if there is a fault it tries a few times then automatically shuts down.

I think I can locate a replacement optical system without the DMD and related circuits. Pulling the light engine itself does not look too bad.

So a couple questions:

Color wheel or maybe the ballast?

If it is the color wheel is it practical to pull out the light engine, disassemble it, replace the color wheel assembly, and put it all back together again? I got the service manual and re-alignment does not look too hard.

If so, any tips on this operation?

UPDATE: With the lamp removed I got an inspection mirror positioned where I could see the color wheel. Lots of broken glass visible behind the protective window. Not pretty.

Thanks

Ok I have it tore apart and the CAPS seem to be fine. I see no bubbled out caps. The tops are flat as they should be. Is there anything else I should look at?

I doubt it's the caps causing the problem. You can verify that by confirming that you get a steady ~5V at the 5V test point (look for a metal tab on the power board labeled "TP 5V").

As for that other cap you mentioned, I don't think that'll cause the problem. I had several bursting caps in that cluster that didn't appear to affect the TV's operation (at least for me). It's still a good idea to replace all 4 caps there anyway, of course.

There's no easy troubleshooting path here out, but the order I would recommend for your symptoms is:

1. replace ballast card (OSRAM PT-VIP 2AC/380, $70)
2. replace light engine DMD card
3. replace lamp

If you read the long thread history, there's some discussion to help differentiate between #1 and #2 above.

Doing the lamp replacement last may be arguable. Lamps typically fail because they require an increasingly high ignition voltage as they age, but perhaps our resident experts can comment on whether a bad lamp could still ignite. If so, you may want to consider replacing the lamp before proceeding with the other steps.

I doubt it's the caps causing the problem. You can verify that by confirming that you get a steady ~5V at the 5V test point (look for a metal tab on the power board labeled "TP 5V").

As for that other cap you mentioned, I don't think that'll cause the problem. I had several bursting caps in that cluster that didn't appear to affect the TV's operation (at least for me). It's still a good idea to replace all 4 caps there anyway, of course.

There's no easy troubleshooting path here out, but the order I would recommend for your symptoms is:

1. replace ballast card (OSRAM PT-VIP 2AC/380, $70)
2. replace light engine DMD card
3. replace lamp

If you read the long thread history, there's some discussion to help differentiate between #1 and #2 above.

Doing the lamp replacement last may be arguable. Lamps typically fail because they require an increasingly high ignition voltage as they age, but perhaps our resident experts can comment on whether a bad lamp could still ignite. If so, you may want to consider replacing the lamp before proceeding with the other steps.

The CAP that is bursting...Do you have any clue what the replacement would be?
Thanks

Thanks for the kind words. One more comment.

The two fried 3,300 uF 10 volts caps on my Mitsu are Nichicon's "HD"s (low impedance, high reliability) which are thought by some to be the top of the line, rated at 4,000 hours at 105 deg C. Few caps have better ratings, although Panasonic's "FM"'s are rated (slightly differently) at 7000 hours at 105 deg C. Only trouble is the Panasonics are physically bigger (makes sense) so they won't fit or, require a reduction in uF to get the smaller package. This is probably why Mitsu uses the Nichicons.

One can reasonably assume that if the Mistu can blow up the Nichicons then the problem is with the circuit design, not the caps themselves. Worse, replacing these caps with "ordinary" caps might cause even shorter life than the original -- readily available caps are often rated at only 1000 hours at 85 deg C.

Also, as caps degrade they lose their ability to filter the high frequency pulses out of the transformer. This causes a progressively higher levels of noise feeding all the downstream circuits. This noise can reach such high levels normal circuit operation becomes first erratic then some circuits stop working altogether. Hit or miss.
A volt meter generally doesn't show this condition very well --- requires a scope.

Also, caps can degrade to the point of causing problems without swelling or rupturing so while the board is out replacing them anyway is a good precaution.

I'm in the process of replacing all smt caps on the dm and fmt boards. It hasn't been fun. Has anyone tried useing solder paste for doing this? I'm considering using that approach on my next set of board refurbishing.

Next, there are two bi-polar smt caps on both boards, and I couldn't locate an upgrade replacement. Since we've speculated that the problems are caused mostly by degraded filter caps, should I ignore the bipolars, or at least replace them with new equals?

Well, add me to the list of folks with the wavy line issue. So far though HDMI is fine and that is my main viewing input (D*TV). I have an extended warranty when I bought the set in 2005 at Tweeter, but since they've gone belly-up I hope the warranty is still valid.

Quick update: finally got a call back from a local repair shop and they are coming TOMORROW to pick up my TV. I thought they would at least troubleshoot it in my house, but they are taking back right away to their shop. I have no idea if they have seen/heard about these Mits sets, so we shall see. What really sucks is that my spare TV in the back bedroom is a 32" old tube type.:( So much for NFL playoffs in HD:eek:

Hi,

I just (JUST) read the last year of this forum. I'm normally over on the HTPC forum. But guess why I'm here, I've had most of these problems one time or another. Bought my WD 62525 in 2004. I was gungho to tear into this thing. I already bought the Philips replacement lamp. I have the skills and the tools. I don't think so. I don't even want to have it repaired!!!!!

My extended warranty expired a few months ago. So any repair is out of my pocket or on my valuable time. But at this point nobody is expecting these things to last very long after repair anyway. What kind of TV starts falling apart en masse after three or four years? What kind of TV company is part of that? Well I'd like to find out what kind of TV company Mitsubishi really is.

So Daniel, that $25 I was going to send to Tbully if I repaired the set, would be better spent on bribeing you. Can you add anymore on how you got them to replace your set? Any inside telephone #s, any Customer Retention telephone #s or manager names would be warmly welcomed.

I'm so disallussioned. I've been into AV for over 45 years. This HDTV had the biggest impact in my system, audio or video, ever. And that includes a Sony open reel tape recorder from the sixties and my new Integra DTC-9.8 Processor. This TV is the center of my seven channel Home Theater. I designed a two thousand pound custom cabinet for it (with plenty of ventilation). Now it's a BGLOD, red LED, Light Engine, capacitor, ballast and over and under fanned POS!!!!!

I'll be firmly polite if I ever get to talk to the right Mitsu people.

I noticed that the Mitsu gets a good percentage of incoming air to the electronic enclosure from the bottom of the cabinet. If the set is placed on a flat surface it will cut down the air flow considerably likely leading to higher internal temperatures -- maybe a contributing factor in the current list of problems.

It might be a good idea to allow at least two inches of space between the bottom of the set and the stand to allow cool air to freely enter the bottom of the unit and card enclosure. Raising the unit up on spacers might not be easy or it might result in bending the chassis a bit. And cutting a hole in the stand might make it weaker so this idea might take some thought.

Also, the power supply board does not appear to receive any air circulation from the fan at all- it is tucked away at the front of the unit mostly cut off from the rest of the cards, with only a small area of slots at the bottom of the chassis for cool air to enter. A little fan on the power supply might be helpful in reducing temperatures. More to think about.

I'm in the process of replacing all smt caps on the dm and fmt boards. It hasn't been fun. Has anyone tried useing solder paste for doing this? I'm considering using that approach on my next set of board refurbishing.

Next, there are two bi-polar smt caps on both boards, and I couldn't locate an upgrade replacement. Since we've speculated that the problems are caused mostly by degraded filter caps, should I ignore the bipolars, or at least replace them with new equals?

We actually found the bi-polars to be bad. After replacing, our GBLOD was fixed. Of course, we changed about a dozen other caps in that area as well.

YMMV

Thanks Tbully. They do measure quite high on my esr, so I'm pretty sure they're degraded. Now that I type this I realize it was crazy to even consider not replacing them. I am just bummed that I can't find a high temp replacement, much less replacements with higher voltage ratings. Pretty much may wipe out the longevity improvements I'm hoping to make by replacing all the others with improved caps.

Thanks Tbully. They do measure quite high on my esr, so I'm pretty sure they're degraded. Now that I type this I realize it was crazy to even consider not replacing them. I am just bummed that I can't find a high temp replacement, much less replacements with higher voltage ratings. Pretty much may wipe out the longevity improvements I'm hoping to make by replacing all the others with improved caps.

We had the same problems. Solution: We replaced them with normal "lead" type caps (high temp) and just bent little feet in so they were secure on the pad.

Not the safest way but effective......

hello,
I too inhierated an awsome wd52525 from a family member and had the whole home theatre system hooked up.. I mean it was wonderful... HDMI hook ups with a quality HD picture i was lovin it, till one day about a month ago.. Right before the thanksgivin holiday, it took a dump.. it would start up with the green light and then power off and the red lamp light came on.. with alittle luck i found this thread and Thanks to you guys I was able to have hope in having it fixed and it not costing a fortune. I started by replacing the lamp but that didnt fix it of course. so i read on, followed directions and now have found that the lamp is coming on then shutting off just like mikenchar and notnormal13.. so based on the help and repleys of noplasma, I figure I would have to next look at the caps and power supply. I have never fixed my own tv before but figured i could save some money and take on a new project in doing so. however How much should one be charged to have this fixed. I mean how much would a typical serviceman charge to come out and replace the power supply and clean the set. I was quoted $399 to do the whole thing but i had to take it to his shop. i dont want to be moving this around to much. its big and not so light. my other questions is: how difficult is it to replace the caps and which ones should i use. should I just replace them all and get higher quality ones for longevity, or only the blown ones & does the quality of them even matter. I also want to know how to properly clean the mirrors and any other tricks or settings to maximize the picture quality and longevity of this beast. My marriage is depending on this. its been over a month now and you all know how hard it is to have to share the bedroom tv and not being able to watch what you want and as loud as you want.. Please send me some hope and any pointers you may have on fixing this problem.. any links to get quality parts for less is much appreciated.. thanks to all.. Rjrod

rjrod.....dude if your marriage depends on this model of mits dlp your odds are not good at all.

any links to get quality parts for less is much appreciated.. thanks to all.. Rjrod

You should be able to find most of the info you're after on this thread, including recommendations on what caps to order from Mouser or Digikey. At a minimum, you should replace the two 3300 uF caps and any swollen 1000 uF caps on the power board.

For the BGLOD, your options are replacing SMT capacitors on the FMT board (best but difficult -- see tbully's posts) or adding a switch to one of the power board wires (discussed a few months ago in this thread -- a much easier fix but less optimal).

My Mits vs. Fry's issue has finally been resolved. Mits bailed on their offer to directly replace the TV and Fry's finally got their act together and ended up furnishing the replacement TV. I just picked up my new Mits 65736 from Fry's. Didn't get the Diamond series, but I knew that was a long shot anyway. I'm just happy to have a bigger and better TV than before.

Parting shot. For anyone who is considering buying ANYTHING from Fry's, take this into account. At no point did Fry's or any Fry's staff apologize for the inconvenience. They tried to push me into taking the 65735, using such phrases as "if you want this resolved now then you need to accept the 65735". Not that the 65735 is a bad TV, just not what I thought I should receive. When presented with my warranty paperwork stating that the replacement should be the most comparable TV the manager said something along the lines of "those are just words on a sheet of paper, anyone can take them to mean something different." Not only that but when I requested the 65736 the manager looked it up and said "the 65736 is $100 more than the 65735, if you want it then you will have to pay the difference yourself." It truly was an eye opening experience. In the end, after an hour and a half, the managers supervisor approved the 65736 as the replacement and waived the $100 difference. This was my last major purchase at any Fry's, and everyone should think twice about purchasing anything from them, especially any warranty.

Hope to see some of you in the 735/736 Owners Thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1024421

Good Luck to those of you trying to fix'em.

I'm in the process of replacing all smt caps on the dm and fmt boards. It hasn't been fun. Has anyone tried useing solder paste for doing this? I'm considering using that approach on my next set of board refurbishing.

Next, there are two bi-polar smt caps on both boards, and I couldn't locate an upgrade replacement. Since we've speculated that the problems are caused mostly by degraded filter caps, should I ignore the bipolars, or at least replace them with new equals?

I found two soldering irons works the best. The tweezers worked but you had to make sure they were kept well tinned and are placed perfectly on the pads.
I would definitely replace the bi-polars. All of mine were bad. I think I had them in one of the lists I posted.
I have fixed 2 62825's and 2 52525's I think I have replaced over 500 of the smt caps by now.

If you decide to replace caps on the power supply board take note:

Avoid touching any conductive part of the board during removal. Then, after the power supply card has been removed from the chassis **carefully** measure for residual voltages on the high voltage caps. You will likely find the caps are still charged. Use clips and probes with a 100K or so resistor to short and fully discharge the caps. Measure again before starting work.

Otherwise you will be in for a **real** surprise.....:eek:

Most of the caps in these sets discharge on their own.

The more important information on these sets is that we have found that the capacitor problems are far more extensive than we originally hoped. If you are not going to change most of the radial caps and dozens of SMD caps, totalling well over a hundred parts, you will not likely get a reliable fix. Most of the sets that we have repaired have eventually come back. I no longer even bother, we just send the the chassis to Mitsubishi for a rebuild. They change well over a hundred caps before even beginning to test boards, then run them through extensive testing, updating, and repair.

You can do it yourself, but chances are you will be getting back into it again, or you may not solve all of the problems.

You can do it yourself, but chances are you will be getting back into it again, or you may not solve all of the problems.

Short of doing a massive SMT cap replacement activity, I think the "longest poles in the tent" are the clusters of four 1000 uF caps that are in each of the boards. If you open the inner chassis, I highly recommend doing them all in one shot. Otherwise, you'll keep coming back. In my case:

1. saw green shifts in the image -- replaced four FMT 1000 uF caps, problem solved

2. saw thin horizontal digital purple lines -- replaced four DM 1000 uF caps, problem solved

And now ... the OTA HD isn't working. Guess where that come in? The Signal board, which has another cluster of 1000 uF caps. So now I have to open it up a 3rd time.

This time while I'm in there, I may try the full BGLOD fix. But I still lack the will-power to do a full SMT overhaul. leeisfishing -- I may be offering you a free fixer-upper TV to pick up down here in Highlands Ranch one of these days. If I develop new problems after doing the wavy line & BGLOD fixes and the cluster replacements ... that's when I call it quits.

@_@

A couple added thoughts.

When the power supply caps degrade they no longer filter the high frequency pulses from the switching transformer very well -- they lose their filtering ability, their internal impedance rises, temperatures increase and they eventually swell, then burst -- and no longer work as designed. Then downstream circuits, exposed to higher voltage spikes and noise, start to degrade.

Typically there are downstream caps used for board-to-board noise filtering and stability, not primary filtering, so they are easily damaged when the main caps go bad. Sometimes, due to the cable inductance and resistance, they simply take a bit longer to show signs of failure.

So when the power supply board filter caps start to degrade they cause the downstream caps to see increased ripple current for which they likely were not designed. They too begin to run hot and eventually lose their filtering ability as well. Local voltage regulators however may take up some of the filtering slack so the board may continue to work, more or less, hit or miss, for a while. Caps downstream of the regulators will likely see less stress and might, therefore, be less likely to degrade early and fail, although if they are not properly rated for temperature, all bets are off -- they all could be bad.

In short, simply replacing the caps on the power supply board may not correct the non-visible damage done to other caps on the other boards. Most likely these are the bigger though-hole caps -- these should be changed even if they are not bulging or ruptured. Some surface-mount caps will also be damaged but replacing the bigger caps on all the boards with much higher uF values might offset some of this -- might save some work. Worth a try.

Finally, I measured that the set consumes between 40-50 watts of power when in "standby" (off). This suggests a good percentage of the circuits are powered 27/7. If the power supply circuits are stressed to their maximum ratings 24/7, then it is entirely possible that ***ALL*** sets will fail within a relatively short period of time. I just noticed two more Mitsus on Craigslist in the last couple days being sold with the "needs lamp" qualifier.

Time for a recall?

And now ... the OTA HD isn't working. Guess where that come in? The Signal board, which has another cluster of 1000 uF caps. So now I have to open it up a 3rd time.



My Tuner boards has a cluster of four 47uF/35V caps, not 1000uF/16V. Same physical size I believe, but different values. So check to make sure before you order.

My tuner board has four 470 uF 35 V caps. Thinking about replacing these with Panasonic FM series 560 uF 35 volt if they fit. Also, might be a good idea to replace the high voltage side caps of the three-in-a-row regulators. Have to dig into it a bit more.

My tuner board has four 470 uF 35 V caps. Thinking about replacing these with Panasonic FM series 560 uF 35 volt if they fit. Also, might be a good idea to replace the high voltage side caps of the three-in-a-row regulators. Have to dig into it a bit more.

That's right ... I do remember now that those caps were smaller. Thanks for the tip.

Anyway, it turned out to be a false alarm. I was getting a gray-screen for all the digital channels, but after doing a full channel rescan, it's working again. Perhaps a fluke?

Hi,

I have the WD-62525 (still works great, knock on wood). I, however, am wondering the event of something bad happening to my set, what are the difference in the 2008 models to the 2004 WD-62525? Picture quality specific.

Thanks,
Jason

That's right ... I do remember now that those caps were smaller. Thanks for the tip.

Anyway, it turned out to be a false alarm. I was getting a gray-screen for all the digital channels, but after doing a full channel rescan, it's working again. Perhaps a fluke?

That's good to hear. I was beginning to think my cap upgrade project would be in vain if I didn't replace every single cap on every board.

If the power supply circuits are stressed to their maximum ratings 24/7, then it is entirely possible that ***ALL*** sets will fail within a relatively short period of time. I just noticed two more Mitsus on Craigslist in the last couple days being sold with the "needs lamp" qualifier.

It seems to me that 3 effects have been commonly reported on this thread: the red lamp light, BGLOD, and wavy lines. These seem to be occurring at about the 3-4 yr mark. Beyond that, I haven't seen any consistent reports of a common type of failure. So it's my hope that the next wave of issues is several more years out. I was one of the first to get the red lamp light (in July 07), so perhaps I'll be a bellwether.

There have been a few posts mentioning a red lamp issue not caused by a bad supply. I haven't seen any follow-up or solution in their cases, but it makes me wonder what the DMD board (in the light engine) looks like. Has anyone pulled that? Does it have a regional filter? If the DMD failed to provide a sync signal to the ballast card, the result would be a red lamp. I think the ballast card shouldn't be a common problem since Mitsu didn't design it, although it could suffer from noisy supplies.

Back in Late november, I posted about a BBB complaint I filed against Mist regarding the WD52525. They covered the chassis rebuild and I paid for labor/service call ($250). The tech came out earlier this week and installed the rebuilt chassis. All issues are gone. I suffered from wavy lines on analog inputs and a failed HDMI input. The tech seemed to think that Mits is using better components when they do the reubild. Hopefully I bought myself 4+ more years out of this set. Since it is relegated to the basement, maybe even longer.

If you take a calm but firm approach, Mist customer service seems to be very responsive. This is the second out of warranty repair on this set that MITS has covered parts (light engine at the 18 month mark). If it fails again in the near future I will try the BBB complaint process again and try for a lemon replacement. If that fails I will take a sawsall to it. Labor charges and lamps over the 4 years of ownership have already cost me $1000+... Ouch.

If they were a responsive company they would not have made you pay the labor. You did not choose to put parts in the set that were not upto the specs needed.

Back in Late november, I posted about a BBB complaint I filed against Mist regarding the WD52525. They covered the chassis rebuild and I paid for labor/service call ($250). The tech came out earlier this week and installed the rebuilt chassis. All issues are gone. I suffered from wavy lines on analog inputs and a failed HDMI input. The tech seemed to think that Mits is using better components when they do the reubild. Hopefully I bought myself 4+ more years out of this set. Since it is relegated to the basement, maybe even longer.

If you take a calm but firm approach, Mist customer service seems to be very responsive. This is the second out of warranty repair on this set that MITS has covered parts (light engine at the 18 month mark). If it fails again in the near future I will try the BBB complaint process again and try for a lemon replacement. If that fails I will take a sawsall to it. Labor charges and lamps over the 4 years of ownership have already cost me $1000+... Ouch.

Hello everyone. I have a mitsu 62525 unit and started to get an interference in the picture. Little red and blue pixelated dots sweeping across the screen. Soon after that the tv went off and after a quick visit to this website the diagnosis was the 2 caps on the power board which i replaced and the tv now turns on without any issues. However, the interference issue is still present and the picture is clear and the picture is bright but it's littered with this sweeping pixelated noise. I was hoping the capacitors were at fault and replacement would yield a fix, but it doesn't seem to be the case. There are no issues with it turning off, or on, or the blinking lights, it runs strong all night long. My beautiful HD picture is being compromised and its very annoying. Any suggestions would help. I will be pulling it apart and testing capacitors for accuracy, perhaps advice in which specific area i should start looking for the problem would be great appreciated, or any advice for that matter. Thank you in advance.

I have been lurkning on this forum for quite sometime. My WD-52525 had the PS problem about a year ago. I was fixed under warranty, but I guided the tech to the proper location. My TV started having faint diagonalscanning lines on the comp 1 input about a month ago. I followed the tbully guide on cap swapping. I segmented mine a bit to better isolate my region of interest. I changed caps in groups of 10. Assembled everything and tested. Well after changing out most of the recommened caps I still had the problem. I had not changed out any 100uF@16v because I forgot to order them. So as a last ditch effort I swapped 2 10uF caps on the VR right by the center chip on format board. After that my proble was solved. If my problem returns I will be changing out the 100uF caps. After all that work I was amazed at how sharper the picture is. Color reproduction is much better also. Now all I have to do is change out the filter intake fan to get back some silence

I'm curious to know at about how many hours of operation everyone's TV's are failing. I think mine just went south on me tonight after about 20,000 hours. After I poke around a bit more I'll post my symptoms to see if anyone has any ideas but for now I'm wondering how well my 20,000 hours stacks up.

BTW, the reason I have so many hours is we've been using the TV almost like a radio since day 1, having it on most daylight hours continuously in the background.

Reading through the last 20 pages or so it's pretty clear that I am having a cap problem as I have the blue background with a flickering white ball in the middle of it for multiple inputs. Using the instructions others have posted (thanks tbully and others) I'm going to take a look at those 3300 uF caps first and see where that takes me.

It's great to have a resource like this.

The power supply has two sections. One section is "standby" which is always on when the set is plugged in. The other is the main supply which provides power to the main projection components such as the color wheel, lamp, and ballast.

The standby section branches out to several boards so a good percentage of the circuits are probably powered up all the time even if the picture is "off". This includes the two 3300 uF caps that blow up. So, in at least this case it might not make much difference if the set is on or off -- the hours still accumulate.

I've been wondering about turning the set off with an outlet strip when not in use for a while. Might save a few bucks in the electricity bill and the air conditioning load in summer. I measured it takes about 40-50 watts in standby -- quite a bit. However, there might be some unseen problem with this strategy -- will have to dig into it more.

Hello everyone. I have a mitsu 62525 unit and started to get an interference in the picture. Little red and blue pixelated dots sweeping across the screen. Soon after that the tv went off and after a quick visit to this website the diagnosis was the 2 caps on the power board which i replaced and the tv now turns on without any issues. However, the interference issue is still present and the picture is clear and the picture is bright but it's littered with this sweeping pixelated noise. I was hoping the capacitors were at fault and replacement would yield a fix, but it doesn't seem to be the case. There are no issues with it turning off, or on, or the blinking lights, it runs strong all night long. My beautiful HD picture is being compromised and its very annoying. Any suggestions would help. I will be pulling it apart and testing capacitors for accuracy, perhaps advice in which specific area i should start looking for the problem would be great appreciated, or any advice for that matter. Thank you in advance.
I'm seeing the same issue on my 62825. I'm assuming it's a cap issue but wanted to make sure. Also has anyone had their cards rebuilt by PTS and what has there experience been with them? Last question, what is Mitsubishi charging for a chassis rebuild. Thanks in advance.

hey, if i wanted to get my TV fixed and its out of warranty, who should I call to get the best service/price for the repairs?

also, is it worth it to get it fixed because of the wavy lines?

I've been wondering about turning the set off with an outlet strip when not in use for a while. Might save a few bucks in the electricity bill and the air conditioning load in summer. I measured it takes about 40-50 watts in standby -- quite a bit. However, there might be some unseen problem with this strategy -- will have to dig into it more.

I think that's a pretty good strategy, as long as you don't mind waiting an extra minute for the TV to boot every time you want to watch it. I've never heard of booting a processor from cold to be hard on equipment -- it certainly can't be as harmful as letting poorly designed boards cook 24x7.

Part of my problem is that I have the "BGLOD switch fix" installed, meaning that every time I boot the TV, I need to flip a switch, hit reset, and then flip the switch again. That, along with waiting, is too much hassle. I'm still leaning towards riding out my current fixes as long as I can and then junking the set when the next new problem comes along (several are starting to repeat here in the forms: "hdmi not working", "weird pixels appearing", "non-cap-related red lamp light issue", etc).

hey, if i wanted to get my TV fixed and its out of warranty, who should I call to get the best service/price for the repairs?

also, is it worth it to get it fixed because of the wavy lines?

Call around to your local tv repair shops and ask if they are a certified Mitsubishi servicers. If you want wavy lines fixed, ask what an electrical chassis rebuild costs.

In my view, these sets aren't worth paying money to get fixed (that is, for the issues that require a rebuild). Either fix it yourself (using this thread as a guide) or just buy a new set (you can get 60"+ for $1200). Why shell out $600+ to keep 4-5 yr old technology alive when there's a good chance you'll be paying for repairs again in another year or two? Also bear in mind that you'll be likely spending a few months without your tv.

As for the wavy lines, I certainly wasn't happy living with it -- in my view, the whole point of HD / Blu-Ray is image perfection.

I think that's a pretty good strategy, as long as you don't mind waiting an extra minute for the TV to boot every time you want to watch it. I've never heard of booting a processor from cold to be hard on equipment -- it certainly can't be as harmful as letting poorly designed boards cook 24x7.

Part of my problem is that I have the "BGLOD switch fix" installed, meaning that every time I boot the TV, I need to flip a switch, hit reset, and then flip the switch again. That, along with waiting, is too much hassle. I'm still leaning towards riding out my current fixes as long as I can and then junking the set when the next new problem comes along (several are starting to repeat here in the forms: "hdmi not working", "weird pixels appearing", "non-cap-related red lamp light issue", etc).
i agree that switching AC off to the TV would certainly help extend the TV life. just make sure to allow the proper lamp cooldown time.

sorry I havent followed this thread lateley. what exactly is the switch fix? that sounds like some craxy stuff.

sorry I havent followed this thread lateley. what exactly is the switch fix? that sounds like some craxy stuff.

Start reading at the post by Rondoid at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=444566&page=195

Wow that is alot to read,I got the BGLOD last night, It looks like alot of work to get the right capactors installed and checking and find the right one to fix. Well how long would it take to fix it yourself? Also, does putting in new capactors in will your tv be fixed for good or is this problem going to come up in the near future?

Reading through the last 20 pages or so it's pretty clear that I am having a cap problem as I have the blue background with a flickering white ball in the middle of it for multiple inputs. Using the instructions others have posted (thanks tbully and others) I'm going to take a look at those 3300 uF caps first and see where that takes me.

It's great to have a resource like this.

I took the TV apart (wow - could they have put any more small screws in anywhere?) and sure enough the 2 3300 uF capacitors have bulged tops. I don't have the soldering tweezers someone posted but it doesn't look like using a 15-25W soldering pen will cause problems if I'm real careful with it. I have a clamp on heat sink as well so I think I'll give this a shot when the caps get here.

As a question - since I havea all this apart what is the best way to check the other caps? I have a Beckman volt-ohm-meter but this does not measure capacitance. I'd hate to fix these two and put it all back together to find out there were others I should have gotten. I see from another post that as long as you hold in the switch on the filter (which has been removed) you can turn the TV on after putting the new caps in without reassembling the TV first but if there is an easy way to check the other caps I'd appreciate the hint.

Thanks again to all the people who did the original work to figure this problem out.

Wow that is alot to read,I got the BGLOD last night, It looks like alot of work to get the right capactors installed and checking and find the right one to fix. Well how long would it take to fix it yourself? Also, does putting in new capactors in will your tv be fixed for good or is this problem going to come up in the near future?

just read back a few post to #6155 and #6158....... mentions sets being repaired and then coming back for repair again. That when mits repairs a chassis that they replace over 100 caps/parts.......... also that with the power being sent to the boards 24/7 that a good chance that all sets will fail......

many others in the many many pages of this thread have reported getting issues fixed but then again having the same or different major issues with their mits WD 52/62x25 V26 chassis sets in the near future.

Well my red blinking status light workaround stopped working today. When I hit reset, then wait for the green light to stop blinking, I would hit the power and all was good. No more. I hear a series of 2 "clicks", the just a perpetual return to the blinking red status. Tried unplugging to no avail. Below is what I've been told might be the problem:

"Originally Posted by Daranman
According to the service manual, the one long, three short red flash means the DMD fan (the fan behind the light engine) or the Lamp Fan is stopped. It might be an easy fix."

Would you guys advise me getting a TV repairman out here to fix? I won't be able to do it myself. I'm just wondering if it's worth the money, since it seems to maybe be a small repair.





Just a quick clarification on the pattern of blinking, since it happened again today.

The red status light seems to have a pattern of blinking slowly 3 times in a row and then the 4th blink lasts for 3 seconds. Then it repeats this series of blinks again and again. So it's blink-blink-blink then blink for 3 seconds.

Also, after pressing the reset button, the green timer light blinks rapidly for about 40 seconds. Again, once that stops, I press the power button and all is good again.

Any ideas on interpreting these series of blinks? I'm finding red status blinks often seem to mean a fan issue, but I haven't seen anything in the thread specific to this pattern. Any help would be much appreciated, because if it is a fan, I might have a repair tech out to replace it before it breaks if that isn't too costly. Thanks.

I took the TV apart (wow - could they have put any more small screws in anywhere?) and sure enough the 2 3300 uF capacitors have bulged tops. I don't have the soldering tweezers someone posted but it doesn't look like using a 15-25W soldering pen will cause problems if I'm real careful with it. I have a clamp on heat sink as well so I think I'll give this a shot when the caps get here.

As a question - since I havea all this apart what is the best way to check the other caps? I have a Beckman volt-ohm-meter but this does not measure capacitance. I'd hate to fix these two and put it all back together to find out there were others I should have gotten. I see from another post that as long as you hold in the switch on the filter (which has been removed) you can turn the TV on after putting the new caps in without reassembling the TV first but if there is an easy way to check the other caps I'd appreciate the hint.

Thanks again to all the people who did the original work to figure this problem out.

Get TBully's powerpoint presentation; it's really good info. The conclusion is that pretty much ALL caps on the DM and FMT board should be replaced, and these are mostly SMT type. It's your decision as to whether it's worth the time/money investment to do that.

I'm in the same boat as you. My tv flaked when I installed a new bulb; I found four bulging caps. I invested in an ESR meter to try to determine which SMT caps were bad, and they all appeared to be questionable. So I made the decision to replace them all, and also replace the normal caps that are prone to failure. I sourced caps that have upgraded ratings for about 98% of them, so hopefully that will make this repair last longer. I should be done with my cap upgrade this weekend; we'll see if she powers up then :)

If you need some tips, several of us have done this, so don't be shy to ask. I haven't rushed through the repair, as I purchased a replacement a while back. But it will get done, along with a 52725 that I bought on craigslist for $50.

Would you guys advise me getting a TV repairman out here to fix? I won't be able to do it myself. I'm just wondering if it's worth the money, since it seems to maybe be a small repair.

It does sound like an easier fix than most. I would think that the repair cost should be small enough to make it worthwhile.

FWIW, my tv never had the death light until the set was unplugged.... It was working pretty well , until I had the repair shop pick it up...they set off the death light somehow, and could'nt get the tv to fire up. I think time is the biggest factor that makes these tv's fail...... Mitsu should give everyone a $500+ credit towards a new tv or repair.

My wd-62725 is having the wavy line issue. In addition to that I can no longer use the VGA input with my PC because the picture is so blurry and distorted that it is unwatchable.

In case I can't find the info in this massive thread, does TBully's fix correct these issues?

Edit: I found the PP. Thanks for all the hard work Tbully. I'm not sure I'm that handy with a soldering iron to do the work but it's worth a shot.

OK, I've had it with my set. Anyone in the greater Chicagoland area want a WD-62725? We could arrange a pick up, and willing to let it go for a reasonable offer. PM me with offer if interested. Based on my symptoms, it could be an easy fix by replacing the DMD and/or the lamp fan. Who knows about caps, but I haven't seen any of the symptoms that would indicate that was the problem. Could have a working set if you can fix, or at the least have it for parts.

Conversely, if anyone in the area is interested in making some money and want to make the fan fixes for me, and have the capability to check out the caps, PM me.

Thanks,

Dennis

Well my red blinking status light workaround stopped working today. When I hit reset, then wait for the green light to stop blinking, I would hit the power and all was good. No more. I hear a series of 2 "clicks", the just a perpetual return to the blinking red status. Tried unplugging to no avail. Below is what I've been told might be the problem:

"Originally Posted by Daranman
According to the service manual, the one long, three short red flash means the DMD fan (the fan behind the light engine) or the Lamp Fan is stopped. It might be an easy fix."

Would you guys advise me getting a TV repairman out here to fix? I won't be able to do it myself. I'm just wondering if it's worth the money, since it seems to maybe be a small repair.

Edit: I found the PP. Thanks for all the hard work Tbully. I'm not sure I'm that handy with a soldering iron to do the work but it's worth a shot.

I think the soldering is manageable as long as you use good solder. The following adheres much better than the standard radio shack stock:

http://curiousinventor.com/store/product/106

And remember that the best way to remove the SMT caps is to twist them off with a needle-nose pliers. The desoldering tweezers really wasn't very helpful.

DO NOT TWIST SMD caps with pliers! If you must remove them this way, cut them in half with diagonal cutters and remove the two parts. You don't want to stress the traces on the board.

The best way to remove them with a conventional iron is to touch some fresh solder to the joint, heat the joint, and lift one side gently. Do the same on the other side. The fresh solder makes the joint easier to desolder. I use 63/37 eutectic solder. You should have a very hot iron, and clean the tip continually.

Once again, anyone attempting to repair these sets by replacing caps should understand that the problem goes much farther than just a few caps. You could replace dozens and still be back in the unit later for more problems. I strongly suggest just sending the chassis to Mitsubishi for a rebuild and pressing them to cover at least part of the repair, whih they have been doing for many clients.

DO NOT TWIST SMD caps with pliers! If you must remove them this way, cut them in half with diagonal cutters and remove the two parts. You don't want to stress the traces on the board.

That may be standard practice, I just want to mention that several people on here attempted a desoldering approach along the lines of what you describe and reported pulling up pads and traces. The SMT can leads are hooked back towards the center of the cap and connect to the board directly underneath it, so desoldering at the connection point is quite difficult.

One person recommended twisting them off cold with a pliers, which is exactly what I did. I removed over a dozen parts without any issues of pulling up pads or traces. I think the twisting motion is key since it snaps the leads while minimizing any forcing in a vertical direction. I also wonder if the pads are more readily lifted/damaged if they've received heating.

--Just my two cents.

When traces are lifted, it is usually for one of two reasons. The first is that pressure is applied when the joint is still solid. This is why I use fresh 63/37, because the fresh solder with flux and the lower melting point helps to free the joint. The other reason is too much heat on the trace for too long. This is why a clean, HOT iron and fresh solder or flux is important. Using a cooler iron requires you to hold contact longer and this heats the board. A good hot iron, with fresh solder or flux, will melt a joint almost immediately, with less damage to the board. A dirty or oxidized tip will, likewise, hinder the tranfer of heat, and cause you to heat the board longer.

Skilled techs generally use a very hot tip that is as large as possible to hold more heat, but don't let it oxidize, and clean it constantly. The tweezers also need to be cleaned constantly. I have seen them work great, but you have to keep the tips in good shape. The lead free solder on these boards is hard to melt, and unless you have a perfectly tinned clean tip, you just heat the board up.

I strongly suggest just sending the chassis to Mitsubishi for a rebuild and pressing them to cover at least part of the repair, whih they have been doing for many clients.

Out of curiosity, regarding the chassis rebuild approach -- what's been the typical range of out-of-pocket costs paid by your clients and what's the typical wait time?

There is the possibility that my unit is still under warranty. I bought the TV back in the spring of 2005 and I purchased an extended warranty. Now all I have to do is find the paperwork......

.......Once again, anyone attempting to repair these sets by replacing caps should understand that the problem goes much farther than just a few caps. You could replace dozens and still be back in the unit later for more problems. I strongly suggest just sending the chassis to Mitsubishi for a rebuild and pressing them to cover at least part of the repair, whih they have been doing for many clients.

lcaillo, first let me say thanks for all your help in the forums.

can the mits wd-52/62x25 owner send the chassis into mits for a repair themsleves? or would they only accept it from an authorized mits repair tech service? does Mits accept that an owner could extract and replace it themselves?

Have you had any returns with chassis that were sent to Mits for repair? Is 5-6 weeks a normal turnaround time for the rebuild?

what process should the owner take? just contact Mits through email or customer service support phone numbers and start the case, get the info to send the chassis in and ship it to them?

any other useful tips for us owners with dead/problematic Mits WD-52/62x25 v 26 chassis sets?

i've got a dead Mits WD-62525 sitting on a stand for the past several months. just been dreading dealing with it and Mits. But I need to buckle down and do something with it soon.

I found my warranty paperwork. Looks like I bought a 5 year warranty which does not expire until 2010. We shall see how they handle this problem.

Get TBully's powerpoint presentation; it's really good info. The conclusion is that pretty much ALL caps on the DM and FMT board should be replaced, and these are mostly SMT type. It's your decision as to whether it's worth the time/money investment to do that.

Thanks. I've looked over the presentation and a lot of the recent posts and understand that the issue is many of the capacitors and not just the 3300 uF ones that are bulging on my set. My hope is I can get the set running again by replacing only the bulging ones. If I can't I think I'll just get a new 1080p set instead of replacing a few dozen caps or haggling with Mits on splitting repair costs.

My WD-52725 with two working bulbs is loaded in my van in Dunkirk, MD ready to deliver to anyone in the local area that wants it for spare parts. It needs to go quick, before I take it to the range for target practice. PM me ASAP.

It looks like the 4 1000 uF caps are shot on my power supply as well. They are bulging so slightly I missed it before. How irritating. Hopefully all the 3300 and 1000 uF caps will be here by the middle of the week and I can knock this out by next weekend (and cross my fingers changing only these six caps will fix things).

I started looking at how to disconnect the various wiring connections to the power supply so that I could work on removing the caps somewhere a bit more comfortable than on the floor behind the TV but the connectors are not a style I've seen before. A few of them are pretty straight forward, just depress the tab and pull the connector off. Most of them (i.e. the six connectors on the top edge of the board) look like they have two prongs on them that are "one way" only unless you can find some way to squeeze them both at the same time while pulling the connector off. I don't know if there is a specific tool for this but I have not found a way to to this with normal tools.

It looks to me that they are not designed to be removed - does this mean the wiring has to be undone at the other end of the wires and then the wires are left as pigtails off of the power supply?

I've removed connectors from any number of circuit boards over the years and have not seen a style like this. Am I missing something obvious?

Somewhere in this thread are two links to Mitsu service manuals. They will show which connector goes where and make it much easier to put things back together.

All the connectors to the boards come off - they either have a clip retainer which you can see or are held on by friction between the board pins and the cable contacts. Sometimes you can give them a little nudge with a screwdriver at the edges -- otherwise they just take some brute force. Edit: note the thin ribbon cables don't have connectors they just slip into the receptacles on the board -- be careful when reinstalling.

Keep in mind that Mitsu's engineers apparently decided to distribute the power supply filtering among boards. That is, the caps on the power board do *some* of the filtering and the rest is done where the power connectors enter the rest of the boards, or near the regulators (flat chips with a tab soldered to the board). While bulging and ruptured caps are obviously bad, caps on the other boards have been exposed to the same destructive conditions and might also be bad even though they appear normal. If your looking for longer lived fix consider replacing the power supply caps on the other boards as well. Caps downstream of the on-board regulators are less likely to be bad -- they are smaller and probably have had less internal heating and stress.

For most filtering Mitsu had to use very good Nichicon caps with low impedance (run cooler) and longer life ratings. These still failed prematurely due to operation beyond their recommended ratings for long life. Caps with lesser ratings will likely fail even sooner. You can install caps that are likely to last longer than the originals -- see Panasonic "FM" series (from Digikey). They are physically larger and cost more (naturally) so measure to make sure they will fit. You can go taller if there is room between boards and fatter if other components don't interfere - measure with the shields in place. Also make sure the leads are the same diameter so they will fit easily into the holes on the boards. Caution: removing and installing the caps on the boards with plated through holes is not that easy. Google "motherboard capacitor replacement" and see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fixing-motherboard,1606-9.html for more.

Finally, my guess is that excessive temperature plays a role in these failures. The power supply board appears to be cut off from most air circulation and the critical caps are mounted above the major heat generating components -- exactly opposite to what one would expect in sound thermal design. As the caps on the power supply start to fail the caps on the rest of the boards are stressed beyond their normal ratings. Adding an extra fan(s) might be a good idea. I'm about 3/4 done swapping out caps and still have the new fan design yet to go. Will update in due course.

She lives!

Replaced all smts on dm and fmt board, and the three clusters of four 1000uF/16V local supply caps (fmt, pwr, dm), and also the two 3300uf/10V caps on the pwr supply board. It looks to be back to normal, though I haven't done a thorough checkout.

For those it may help in the future, here's my recap.
My set worked/was working fine for four years, except for slight wavy line distortion on analog inputs. At 5000 hours, set illuminated the 'lamp' led to orange. Extended warranty company send a new bulb. To make sure the new bulb was actually good, I replaced the still working original, with the intention of keeping it as a backup. My set sat without AC power until I installed the new bulb. That's when the set failed. When I tried to power it on, I got no pic, but had sound. The lamp led was still orange, and from experience I knew the set was asking if I had changed the lamp? I entered 'exit' for no, and the lamp led turned red and the set shut off. It became unresponsive to remote/front panel button commands. I hit the reset button and got the BGLOD. Unplugging it got me past the BGLOD, but attempts to power up were met with the red lamp indicator. Error message/sequence was 34, lamp abnormality.

Visual inspection found only four bulging caps, all were the 1000uF/16V, two on the pwr supply board, and two on the dm. All power supply board caps were pulled and checked, and all but the bulging ones checked ok for capacitance and esr. But I did the massive cap replacement anyway, upgradiing everything where possible. Hopefully it will last another 4-5 years for whoever gets it next.

Finally, my guess is that excessive temperature plays a role in these failures. The power supply board appears to be cut off from most air circulation and the critical caps are mounted above the major heat generating components -- exactly opposite to what one would expect in sound thermal design. As the caps on the power supply start to fail the caps on the rest of the boards are stressed beyond their normal ratings. Adding an extra fan(s) might be a good idea. I'm about 3/4 done swapping out caps and still have the new fan design yet to go. Will update in due course.

I am sure you have noted how blocked the chassis fan is. I believe this fan blows into the chassis, and there's no telling how effective it is. I wish someone who has decided to scrap their set would evaluate the area surrounding the chassis for possible improvements in cooling. I've thought about having this chassis fan blow out, but I'm not sure there would be a way to duct the hot air out. Even with all the fans on this tv, it seems Mits still crowded this area so much it runs too hot. Funny, back in the early days of these tvs, one of the common complaints was the amount of heat coming from the back, even when the tv was off. And now, here we are :)

She lives!

Replaced all smts on dm and fmt board, and the three clusters of four 1000uF/16V local supply caps (fmt, pwr, dm), and also the two 3300uf/10V caps on the pwr supply board. It looks to be back to normal, though I haven't done a thorough checkout.

For those it may help in the future, here's my recap.
My set worked/was working fine for four years, except for slight wavy line distortion on analog inputs. At 5000 hours, set illuminated the 'lamp' led to orange. Extended warranty company send a new bulb. To make sure the new bulb was actually good, I replaced the still working original, with the intention of keeping it as a backup. My set sat without AC power until I installed the new bulb. That's when the set failed. When I tried to power it on, I got no pic, but had sound. The lamp led was still orange, and from experience I knew the set was asking if I had changed the lamp? I entered 'exit' for no, and the lamp led turned red and the set shut off. It became unresponsive to remote/front panel button commands. I hit the reset button and got the BGLOD. Unplugging it got me past the BGLOD, but attempts to power up were met with the red lamp indicator. Error message/sequence was 34, lamp abnormality.

Visual inspection found only four bulging caps, all were the 1000uF/16V, two on the pwr supply board, and two on the dm. All power supply board caps were pulled and checked, and all but the bulging ones checked ok for capacitance and esr. But I did the massive cap replacement anyway, upgradiing everything where possible. Hopefully it will last another 4-5 years for whoever gets it next.


Nice work Garciab. Welcome to the club!

Most of them (i.e. the six connectors on the top edge of the board) look like they have two prongs on them that are "one way" only unless you can find some way to squeeze them both at the same time while pulling the connector off ... I've removed connectors from any number of circuit boards over the years and have not seen a style like this. Am I missing something obvious?

Some of them can be a pain, but you can work them out with a combination of wiggling, pulling, and creating some relief against one of the notches with a small screwdriver.

As far as I can tell with the set torn apart cool air is supposed to enter primarily from the side next to the circuit cards through what seems like very few small holes (Ages ago it was found that for the same area small rectangular slots pass more air than small holes.) There are also vents on the bottom plastic but these are obstructed by the bottom sheet metal shield.

I think the fan at the top tries to pull the hot air out of the top of the card assembly, mostly obstructed by cables, with cooler air entering from the side and bottom. Then the fan on the back of the unit exhausts all the air accumulated in the unit.

I'm thinking of 1) Drill somewhat big holes in the bottom of individual card shields. 2) Make a pattern and transfer those holes to the bottom plate and then to the big bottom chassis plate and then through the bottom plastic -- this creates a straight shot for the air to flow to the cards. 3) Make a 1-1/2" spacer of some sort to get the set above the stand to allow air to enter from the bottom. 4) Create an opening in the lower front of the set where the power supply mounts and, if there is room, mount a fan on the power supply shield to pull cool air in from the front directly into the power supply card.

There is some chance of increased RFI/EMI from the openings but I've done lots of cooling mods and have yet to have a problem. If a problem develops I'll use some aluminum tape for additional shielding. A flat sheet of sheet metal on the stand below the bottom openings might also clean things up if required.

To keep the fans quiet I usually use the bigger 12 volt low power, lowest RPM fans. Then for power I install a small 6.3 volt transformer taking power from the power cord, a fuse, then rectifier, then a filter cap all mounted to a terminal strip tucked away somewhere. Then a dropping resistor is used to drop the voltage to just where the fan will reliably start. Usually the noise is so low it is not noticeable.

I'll have more at reassembly time.

I think the fan at the top tries to pull the hot air out of the top of the card assembly, mostly obstructed by cables, with cooler air entering from the side and bottom. Then the fan on the back of the unit exhausts all the air accumulated in the unit.

This is the way I think it should be too. But the way the dust is accumulated on top and on the boards seems to indicate that the top fan is blowing into the chassis. If it is blowing in, I wonder what would be gained by simply reversing it. Heck, I wonder if some blow out, while on some sets they blow in? Ahhh, the mysteries of Mits DLPs...

Waiting on my 1000 uF caps and my "solder sucker' and solder wick to arrive in the mail. With any luck by early next week I'll be posting that the set is fixed. If not, well let's not think about that.

Well no one wanted my 52725, so I took it to a shop in Baltimore just to see how much it would cost to repair. Before I got home, they called and said the chasis had to be replaced with one from Mitsu. Cost of parts is $595 and labor is $350. Did I really pay $3400 for this set 4 years ago???

I will forward the repair estimates to Mitsu when I get the and see if they can help out.

$595 is a pretty stiff profit on the parts, considering that the dealer cost on the rebuild is $300. Even if you add shipping, they are making pretty good money on the part. Considering that once you do a few of these pulling the chassis or reinstalling it takes less than 45 minutes each way, they are making a kiling on the labor as well.

Earlier in this forum it was noted that a shop called PTS Electronics does work on Mitsus.http://www.ptscorp.com Don't know anything more but might be worth a call.

Also, Mitsu has a site dedicated to service techs which is not available to the public. However from another link I found that for $150.00 for the first year, non ASC can have access. Might be a great idea for someone to "spread the wealth" and pass around the password. The contact was reported to be Peggy Bray (706) 654-4257. Nothing is easy....

Also, I noticed a number of new 60" something DLPs at the local Fry's Electronics for $1500. Seems they might be trying to get rid of them. Of course, unless you are handy at power supply redesign and SMT soldering you might have a teeny-weeny problem in a few years..

Seems no one wanted my 62725 either. I think the repair is only a DMD and/or lamp fan. It shouldn't be too much, but who knows how much any given shop will mark up profits. I decided to take that money and put it towards a new set. If I got this fixed, I was concerned about what was next. I'm around 4 years, and that's when it seems all this power supply stuff starts occuring. I am not handy at electrical stuff, so I decided not to deal with it.

I'm currently debating putting it out at the curb, or possibly taking it to a repair shop just to see what it would cost. If low enough, it might be worthwhile to fix and either keep as a 2nd set or sell.

Again, anyone in the Chicagoland area who wants it, PM me.


Well no one wanted my 52725, so I took it to a shop in Baltimore just to see how much it would cost to repair. Before I got home, they called and said the chasis had to be replaced with one from Mitsu. Cost of parts is $595 and labor is $350. Did I really pay $3400 for this set 4 years ago???

I will forward the repair estimates to Mitsu when I get the and see if they can help out.

If you are handy with a screwdriver you might consider disassembling the set and selling the major parts on eBay. Probably more of a pain than it is worth but it is good to recycle.

I'm currently debating putting it out at the curb, or possibly taking it to a repair shop just to see what it would cost. If low enough, it might be worthwhile to fix and either keep as a 2nd set or sell.
Or donate it to a local charity group or trade school. Fair Market Value might make it a good tax deduction.

My 62725 is getting a chassis replacement and it appears to be covered under my warranty. Hopefully this fixes my issues.....

Earlier in this forum it was noted that a shop called PTS Electronics does work on Mitsus.http://www.ptscorp.com Don't know anything more but might be worth a call.

Also, Mitsu has a site dedicated to service techs which is not available to the public. However from another link I found that for $150.00 for the first year, non ASC can have access. Might be a great idea for someone to "spread the wealth" and pass around the password. The contact was reported to be Peggy Bray (706) 654-4257. Nothing is easy....

Also, I noticed a number of new 60" something DLPs at the local Fry's Electronics for $1500. Seems they might be trying to get rid of them. Of course, unless you are handy at power supply redesign and SMT soldering you might have a teeny-weeny problem in a few years..

We used to handle lots of TV modules back when TV's were worth fixing. We sold PTS modules and took back bad ones for them to rebuild. They were a very good company then and I would assume they still are.

My 52725 has died and I opened it up last night. I ordered 2 3300mfd caps and will try putting them in. If that doesn't fix it, then I will be in the marked for a new TV. I like my DLP but I don't want to buy another only to have this problem again in 4 years. Plus it seems like everybody is getting out of them. I might have to look at other options.

Earlier in this forum it was noted that a shop called PTS Electronics does work on Mitsus.http://www.ptscorp.com Don't know anything more but might be worth a call.

Also, Mitsu has a site dedicated to service techs which is not available to the public. However from another link I found that for $150.00 for the first year, non ASC can have access. Might be a great idea for someone to "spread the wealth" and pass around the password. The contact was reported to be Peggy Bray (706) 654-4257. Nothing is easy....

Also, I noticed a number of new 60" something DLPs at the local Fry's Electronics for $1500. Seems they might be trying to get rid of them. Of course, unless you are handy at power supply redesign and SMT soldering you might have a teeny-weeny problem in a few years..

PTS has not had a great reputation among the service techs that I know, at least not in recent years. There is little reason to use them when Mitsubishi rebuilds the entire chassis for what PTS would charge for one or two boards, or covers the repair for many customers.

I took another look at the fan on top of the chassis assembly and it indeed blows down. My mistake.

This is **VERY** perplexing. The fans for the light engine and ballast take cool air from the filter and exit hot air into the enclosure. The lamp fan takes the enclosure hot air, not outside cool air, from the light engine and ballast and forces it out the side vent. And the fan on the back of the enclosure exhausts as well.

It would seem therefore that the air inside the enclosure is at slight negative pressure with respect to the outside air. This means the card chassis fan is working **against** the pressure. I don't see how blowing hot air down between the cards to the mostly obstructed bottom vents will work very well.

If I get the set working again I'll cut out the bottom obstructions, tape some thermistors to the inside of the card chassis, put it back in the cabinet and compare the temps with the chassis fan reversed.

LCaillo,

Have you examined a Mits rebuilt chassis (well, the boards) closely to see if they are upgrading the caps, or simply swapping with new/same ratings? I'm assuming you're just exchanging boards with Mits, and not the entire assembled chassis. I'm just wondering.

My 62725 died last week after 4 beautiful years of service. I got the "BGLOD". Mitsubishi hasn't responded to my email questions. I don't have the time or patience to wait 9 weeks and pay near a $1000 to repair it, so I broke down and ordered a Samsung 67" 1080p LED DLP. It's bigger, better, and cost me $2000 less than I paid for the Mitsu 4 years ago.

Now to figure out what to do with old set. I doubt my local dealer will want to mess with it. Maybe he'll take it off my hand for the parts. Anyone have suggestions?

Darn little blinking *$@! light!

My 52725 has died and I opened it up last night. I ordered 2 3300mfd caps and will try putting them in. If that doesn't fix it, then I will be in the marked for a new TV. I like my DLP but I don't want to buy another only to have this problem again in 4 years. Plus it seems like everybody is getting out of them. I might have to look at other options.

I put my caps in and put my 52725 all back together but now nothing happens. I opened it back up and plugged it in and saw a fan turning. Then I realized I didn't put the filter cover on so I did that. Now when I plug it in the fan doesn't even turn. Any ideas or do I need to go shopping? I was so hoping the caps would fix it so I could get some more use out of it. It's been such a good TV.

Did you check the cluster of four caps on the other two trouble boards?

It's a gamble just replacing some of the caps. TBully put together a nice powerpoint pinpointing the trouble areas for each of the common failures. But even before then, it was pretty much agreed that the best thing to do was a complete cap replacement on the DM, FMT and even power supply board. It's hard to tell how degraded the caps are across those three boards, so no telling what you'll get by replacing just the obvious bad ones. Sometimes it works ok, sometimes other symtoms show up, probably because of the extended time the set was without power.

Did you check the cluster of four caps on the other two trouble boards?

It's a gamble just replacing some of the caps. TBully put together a nice powerpoint pinpointing the trouble areas for each of the common failures. But even before then, it was pretty much agreed that the best thing to do was a complete cap replacement on the DM, FMT and even power supply board. It's hard to tell how degraded the caps are across those three boards, so no telling what you'll get by replacing just the obvious bad ones. Sometimes it works ok, sometimes other symtoms show up, probably because of the extended time the set was without power.

I haven't come across that. Can you link post a link to it?

I saw the info on replacing the 2 caps on the power supply board and mine did look suspect so I figured it was work $10 to try it. I'll probably just end up replacing the set. Anybody need a bulb that I just put in and never got to use? Maybe I can recoup my cost and put it toward an LCD. My wife doesn't want another DLP at this point.

The sudden failure when the set is powered up after being unplugged for a while might be related to the added stress in the power supply due to "inrush current."

When caps are normally operating they are constantly charged and discharged. But typically they are designed for a "safe" level of current in and current out. But they are never quite fully discharged so the current is somewhat limited. Because the cap has "impedance" that is, resistance to the constant charge and discharge cycle, they build up heat internally. Too much heat and they have short lifespans.

After the set has been off for a while **most** caps will discharge completely. Then, when the power is applied the "inrush" current is much higher than that in normal operation. If the cap is on its last legs this will cause it to fail on powerup. In the old days there were circuits which reduced the inrush current to make sure the components stayed well below maximum ratings. Been thinking about reviving the design. Cheaper than buying new every four or five years.

Incidentally, last week, when my wife's computer was turned on after being off for a while and it went **SNAP** and there was the smell of smoke. I took the power supply apart and, you guessed it, about eight caps had exploded -- ruptured on the bottom in addition to bulging out at the top. The motherboard caps were likewise fried. The computer was about five years old.

Just More Of The Same.

Hello all, it's been awhile.

During the past few weeks, I have noticed, barely, what i thought was the picture doing a slight "flickering" as I watched it. At first i thought it might have been a loose HDMI cable or something, but a check of those didn't turn up anything. It seems to be worsening as the days go on. The picture is still good, (I looked up "flickering" here using a search, and saw alot of real bad stuff that seems to have been caused by capacitors going bad. Is what I am seeing the earliest stages of that? That's the way I am leaning. It does the flicker (normal viewing, then a nanosecond of dimness, then normal again, repeat.....) on all sources, including the OSD. So does this sound like the capacitor issue, or possibly something else? The unit has had a few "....will shut down in a minute...." episodes lately, more so than in the past, I do routinely clean the filter, but may have gone too long in-between cleanings in the past, I dunno.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I bought it in April 05, and bought the 4 year extended warranty, wow, for once I am on the right side of the expiration date, but a little over 2 months is cutting it close.

I'm curious...has anybody noticed more of the 'shearing' or 'paneling' since Mits rebuilt your chassis...or if you did it yourself, for that matter. I don't know if it is happening more on mine now, or if I just got used to *not* seeing it when it was shipped back to Mits.

Thanks,
Randy

PTS has not had a great reputation among the service techs that I know, at least not in recent years. There is little reason to use them when Mitsubishi rebuilds the entire chassis for what PTS would charge for one or two boards, or covers the repair for many customers.

Well they may have a bad reputation with you but....... I had the ol'Checkerboard screen issue with my 52525 where all you get is a checker board screen when you turn the set on.

After going over a few posts in this forum I figured it wouldnt hurt to just tear into the set and try and fix it myself. I got it apart and found some of the caps starting to bulge, I visually looked at the FMT board with a magnifying glass and spotted the culprit micro switch/diode (or whatever you tech geeks call them) it looked like they puked out some brown stuff, and with my limited electronics training I concluded that they must have gone bad. Now I am no pro at desoldering and soldering things on circuit board but I knew enough to know that I dont have the talent to remove and replace those tiny thing about the size of a pin head. So I started to do some research on how and where to get this board fixed and came accross PTS electronics.
They told me that they didn't have a replacement so I needed to send it in and for 264 dollars they will fix it, so I took a gamble and decided to do it. The next day I got a return shipping label in the mail (fast huh?) and I got the board out in the mail to them, FOLKS.........it was gone for only ONE WEEK!!!!!!!! during that week I changed out every single Capacitor that folks in here recommended wether they looked bad or not.

When the board showed up it took me four hours to put the whole mess back together, plugged it back in and WHALA!!!! IT WORKED!!! no problems after that and it has been working for five months now, every now and then I get some light wavy lines, but I dont care.
I am though, keeping and eye open for a deal on a new 60 inch LCD tv, This Mitsubishi costed me a total of $280 to fix! not bad for a novice huh? PTS was fast and courteous with me so I have got to give them the thumbs up on their service.
Mitsubishi on the other hand is never getting my business again, for a $3000 tv to go bad within four years? its not my cup of tea, I have never had a set go bad that quick, the last thing I want to do is send back their circuit board(which should not have gone bad in the first place) and then give THEM more money to make it right, I dont care if they did it for cheaper than everyone else, they already ripped me off for 3 grand they aint getting anymore!

I have always had Mitsubishi sets and usually never had any problems with them and that is why I stepped up and sunk some good money into this set, they have lost a good customer........007

Well they may have a bad reputation with you but.......

Not just me. I said lot of other techs. I know dozens that will not deal with them anymore because they have repeatedly received boards and tuners that don't work or have to be repaired, and their prices are too high to make it make sense to use them.

In the case of these sets, you can pay them to fix one or two boards or for the same price or for free you can get mits to rebuild the whole chassis. Many customers are getting the rebuild paid for by customer relations.

I just fininshed a full re-capand wanted to try it b4 I fully re-assembled. So I left the back off. Turned it on and to my horror I got a flashing red light. Looked in the manual, saw that the code was a fan error. I hooked up the back fan stilll unassembled and it worked!!! I am VERY happy that I do not need to spend 1.5K on a new tv. It's all back together on it's stand and all is well again.

Good job with that.

I just finished replacing the six "normally" replaced caps on the PS and turned on the TV unassembled. As I did not hook up any inputs I got blank blue screens that looks normal and I could bring up the device menu, etc. properly unlike before. So all was fixed.

Unfortunately I had not fully remounted the power board and I think part of the trace on the back touched part of the metal frame and it blew the fuse on the PS board. Really frustrating to know I had the damn thing fixed and then blew it being careless.

Anyway, the fuse is 10A / 125 V but is confusing to me as it has color bands around it as it it was a resistor. There is wording on PS board itself saying to "see fuse notice". Is there anything unusual about this fuse?

Garciab-

Do you have a per-board list of capasitors? I'm wanting to preorder what I need to fix my set without having to put it apart first.

PULL it apart first.

I put my caps in and put my 52725 all back together but now nothing happens. I opened it back up and plugged it in and saw a fan turning. Then I realized I didn't put the filter cover on so I did that. Now when I plug it in the fan doesn't even turn. Any ideas or do I need to go shopping? I was so hoping the caps would fix it so I could get some more use out of it. It's been such a good TV.

Did you check the fuse on the PS board? I can tell you from learning the hard way that if that fuse is blown the fan won't even turn on.

Unfortunately I had not fully remounted the power board and I think part of the trace on the back touched part of the metal frame and it blew the fuse on the PS board. Really frustrating to know I had the damn thing fixed and then blew it being careless.



I couldn't find a fuse locally so I jumpered it out just to see if it would work. The fan comes back on but now all I get is the solid red status light so I think this means I blew something else. Wow does that piss me off. Any suggestions where to start or at this point am I just screwed in terms of this being a DYI project?

I have hand-written notes for all the caps, for the three trouble boards. And I still have the digi-key invoice for the replacements I used. Any preferences for how I should compile the list for those who want it? I'll start working on a simple txt file list.

I have hand-written notes for all the caps, for the three trouble boards. And I still have the digi-key invoice for the replacements I used. Any preferences for how I should compile the list for those who want it? I'll start working on a simple txt file list.

Could you scan it as a PDF of the digikey invoice?

131237

Best I can do is attach my text file. Sorry, no scanner.

NOTE:There's a mistake in the parts list. The qty for the 4.7uf 35V SMT cap is 8, and the 4.7uf 16V NP is only 2. Hope it didn't cause an inconvenience. The are on the FMT board.

I replaced 8 caps on my power supply board about a year ago. I think the shearing is about the same as it was before.

I think since I just did the power supply I would not have made this better or worse


I'm curious...has anybody noticed more of the 'shearing' or 'paneling' since Mits rebuilt your chassis...or if you did it yourself, for that matter. I don't know if it is happening more on mine now, or if I just got used to *not* seeing it when it was shipped back to Mits.

Thanks,
Randy

The sudden failure when the set is powered up after being unplugged for a while might be related to the added stress in the power supply due to "inrush current."

Do you think that inrush current causes accumulative damage, or does it rather tend to either be catastrophic or nothing?

I ask this because I'm wondering what's the greater stressing use approach for for electronics in general (i.e. computers, mits DLPs, etc) -- leaving equipment on 24x7 or powering down when not in use.

During the past few weeks, I have noticed, barely, what i thought was the picture doing a slight "flickering" as I watched it. At first i thought it might have been a loose HDMI cable or something, but a check of those didn't turn up anything. It seems to be worsening as the days go on.

I recall seeing some of that on my set prior to all the cap replacements I did. My recommendation is to get moving on that warranty.

I put my caps in and put my 52725 all back together but now nothing happens. I opened it back up and plugged it in and saw a fan turning. Then I realized I didn't put the filter cover on so I did that. Now when I plug it in the fan doesn't even turn. Any ideas or do I need to go shopping? I was so hoping the caps would fix it so I could get some more use out of it. It's been such a good TV.

Are you getting a red lamp light or any other error indications? "Rookie" mistakes I've seen are:

* not putting the filter cover back on
* not reattaching the back fan
* putting capacitors in backwards
* poor soldering technique (make a solder cone, not a solder ball)
* sloppy soldering -- "solder splash" shorts out a board trace

I couldn't find a fuse locally so I jumpered it out just to see if it would work. The fan comes back on but now all I get is the solid red status light so I think this means I blew something else. Wow does that piss me off. Any suggestions where to start or at this point am I just screwed in terms of this being a DYI project?

I've seen people on here throwing out their sets. Why not ask someone to mail you a power board on the cheap? Or check ebay for people selling off boards.

I've seen people on here throwing out their sets. Why not ask someone to mail you a power board on the cheap? Or check ebay for people selling off boards.

I've looked on ebay and see several used boards in the $125 range. The problem is I'm not sure which board is blown. At the time the fuse blew I saw a light (like a component blowing) from one of the other boards but I don't see any obviously blown components on the power board nor the board I thought I saw the flash from (not sure the name of the board - its the one with the coaxial inputs on it).

I'd hate to spend another $300 on two boards and still not have it working (and also risk more caps blowing on the other boards in a year). There was a web site I found with the entire chassis listed but with no price. I've emailed them to see if they really hasve one and what it costs.

That being said if anyone has some boards or the whole chassis they want to unload let me know.

There are two major lines of thought on power cycling vs keeping things on 24/7.

In the old days integrated circuits going from cold to hot to cold again would induce thermal stress which, in theory, could weaken the very tiny internal circuit interconnects eventually leading to premature failure. Twenty years ago when I was working for an electronics firm producing microprocessor based industrial systems, we used to "burn-in" products by doing 1/2 hour on and 1/2 hour off for one week, followed by another week at maximum rated temperature, then a full operational test to try to force failures before they got into the customer's hands. Never had a burn-in failure. Anyway, don't know to what extent this is still true -- IC's are likely more robust now and they sure outlast all the other parts like caps, switches, and connectors.

On the other hand, most electronic gear is rated for a specific "mean time between failure" in hours of use. Engineers count the parts and their typical failure rates, plug in operating conditions and generate a calculated number of hours at which statistically 1/2 will have failed and the remaining half are still operational. This also means manufacturers control to a high degree of precision how long their products will last. If you happen to buy a unit that fails in the early half, you are just out of luck you were on the early part of the failure curve. Turning things off mean fewer hours. There are limits even on the best designs. Electrolytic capacitors under the best conservative operating conditions are generally thought to last no more than about 15 years before they go out of spec.

Even then good design can compensate for age-degraded parts. I still have a 30 year old Mitsubishi audio amp that tests close to new. Yet another 30 year old hunk of Philips gear has a "soft start" circuit which has a big resistor on the AC line which limits the current inrush. After a second or so a relay closes around the resistor so full power is restored. This probably won't work on microprocessor based circuits but the technology isn't new. Few manufacturers today design this way.

If you trust the manufacturer to build the products to last (bad assumption in my view) and don't mind upgrading sooner rather than later, then keeping them on 24/7 should be fine. Otherwise, consider turning them off when not in use -- the fewer hours the better. I generally turn things off if they are not going to be used in the following 2-3 hours or so, including the computers.

There are however, two other "minor" considerations. Cutting power consumption by turning things off saves money and summer air conditioning load. The other is -- I don't like things on when I'm not around. Despite all the tests for electrical safety some things can still catch fire when they fail. For most the gear I buy the first thing I do is pull the cover off to see if there is a fuse on the AC line. If not, I add one. And the second is either put in a **real** power switch or plug it into an outlet strip.

Garciab-

Much appreciated!! This list will save a ton of down time.

All, my original post is below, here is an update.

I called the warranty company, and they found a service that will do in-home work, as I had that with the warranty, but of course they give you the "you do understand that if the technician shows up and there is no problem you will be charged for the visit" bit. So this got me thinking, and I wondered if the TV might be capable of an extended "no visible problem" session, and of course I watched it real close for awhile and lo and behold sometimes it does lock in with a good picture for awhile, sometimes a long while. Now, if it does that when the guy is here, I can see it already "your set is fine, that'll be $xxx.xx". Any advice on some things I could say, a little more than "but these sets are having leaking and bulging capacitor issues these days", or "Well, on the AVS forums, you can see............". Now I am sure some tech's know the value of a resource such as this, but I am sure many are of the attitude "damn internet makes experts out of everybody, now they tell me *my job*, which, I am sure sometimes is a problem.

So I was wondering, if there were some terms and detailed instructions I could suggest, tactfully, like "if you check the "___________" test point downstream of the "______" you should see that the output voltage is "____" when it should be "________", etc. Or, "the power supply board, the FMT board, etc., .................

(and what does FMT stand for, anyways?)

I guess basically, what can I say to the guy, on the odd chance that the TV decides to work great while he's here, to get him to dig into it a bit to hopefully see some and hopefully "the" problem. I only have a small window before the warranty is up, I can't afford to wait on this.

Any advice on this would be GREATLY appreciated. Hopefully the guy has seen a few of these sets failures, and will look in the right spots.

The company sending the Tech is Norman's Electronics, I think they are out of Atlanta.

Thanks all.

Hello all, it's been awhile.

During the past few weeks, I have noticed, barely, what i thought was the picture doing a slight "flickering" as I watched it. At first i thought it might have been a loose HDMI cable or something, but a check of those didn't turn up anything. It seems to be worsening as the days go on. The picture is still good, (I looked up "flickering" here using a search, and saw alot of real bad stuff that seems to have been caused by capacitors going bad. Is what I am seeing the earliest stages of that? That's the way I am leaning. It does the flicker (normal viewing, then a nanosecond of dimness, then normal again, repeat.....) on all sources, including the OSD. So does this sound like the capacitor issue, or possibly something else? The unit has had a few "....will shut down in a minute...." episodes lately, more so than in the past, I do routinely clean the filter, but may have gone too long in-between cleanings in the past, I dunno.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I bought it in April 05, and bought the 4 year extended warranty, wow, for once I am on the right side of the expiration date, but a little over 2 months is cutting it close.

Hey everyone, tried reading through some of this post, but there's ALOT of info. Just wanted to share my story tonight and see what people thought. I bought a 62725 in August of 2005 and have had no problems since then. Typical usage is about 2-3 hrs per week night and 4-6 on weekends on average. So tonight in the middle of watching LOST, the screen went blank and the status light was solid RED. I unplugged it, waited a bit and plugged it back in. Tried to turn it on, fan spun up, no picture, eventually Lamp light turned solid red. I found on another site to hold menu/device and the number of flashes corresponded to Lamp issue. I'm hoping I just need a new lamp assembly, but reading some of these posts got me nervous about board/power supply/capacitor issues. Should I just try to replace the lamp and see what happens? Do any other online sites sell the whole assembly or just mitsubishi? Really want this back up and running as soon as i can, thanks for the help!

Hey everyone, tried reading through some of this post, but there's ALOT of info. Just wanted to share my story tonight and see what people thought. I bought a 62725 in August of 2005 and have had no problems since then. Typical usage is about 2-3 hrs per week night and 4-6 on weekends on average. So tonight in the middle of watching LOST, the screen went blank and the status light was solid RED. I unplugged it, waited a bit and plugged it back in. Tried to turn it on, fan spun up, no picture, eventually Lamp light turned solid red. I found on another site to hold menu/device and the number of flashes corresponded to Lamp issue. I'm hoping I just need a new lamp assembly, but reading some of these posts got me nervous about board/power supply/capacitor issues. Should I just try to replace the lamp and see what happens? Do any other online sites sell the whole assembly or just mitsubishi? Really want this back up and running as soon as i can, thanks for the help!

I just replaced the lamp (bought from Mits) about a week or two ago after almost 4 1/2 years of usage. I couldn't believe the difference in the brightness of the picture. The old lamp was still working but the screen had become darker gradually over time so I decided to change the lamp finally. If I get another 4 years of usage from my 62525, I'll be happy.

That's promising, i found a local certified mitsu place that has a lamp in stock, so i'll grab that on the way home and see if it puts me back in business. All the other posts about boards, and capacitors got me scared.

My BGLOD problem started before I replaced the bulb, and it appeared to get worse after replacement of the bulb, but can't quantify it. I'm wondering if your red light came after getting on-screen warnings to change the bulb.

All, my original post is below, here is an update.

I called the warranty company, and they found a service that will do in-home work, as I had that with the warranty, but of course they give you the "you do understand that if the technician shows up and there is no problem you will be charged for the visit" bit. So this got me thinking, and I wondered if the TV might be capable of an extended "no visible problem" session, and of course I watched it real close for awhile and lo and behold sometimes it does lock in with a good picture for awhile, sometimes a long while. Now, if it does that when the guy is here, I can see it already "your set is fine, that'll be $xxx.xx". Any advice on some things I could say, a little more than "but these sets are having leaking and bulging capacitor issues these days", or "Well, on the AVS forums, you can see............". Now I am sure some tech's know the value of a resource such as this, but I am sure many are of the attitude "damn internet makes experts out of everybody, now they tell me *my job*, which, I am sure sometimes is a problem.

So I was wondering, if there were some terms and detailed instructions I could suggest, tactfully, like "if you check the "___________" test point downstream of the "______" you should see that the output voltage is "____" when it should be "________", etc. Or, "the power supply board, the FMT board, etc., .................

(and what does FMT stand for, anyways?)

I guess basically, what can I say to the guy, on the odd chance that the TV decides to work great while he's here, to get him to dig into it a bit to hopefully see some and hopefully "the" problem. I only have a small window before the warranty is up, I can't afford to wait on this.

Any advice on this would be GREATLY appreciated. Hopefully the guy has seen a few of these sets failures, and will look in the right spots.

The company sending the Tech is Norman's Electronics, I think they are out of Atlanta.

Thanks all.

UNPLUG IT! It appears to be a legitimate stress test.

I had a couple of power outages, then everything got worse. One was for 5 hours, the other was for a day and a half.

well i got a new lamp today, installed it and still nothing. The green light comes on, no picture and after a minute steady red lamp light again. I'm no electrical guru, so i may just put it on CL and get something new. Awfully frustrated that it only lasted ~4 years. I didn't have any extended warranty and really don't want to have it sitting at a repair shop for 2 weeks just to not fix it because it's not worth spending money. I"m just hoping they'll let me return the lamp tomorrow! Time to research what to replace it with.

well i got a new lamp today, installed it and still nothing. The green light comes on, no picture and after a minute steady red lamp light again. I'm no electrical guru, so i may just put it on CL and get something new. Awfully frustrated that it only lasted ~4 years. I didn't have any extended warranty and really don't want to have it sitting at a repair shop for 2 weeks just to not fix it because it's not worth spending money. I"m just hoping they'll let me return the lamp tomorrow! Time to research what to replace it with.

Sorry to hear that.:(