HD1000U - I took it apart and cleaned a dust blob (pics included) - Page 2

Ha Ha! Funny both us posted within a minute of each other! I guess that makes you responsible for resurrecting an old thread!

Hooked it back up and I can't say for sure if it brighter but it certainly seems so. All blobs gone! No trace of them! Thanks OP for the guide. I opened it up yesterday but didn't have the courage to go past the top cover.

Actually the more I look at it the image does seem brighter and the whites are really white.

I cleaned the color wheel with 91% isopropyl and the I cleaned the bulb glass part. I also blew compressed air in there (maybe I shouldnt' have - but I'm waiting for it to die anyway - I can't figure out why it isn't!) I might just pre-emptively replace it when I come across $300.

Also the fan that cools the DLP chip heatsink had a LOT of dust I used compressed air and cleaned with alcohol swab but I couldn't get it all out in the fins.

This projector was a great investment! I won't ever sell it.

I too had dust blobs. Took the lamp out to clean but didn't get all of it. Then took it ALL apart ,cleaned everything and now really clean. Thanks to all.

I'd like to keep this thread alive.

I had my HD1000 sitting on my desk mostly apart because the dust blobs were killing me. The pictures from this howto helped me figure out that taking the circuit board off allowed me to get to the optics. I used a vacuum cleaner and a compressor to blow/suck the dust out including the area where the lamp housing plugs into on the other side.

I did not yank the ribbon cables from the board, I simply kept that end of the board fully connected and rolled it over to gain access to the optics. Once I got to the optics I blew/sucked the dust out and then used a microfiber cloth + qtip to gently clean the lenses and mirrors.

After reassembling I remounted the projector to the ceiling and the projector is behaving factory new.

Thanks OP!

Obsidience

Well I think I'm going to do this myself soon, as I'm starting to notice a couple of these pesky dust blobs. I only see them on a blank dark screen, like during start-up, but it's buggin' me just the same...

I know this thread is super old, but i just wanted to say thank you. I recently developed a dust blob problem with my HC1500 and it has been driving me crazy for about 2 weeks now. I wanted to watch Thor on blu-ray with the kids, but i know the white spots during the dark scenes would ruin the movie for me..so I did some googling and I stumbled upon this thread. This evening, i took my projector down off of the ceiling, cleaned it out with compressed air (i tried a balloon pump first, but it didn't seem forceful enough) the compressed air stirred up alot of dust, so i laid one of those swiffer duster things on top of the projector and then blew it out...the dust was attracted to the swiffer and kept it from falling back down onto the mirrors...i was a little scared, but it went well, it appears that all of the inputs are working (i don't have anything connected to the composite or svideo inputs, but hdmi and component are working fine...and best of all, the white spots are gone!!! Now we can watch Thor tomorrow after the Steelers game!!!

thank you so much for making this tutorial, it was extremely helpful. You have made my kids and I very happy.

Well again thanks to the OP! I've been living with a dust-blob in my HC1500 for a while now, but it hadn't really been bothering me, but the other night I noticed a new one, so today I decided to open it up. It took me about an hour from start to finish, not bad at all. My image is now good as new!


A note about the brown ribbon-wire noted in the original post. It is held in place in a clamp fitting, and the dark-brown portion just flips up to release the ribbon, and pushes back down to lock the ribbon in place. Easy-Peasy

Well yesterday's reply came before any real viewing had been done, just a remount, align and focus with the grid on the menu. Last night I watched some blue-ray and WOW! The image has a lot more pop than it did prior to cleaning. I'd like to note that I used a vacuum with a brush attachment on the unit before I used the canned air to remove dust from both the mirror and color wheel. I also whiped down all the shields that were removed with a micro-fiber dust cloth as there was a film of micro-dust covering them. I'd suggest that anyone interested in giving their old Mitsubishi 'H' series projector a bump up in performance give it a cleaning, I'm certainty glad I did

I know this is an old thread, but I hope that you still check it. I have an HD 1000 (about five years old), and I decided to use your example. It all went according to plan, but now, when I turn my projector on, the fans start for about a second, then it cuts off and goes back into standby mode (red light on power indicator, nothing else). When I turn it on, both lights go green, then they go back when the machine cuts back off.

Any idea what I may have done wrong? I was using it just a few hours ago, so it should be working fine. I've even double checked the circuit board again, going by my photos.

The only thing that I can think of is that I wasn't super careful about putting screws back where they originally went, but everything seems to fit and it's all secure.

Any ideas would be great!

Thanks!

Probably one of the ribbon cables isn't fully seated. I'd open it back up and check all the connections.

So I had already pressed in all the ribbon cables before you gave me that advice, but this time I unplugged them all and plugged them back in. It worked perfectly that time.

Thanks for this post -- if I hadn't found it I doubt that I would have had the courage to attempt this fix, and I had a whole screen full of dust blobs!

Excellent!

I may have to try cleaning my hc1100. Its started to get a buzz from the color wheel at startup.

Well, while a careful cleaning shouldn't hurt, I'm not sure it will cure a noisy color-wheel. That is likely an issue of vibration caused by worn bearings. Good luck and let us know how it goes.