BenQ W5000 Vertical Stripes!?

LilGator, check out this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post15214227

I had this problem on my W1000. BenQ replaced it with a new unit. I thought the problem was rare but I have already read about this happening to units other than BenQ, including InFocus.

The thread in post 2 was mine and Infocus replaced my Unit with a brand new one.

Get it replaced. It is rare but now we have 3 occasions here. It will be great if we can find out the real cause.

Make that 4... I started having problems about a week ago. At first it was just a black vertical line, but now I got the exact same picture Lilgator posted, only on mine it is on the right side of the screen. I got the black vertical line 3 times, but after a reboot it worked fine again. Not this time though, nothing seems to have any effect.
Two things I noticed though was that each time it happened I had a frozen picture. First time I was playing Fallout 2 and had it paused, the second time I was watching anime (the picture is from this), the third time I was watching hockey, and today I was watching a movie, all of them were paused at the time. The other thing I noticed was a very tiny sparkling sound from the PJ when it happened.

EDIT: On this picture it's actually not just one black vertical line, but two. The other times it happened, it was only one and only on the right side of the screen.

I'm wondering if the 2 controller architecture is unique to 1080p DLP. I don't ever recall a problem like this with 720p DLPs. The closest I've seen is this, which doesn't really sound like the same problem to me since it appears to be input dependent:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post14708991

Considering that this has happened to several units, which albeit is probably a very small percentage, this may be one area where a 720p DLP has an edge to a 1080p one in terms of reliability.

I had the same problem on my BenQ W5000. I noted three different patterns. At first only a portion of the right side of the picture had a few wide bands of interrupted but visible picture. Then the right side was totally dark and finally the alternating vertical light and dark bands. Initially, I tried turning the unit off and back on after a period of time and it worked for a short while. I sent the unit to BenQ and received it back within approximately 2 weeks. No explanation of what was repaired, so I called and was told the BD was replaced.
I received my unit back not a new or refurb., but I do not know if the BD was new or refurb. Also, I had the original FW 1.02 and asked for the latest 2.01 upgrade but they did not install. They don't seem to like to install FW upgrades. Why? The unit seems to work just as good as before, but I would be concerned if this is a design flaw.

I had the same screen on an Optoma H30--only it covered the whole screen. They took it back. Did not tell me what the problem was that I remember.

Wow, this is a more common problem than I thought. There is a new thread here on the Runco 1100 with this very problem.

I have started to develop a problem on the left side of the screen. Two vertical sections will switch places.

The problem never happened until I passed the 2,000 hour mark on my bulb. I see that a lot of people have reported a similar issue and that it eventually lead to the left side of the screen not working at all and just being white and black stripes. It seems odd that in my case it happens when the bulb needs to be replaced.

Judging by the number of people reporting the same problem I'm not sure whether I should just replace the bulb and see what happens or send the projector in to BENQ for repair.

I've had the vertical issue twice in the past two weeks and never before that in the previous 18 months of owning the projector.

Changing the bulb for this problem will do nothing except cost you an extra $350. Call BenQ and get an out of warranty RMA. They will have you ship it to an authorized repair center (MainteQ in California most likely) and they will diagnose and estimate the repairs. Mine had vertical black and white stripes about a month ago and it cost $260 total for repair and shipping. The projector works like new again.

That doesn't sound like a bad deal, but I would still need to spend the $300 on the new bulb. Mwave.com actually carries the oem bulb with housing for 259.99.

So spend about 600 to repair it and get a new bulb or sell it as is and use the 600 I would have spent and the money I get selling it towards a new projector. Tough decision.

Moved the projector to the garage and did a ceiling mount. Haven't really used it much since the vertical bar issues began with the exception of some UFC events. Low and behold the issue came back, but this time on the right side. Got my RMA and I'll be sending it into the repair center in Fontana this weekend.

Fingers crossed the bill isn't too bad, otherwise I think a new Epson 8350UB might be in order.

My BenQ W5000 did the exact same thing as this photo shows except opposite side of the screen because my projector is inverted today. It is out of its 2 year warranty and I had just clocked up 1497 hours when this happened. Like the OP, it just suddenly appeared and didn't matter if I changed inputs or sources. I powered down and re-fired it up and it has not come back. I am not feeling optimistic about not seeing it again.

The only other issue I have had with this projector was a lamp strike failure at about 1200 hours which has never repeated.

Does anyone know what the cause is - heat, dust? I know a W20000 owner that had the same thing happen at about the same lamp hour time.

It's heat related. I ran mine for six days when I began to see some sync issues where there was a small area that would go out for a split second. It was on the right side sometimes but usually the left. This happened after running the lamp in normal when I first got the projector, and again when I put in a new lamp about twice a week with around twelve hours viewing a day. After the six days the entrie left side went to vertical bars, and then a couple days later the right side too.

It was a chip replacement from BenQ service center that cost me $160.00 to be refurbished out of warranty.

Here is a before and after photo of before I sent it in, and when I recieved it back. There was around four power up/down cycles between repair but when I got it backafter it was still on 500 hours.

This was around ten hours before the vertical stripes


This is after I recieved it back from repair

Interesting as I don't consider the room and rack it is mounted in to be all that hot.


That seems reasonable. I was told (not by BenQ) to expect to pay more in the line of $1000.00 for this.


Your photos concern me. Why is the "before" sharper then the "after"?

You shouldn't be really, sharpness eight and sharpness five are the difference. It's a DVD. I'm also trying to read text while also typing at the same time from ten and a half feet away on a six foot screen. The camera is closer than that. If I watch a movie it's more like five feet away, and I use a lower setting of five.

My sharpness is on three. I find the image has too much halo at any higher setting. Under three and it look soft. I use my projector (occasionally) to surf the internet. I also used it the other day for a monitor with a design I was working on as I needed a larger monitor than that of the PC. Text is perfectly readable at any distance (from 2x the image height) in my room.

I ran the projector for a while this moring. No odd noises or artifacts on screen. What did concern (?) me was the air flow from the exhaust did not seem to feel hot like it normally does. The projector is getting louder though (colour wheel?).

My W5000 has been doing similar thing since it was new.

Problem with half screen is different in my unit. Mine is showing thin horizontal lines (not vertical like others reporting here) on right side of the picture.

Also this problem occurs only after syncing to a source right after picture from source is displaying. Right side of the picture is displaying picture from the source but is has some thin horizontal lines on it and picture has fuzzy analog look. If I open projectors menu lines are on the menus too, so the problem is not a source. Usually it happens when I have just powered on my unit but sometimes when stopping movie and going back to PS3 desktop when changing from 1080/24p to 1080/60p.

This problem occurs maybe once a month, sometimes more and sometimes less frequently. Also problem only lasts for one second to few seconds and goes away by itself. I never needed to turn off the projector and start again to get rid of this. It never occured during I watch something, only right after syncing to a source or source is changing refresh rate from 24p to 60p or similar.

Like I said it has been doing this since it was new (nearly three years). Problem is that warranty is ending soon so I try to decide should I send it to service or just keep it and hope it does not broke down completly.

What do you think, is mine suffering from the same as others in this thread meaning my unit is dying slowly or is this something else and I should just forget about it?

There is always a risk when sending these things that they get damaged during shipping and some new problems arise. How do you even get the lens shift to right position so that you can put the styrofoam back on the lense in front?

My 5 year old Benq 5000 started to show vertical stripes on half side of the screen last December. I called Benq and was directed to send it to a service center in Pennsylvania.

After the diagnosis this is what they sent me.

---

Confirmed Symptom(s) Of: Image lines from defect on main board
Necessary Repair Action(s): Rebuild main board. Clean optics, filters & test all functions.
5E.0AH02.001 PCBA CHIP BD W20000 MI - Returnable - No Longer Available

The part for this unit is no longer available. We will attempt to rebuild the part for the price stated. If we are unable to rebuild the part and restore the projector, there will be no additional cost to the customer other than the evaluation fee.

---

The part is no longer available. It seems they will try to fix it but there is no guarantee if they can fix it.

Does anyone have experience about this?

They charge $502. I probably better off buying a new one.

well my w5000 had similar issues which would not start up at all same service center Cwang sent to could not find main board and then after a month said BenQ found one main board but wanted $500 to replace i refused repair and they shipped it back to me .now it starts up fine with vertical lines or pic blotchy not sure if its a issue with color wheel.checking tonight if its color wheel issue .
Cwang did they send me your's :-)

The service center has my projector for a month. They tole me the parts arrived on Jan. 28 and will start to repare my projector. Today (Feb. 6) I asked the status of the repair. They told me the parts are no longer available. They offered me an trade in for W700 with a discount.

i was also offered a tradeup for w7000 which i took for $1300 i think BenQ is trying to offload refurbished W7000's, which is doubt is any good as my W5000 was refurb too ,when i got it and less than 5 hours of use was in storage for 3 years and when i powered it up this Dec all 3 red lights on startup.I was told main board is not available and then they got it in Jan wanted 550 for repair i refused and had them send me back my W5000and they charged $100 (service fee+ shipping).
When i powered up my W5000 it starts now but pic is all fuzzy.I have not setup W7000 yet .but he good thing is it comes with 1 year warranty from BenQ.

I was considering takin w7000 until I found w7000 has different base for ceiling mount. If I want to redo the ceiling mount, I have better off getting a different model. My JVC RS46 is on the way.