Samsung DLP - 3 Blinking Lights Problem - Page 3

Own a HLM507 that I purchased in November 2002. Problem showed up after one month. Set had audio but no picture. Powering off and on set with the remote brought picture back to life. Has happened one other time since November , or twice in 3 months.

I had the same 3 blinking light problem on my Mitsubishi WD-65000. If I unplugged the set & came back after a few minutes the set would work fine. But...a few months later & now the set is really flaking-out

See this post for details:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=223283


I hope you Samsung owners do not start having the problems that I outlined in the attached post.

Any particular reason you aren't including HLM617W 61" in this thread?

If not, I have had my 61" only one week, but have not had the three blinking LED's problem.

$.02
rewilliams2

DLiquid, please note that I reported that the speakers were resonating (when playing speech at about 170Hz and 130Hz), and that the resulting distortion was intermittent. IIRC, a ground loop produces a hum that's more or less steady.

What's odd is that the speakers start out not resonating, and gradually get worse -- the resonant buzzing gets both louder and more frequent. I've been waiting over a week for a call from Samsung tech support, which was supposedly instigated by the repairman.

Have owned my 507 since September was hit by the 3 blinking lights problem yesterday for the first time. Now TV will only run for 30 seconds after a hard reset before shutting down.

Tweeter is to have their service folks call me today. Am interested to see what tact they take on fixing the problem.

My sammy 507 is going through its 2nd return, first time for i believe a mirror out and now i have the all but famous 3 light problem.. tweeter is coming out friday the 14 of feb to replace it. I was considering switching to the GWII 60" , but didnt like that it only had to 2 HD comp. ports, plus the one in the store i saw already had some pixels out. I was thinking about geting a 617 but i was wondering if people still are having problem with the 3 lights?

My 437 was looked at yesterday, and when the service guy and I first turned it on, it had the three blinking lights problem. My original complaint was about some clouding/dust behind the screen, but it turned out that's a moot point. They're giving me a new TV... hopefully it will be better. Tweeter's been good to me so far. I'll be looking at the next one with a much more critical eye, and if it fails I'll probably have to start shopping around for a new model again.

Tweeter Service Rep showed up today 8 days after being called. Guess he wanted to see my 3 blinking lights in person. Unfortunately, he had no parts for my Sammy 507 so now the parts (Lamp and power board) are on order with an anticipated delivery of 10 days.

no blinking lights...but than I don't own a Samsung. Panasonic DLP here.

Finally got my 3 blinking lights problem fixed. The tech originally ordered a new power board (on the advice of Samsung). I fought hard to get them to order a new lamp at the same time.

When the tech came back today, he first tried the new power board -- didn't make any difference (I was secretly hoping that the firmware chip was on this board and I'd get a free upgrade to the latest firmware, but no such luck). He then put the new bulb in and that did the trick. So the lamp is definitely the culprit, even if it actually comes on (for 30 seconds or so).

One interesting thing I noticed when he was swapping out the bulb: the old one had a definite green cast. Check out these photos:




The new one, on the other hand, looked perfectly clear. The new bulb is the same model number as the old one, but the design of the back is slightly different. The tech guessed that the glass developed the green hue as a result of the heat. But it was interesting to me because a frequent complaint with this set is that images have a green tint. I'm wondering if it's a result of the bulb. Just a thought...

Cute kid!

She and our dog (on the left) seem to find a way to squeeze into any picture

Add one more to the "three blinking lights" problem. This is on a month old 507W. My son got up Sunday morning and found it dead. I've been getting the run-around from Samsung trying to get a service technician out to fix the problem. Needless to say the WAF dropped considerably this week.

Well, one more three-blinking lights problem. Called TVA (I was in powerbuy third round), and the very reassuring person there told me to call Samsung, that they're being pretty responsive about the whole thing.

Called Samsung, and the woman there told me to try a hard reset (she said "up to 3 hours", so I guess that means at least 3 hours). I had already unplugged the set before calling, so I had a head start on the 3 hours. She also said that they'd be answering the phone until 9:00 EST tonight, and that if the reset doesn't work, they'll set me up for a service call. So far so good, but I'll keep everyone posted.

I've got to comment on the excellent attitude exhibited by TVA when I'm feeling bad about an expensive piece of gear that's not working. The folks I've talked to there are sympathetic and constructive--they really have been nice, and make me want to do business again with them.

Well, I waited three hours for the hard reset, then plugged in the set and hit Power On using the remote, as instructed (don't use the switch on the TV), and NO JOY!

I called Samsung back, and true to their word they were still answering the phone at 7:30 EST, BUT, rather than set up a service call, they told me to call a local repair shop in the next town and schedule the repair with them. Of course, the local shop in Fort Pierce was closed by then, and I have to call them in the morning.

Sure hope that they have a bulb in stock, and that someone can run over here and install it tomorrow or Wednesday. I have a houseguest who's eager to watch some of the many wonderful movies in my collection, and right now there's no joy here in Mudville...

I'll continue to document the saga as it develops. My last main TV (a Pioneer 710) worked perfectly for the three years I owned it, and never missed a day of putting out a beautiful picture. In face, I've owned three or more TVs consistently for the past twenty years, and have needed ONE, count 'em, ONE TV repair in that time. Not too impressive for a two-month-old TV.

It's not likely to be the bulb is it? It's also not likely to be a quick fix either. Checkers anyone?

Well, the 437s were supposed to be in on Friday, Feb 21st... but they never came and aren't expected now until March 14th. I called Tweeter, and told them I'd give them the extra 300 bucks and move up to the 50" Sony LCD (XBR800). They have those in stock... and it's a brand name I can hopefully trust. Samsung is not delivering.

Funny thing is, after a few weeks of staring at a broken TV, I gave it a smack on the back this weekend, plugged it in, and it powered up fine. Go figure. I'm still sending it back though... it still has clouding on the screen, and I sure as hell don't want to make a habit out of slapping the back of my TV to get it to start.

Looking forward to the Sony...

Well, the picture was quite dark and getting darker for about an hour before it went black in the middle of a movie, so I'm figuring that it's likely to be a bulb. Probably not going to help me avoid a lengthy wait for a repair, according to the experiences of others on this forum. I'm expecting the worst, with a week or two for a technician to come to my house, then a couple of weeks for them to order a bulb, receive it, and schedule a second service call. Seems that's the drill for most of us.

I just want to watch movies, and there's not much of that going on here these days, but I guess that's the price for living at the bleeding edge of technology. Oh well, at least I live in Florida, where the weather is good enough to allow outside activities when the home theater is down. Going to have to cancel this weekend's scheduled movie party though, unless I'm very lucky. Sixteen guests showed up for last weekend's party, with food and drink, and all clustered around the 50" screen for a pretty good show. It's an easy way for a bachelor to throw a party!

Had the 437 for two days when it happened. We had a power dropout while it was on that lasted one second. The Sammy did not like this at all. It didn't have the cool down cycle.

I waited about four hours and it fired up OK.

I have since added an APC Smart-UPS 700 to the system to take care of that little problem as we do live in a rural area where the power lines can slap around in the winds causing all kinds of havoc, such as drop outs.

Add me to the list.

I had my 507 for 6 weeks when the dreaded 3 blinking lights problem appeared. It was built in November and has firmware rev 110.

Mine powers up and the light come on for about 20 sec. Then the light goes out and the blinking starts about a second later. I have to unplug it to try again. I tried leaving it unplugged for a long period of time but it did not change anything.

I called Tweeter and they promised to replace the lamp. They later called back saying there were no lamps available so they would swap out the set. I've been waiting a week so far and the new set is due on Monday.

I finally heared from my contact at Samsung on the 3 blinking lights.

This is a direct quote from an email:

Three blinking lights "means the lamp circuit is open... we found that 60-70% of the time 're-seating' the lamp addresses this. Other issues include faulty resistor or ballast. Bad lamps are an issue and we had a rash of them. The suppliers were "tortured" by our R/D team - Philips and Toshiba on the 100W and Osram on the 120W. New Q/C procedures were demanded by Samsung. Note though, overall lamp failure do appear high, but our total failure rate involving the lamp is less than 1% of total sales since last year."

"...in fact, new manuals will dedicate a page of instruction... 3 screws to remove and re-seat lamp" for replacement.

Pressure on Philips and Toshiba to improve QC on lamps delivered to Samsung.

Had the three blinking lights problem after 2 months of use. Similar to a few other threads where you could hear the fan starting and stopping....

I unplugged, and then plugged in and tried again the next day, and everything was working fine. One month later, everything is still fine. While I hope the problem just "went away", I still hold my breath everytime I turn the sucker on.

Update on my 3 blinking lights problem. Two servicemen with a truck came out, looked at the set (didn't move or touch it), and said they'd have to take it back into their shop. They told me that they expected it would be fixed "the first part of next week". I'm not holding my breath, but I'll keep you all updated.

I wasn't awed by their technical capabilities, and I suspect that the real reason they didn't try any remedies at my house (like opening it and reseating the bulb) was that they didn't know how and had never seen one of the HLM507W units. Doesn't look too inspiring so far. Let's hope that with a replacement bulb it'll work 6000 hours or more with no further problems.

I'd certainly pay for upgraded innards if Samsung decided to offer us the option. Hope they do, but somehow I doubt they will. This specific problem sounds like a bulb problem or bulb-seating/contact issue. Wonder if the 48-hour burn-in I did got me the 8 weeks of life instead of 2 weeks...

I would have refused to let it leave my house until they at least tried the re-seat. I'm sure somebody has used it before, "how many Samsung techs does it take to change, errr, re-seat a light bulb?"

I would like to explore other sources and other lamp options. Does anyone whose lamp got replaced have the bad bulb?

Would you be interested in posting a detailed picture of the pins and any markings? How about sending/selling it to me?

I'd like to locate a 80W or so version if available. (I know we have the 100W and 120W)

Since I run my conrast at 75-80, I could run a lower wattage lamp and get better blacks without hurting brightness.

Thanks,
Ken