2008 Samsung HLxxA650 DLP Owners Thread/FAQ - Page 26

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my first lamp blew at 4000 hours

Bought mine on 11/2008...

Holy crap, what do you guys do for lamp life? You're killing me!

Mine stays on pretty much all day between 12-14 hours every day.

I can see that this hasn't had many posts lately, but I am noticing many of the same problems addressed here...Please help!

The story so far:
I bought my Samsung HL56A650 DLP HDTV December of '08. This was a MAJOR purchase for me. I work 2 jobs full time and other odd jobs. My wife had the good heart to allow us to finance this mammoth knowing how much I would appreciate it.

The first sign of trouble...
January of '10 the tv makes a weird noise, I hear some kind of pop, it cycles on and off and makes some more God awful noises and then I get 3 blinking lights. I call Samsung and they tell me it sounds like the light bulb died. I thought it was terribly short-lived, but being one month out of warranty, I am S.O.L. and I call the distributor for a new bulb. The new bulb arrived and I allowed 48 hours out of the box and sitting before powering it up because I did not know what temperatures it had been exposed to and did not want to heat it up and have a problem with condensation or anything. Voila, it worked again! Not too happy, but what are you going to do, but hope this one lasts longer.

And then 4 months later...
The problem strikes again! I first call the distributor to tell them they must have sent me a bad bulb and they inform me that they only cover the bulb for 3 months. If I popped the bulb in the second that it arrived and played my tv from then until now, it should still be working!!! They direct me to Samsung saying it must be something else. So, I call Samsung and they assign me a technician to come out and repair, (still at my cost). The technician comes in, claims that the housing that the distributor sent me is not a samsung housing, changes the bulb, and hands me a bill. Now I am out the cost of 2 bulbs + labor and NO ONE is willing to admit they are wrong and reimburse me anything. Samsung claims it must have been a bad bulb. Distributor claims it is something else causing the problem.

60 days later...
Oh yes, didn't get very far on this bulb! Same problem. I cal Samsung, and now they say they'll renew my warranty and send a tech out at their cost. I tell them at this point we can agree it is not just a bulb right? And they claim they'll definitely send a tech out with more than just a bulb. I am unable to be home when the tech comes. He comes in, changes the bulb, and leaves. I am fuming! This time, the girl from Samsung says if it breaks again they'll give me a new tv, so I just let it drop after a few nasty phone calls.

And then it breaks again...
Guess what? The tv doesn't work AGAIN! Samsung says they can see that I was offered a new tv, but that girl was not allowed to offer such things and has since been let go. I say at least give me a different repair company, and there is none other in my area. At this point I have been to a bunch of forums and have read about countless similar problems. Samsung again extends my warranty. With this new-found knowledge I ask that the tech comes with a new ballast, color wheel, and power supply to which I have to wait an UNBELIEVABLE amount of time for him to procure and then set up an appointment. He comes, changes the bulb and tries to leave. I tell him no way is he leaving and that this is more than just a light bulb. I call Samsung and dance around their cs lines waiting for a representative. The guy finally ducks out, and I speak to someone there who tells me that if the tv is working, they can't send someone out til it breaks again.

And then again...
Yep, still burning through bulbs, though this one lasted longer than 60 days. I missed one other repair there, but I don't care to go back and figure out where. I am on bulb #6 at this point, with the same repair company coming. I am out about $500 on repairs from my own pocket plus days I had to take off from work to be there for the repairman. I am at my wit's end, but with so much time and money invested, I have no choice but to continue this dance. No one will take ownership. The distibutor claims there are no problems with the bulbs. Samsung will not replace the tv and accept that this is some kind of lemon. The repair company will do nothing more than swap the bulb and tell me they have "visually inspected" the rest of the components. Because the tv works with a new bulb, that must have been the problem.

So, I look to you all for advice. My tv exhibits the following problems:
It makes a low humming sound intermittently
It obviously burns through bulbs like a teenager changes their underwear
When the bulb does die, I have a cycling of on and off and some whirring noise.

Any and all reasonable suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Could be the ballast causing the bulb to burn out.

HK wrote:
"I bought my Samsung HL56A650 DLP HDTV December of '08. This was a MAJOR purchase for me. I work 2 jobs full time and other odd jobs. My wife had the good heart to allow us to finance this mammoth knowing how much I would appreciate it.

The first sign of trouble...
January of '10 the tv makes a weird noise, I hear some kind of pop, it cycles on and off and makes some more God awful noises and then I get 3 blinking lights. I call Samsung and they tell me it sounds like the light bulb died. I thought it was terribly short-lived, but being one month out of warranty....."

Well....1st...your warranty was NOT up in Jan/10...Samsung gave us 15 months warranty (a 3 month extension seemed pretty standard)...

and 2nd...it's likely electrical not the bulb...

and 3rd...sorry for all your problems...I'm in month 28 on a 48-month BB extended service contract with fingers crossed...

Good luck...

Thanks so much kitatiger!
The well wishes are much appreciated!

I was pretty sure it was an electrical problem (At least I was sure it wasn't the bulb! LOL) I will hope this next repair does the trick, and that you don't have to use your warranty

I don't know if it's too late but if you had to pay for any repair within 15 months of purchase you should get it back...I think...
(I got my Sammy 50"er as an even exchange for a Toshiba 46" RP/HDTV in its 46th month of ITS 48 month warranty...so I bought the 48 month new warranty on the Sammy in a show of good faith and thanks...a fair $200 cost for the Sammy I thought...

I did read a bunch of people saying that they did get some extended warranty for 3 months, but unfortunately when I called that was not the case. I had called the 13th month, and they said, "sorry, your tv is no longer under warranty."

Had that been the case, I would not be out the additional $500 and just be aggravated by the fact that the tv constantly breaks and I have to keep taking off work for service calls. I am SOOO tempted to call back and say, that I have read of countless trades that they have done and would like to be offered the same, but I don't want to be an ass and screw everything up. After that 2nd repair, they have paid for each service call. If it doesn't work out this time, possibly I will be more pushy about the trade. I wish they would have gone through with it when they offered me that the 4th or 5th time...

I had my 650 50 inch tv for 2 years and 9 months and the lamp seem dim now
i may need a new lamp soon.

may save up for a lcd tv.

Watching tv and the house power flickered a few times over the span of 15 minutes or so. Then I smelled a really odd smell and the DLP started restarting itself and would keep doing it until I unplugged it.

When first starting, the green lights light up on the front, you hear the startup chime, and it'll have the big checking input message. Then power off after about 5 seconds and the cycle repeats.

I got a new bulb (after trying to reseat the old one. and no effect.

In the back all I hear is the whir of the fan turning on and various clicks from the power board.

All fans turn on okay

I put a multimeter to the cord going from the power board to the ballast, and it registered 66 - 67volts (should it be in the 300 range?).

I pulled the power board out and the caps all look intact.

On the ballast board, the one cap does show very slightly split on the top.

what do you think - should I get a power board and replace the cap on the ballast board? or does the power board sound okay?

Or what else could I test?

Thanks!

you should buy a new ballast

Well, the last repair lasted from my last post until now...a whole 3 months!
They swapped out the power board, the ballast, and yet another bulb last time.
So here I am again with a broken TV and waiting to hear back from Samsung.
Any reasonable suggestions or help would be MUCH appreciated!

My 50A650 is in month 35....it's running original bulbs, and I have experienced no problems or glitches...other than the inherent skewed framing noticed in (and limited to) 4:3 broadcasts.

Just to chime in and ring the bell of good fortune...love this TV!

Mine will be 3 years old on Sept 16th and not only still on the original bulb, a Philips @ over 7k hours (whose regular light bulbs are the worst on the planet) but the picture is still incredible. I'm expecting a big ol' POP! any minute now. Still have a year or so on the EW and found many places to get a new bulb and other parts at very affordable prices. But am still drooling over the Laservue. I consider it a "Picasso" to the A650, a "van Gogh".

Went to see Cowboys & Aliens at a 4k Digital Theatre and I must say that my DLP has a far better picture than their "calibrated" 3 chip 4k projector. Plus the picture "pulsed" during the beginning of the movie. Thought I was going to puke. But now I know my A650 has a better picture than a current generation 3 chip DLP.

God, I love my A650!!!!!

I bought my 56" in Sept. 2008 and now have 9377 hours on the original bulb. I have developed 2 white dots on the screen though, is there an easy way to fix this?

I have a hl50a650 I bought on January 1 2009. It was working absolutely fine on original bulb, no issues whatsoever until yesterday I go to turn on my tv and I hear sound but no picture is coming on and the lamp is def not on. I got the flashing lights in the front of the tv.

I had just bought the 3da1 adapter, and was getting ready to buy a 3d bluray player, and some dlp link glasses. Needless to say I am extremely frustrated. I don't know if this is just a bulb that needs to be replaced or a whole other issue. I had read countless of people that replace the lamps only to not have any luck, due to it being something else or the bulb dying out within months again.

Any help would be appreciated. I am now thinking of just saving the headache and purchasing a new tv even though i was extremely happy with my tv.

sorry to hear that jesmer. i would recommend replacing the bulb, as they seem to have a pretty limited life and symptoms are consistent with the blown bulb.

Let me know if you decide to go with a new tv though. i have considered getting the adapter, and i could help defray your cost on that piece of equipment.

j

the same happened to us.we were afraid it was something else.we took the bulb out and we could see the broken filament.we ordered a new bulb and it works fine.

I Just picked up this TV that keeps rebooting after 15 seconds. I noticed that there are three lights on the front and the one on the right flashes 15 time during this problem. I have been told the motherboard, and color wheel were replaced and this didn't fix it and the next thing they were going to try was the DMD board. I took the power supply out and found bad caps on it so I replaced them, still reboots however the flashing lights are now 11 and 13. I'm looking for a little help I suspect the ballast board since i looked at it during the reboot and its sparks or flashes and makes noise for a few seconds, not sure if its suppose to do this? otherwise it could be as simple as a week bulb as well. I don't think it's the DMD board since the picture comes up just fine and looks good. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Shaun.

Just thought I would keep the thread alive. My Samsung DLP model: HL56A650C1FXZA is now well over 3 years old. Original bulb. Just re-calibrated (not pro, just basic with a dvd) because I was wondering if the bulb was dimming I did up the brightness a bit, but my new lcd has burned our eyes a bit too. Decided I would check around for best bulb outlets and prices. Now I have 3 HD sets and this thing is still the best! My best AVR (Denon 1909) hooked up to it with all inputs through it (BR, Dish, WII, Xbox) other than when I plug in direct for PC. Have some burned DVD and BR and have not yet moved the htpc or found a family friendly solution for extending those rips to the other room. SO there are at least some very happy DLP Owners still around and IF I need another for that game room I am sure to look for DLP again for size/ quality/ price. Are the OEM bulbs Phillips? is it important to buy including the enclosure? Is there a preferred vendor and is pricing I am finding at just over $110 competitive?

I have the 72" version of this great TV and I love it,
We changed the bulb on September (the 3rd one btw) and I got mine on Amazon through a seller called "TopSellerWorldWide" I think they no longer have any instock but another seller has the exact same one for $99 and is the one made by Samsung so it should be original.
I paid $119 for mine so you should definitely look into it. Here
I thought about getting the lamp by itself but with toddlers running around and the lamp having mercury I went with the one on the enclosure.

Thanks for the links, that part number doesn't seem exact but it is good to know right around 100 is probably right. Good thought on the enclosure, I also think the extra "handling" may not be too good for a bulb like this, just an opinion. Since this is not my primary tv, and my adjustments (actually used the setup from Disney's UP bluray) were very minor, I will wait for the bulb a bit longer, knocking on wood.

White pixel showed up on my HL72A650 this morning. I have an extended warranty and waiting for a reply. It's obviously a stuck mirror. Just curious. Will a tech replace just a bad board? ( DMD? ) Or will they just go ahead and replace the entire light engine?

Hey guys. I apologize for not searching first, but I don't have a lot of time and need a fast response.

January 14 I replaced just the bulb on my TV, not the entire housing. I took housing to reputable TV repair shop well-known in my area, and they swapped out the bulb but there with an osram.

A few weeks ago the screen turned off, power light was still on, and you could hear the ballast buzzing. It finally came back on after a couple of tries. Today it did the same thing but has not turned back on. All three lights are flashing on front and when you hear the ballast buzzing it almost makes a crackling noise and you can see the light flicker through the back event.

I've read in the past that once these things start going, multiple things start breaking. I know that several people have replaced the bulb several times, and the ballast, among other things to no avail. I'm just wondering if in this case based on my description, it might just need a new bulb again. What do you guys think.

I have had my HL50A650 for 4/5 year's with approximately 16K hours on my original bulb last I checked. The picture still good but not as good as I would like.

Is there any internal cleaning of Mirrors or the Lamp housing that I should be doing?

Thanks

I wiped the mirror of my 72" set, it was pretty dusty.
My first bulb went out after 2000 hours, it was an Osram. I replaced with a Phillips which started going out (set would turn off and need to be turned back on, sometimes wouldn't turn on firs try) at 3000 hours. I just replaced that bulb (set worked fine, picture was starting to look dim).
I have no wierd sounds from the color wheel, picture looks excellent, extended warranty runs out in November.
I am at a cross roads- do I pay $500 for the equipment to upgrade it to 3d or do I just get a new 3d set and give this DLP set to my daughter?