How's your GWII doing - Page 5

I got one of the last GWIIs made I think (in Jan.) and so am a relatively new owner who has searched these forums high-and-low.

I recall complaints and questions about the fan, but no answers. My guess is that it's embedded pretty deeply in the assembly? Anyone with a service manual--comment on how hard it would be to get at it?

It would not surprise me if Sony used a custom variable-speed fan or something that would be impossible to find a 2nd (better/quieter) source for...

There are two fans. One is below the projector lens and sucks air into the optical block. The other is in the back and circulates air over the optical block heat sink. You can alter the fan speed of either of these in the service menu, but I don't recommend that. You can also monitor its effect on temperature. Temperature is used to cycle between a high and low temperature fan speed setting. This temperature setpoint is also configurable in the service menu.

Fan noise is also a function of how reflective the surface is behind the TV. Some people have had success with placing sound absorbing surfaces behind the TV.

Replacing the fan that blows over the optical block looks like a possibility, but I doubt it would be very effective. Replacing the fan below the projector lens with a different one looks less likely. It is also not as loud as the one in the back.

I have often been surprised by how noticeable the fan sound is when I shut-down after a session (TV or DVD/other). Surprised because I have yet to notice the sound during a program of any sort.

The idea to have sound-absorption material behind the set (drapes/curtains/whatever) is a good one regardless of the fan i.e. the fewer room reflections the better.

just got a gwIII 50" with a build date of june 2004. love it. best decision i could have made. I have had no trouble at all. PQ is excellent with HD feeds and pretty good with SD feeds. For the price i got it for, i know i made the right choice. the new HD2+ tvs coming out are just way too expenve for my taste... and you probably won't see any real difference in PQ either. I'd rather save $1000-$1500 and put that money toward getting all the extras... dvd player, cables, surround sound, tv stand, etc.

Thanks. A friend suggested a similar idea. We concluded that the anti-chuffing port on the back would also give the thing a nice dynamic swing during the loud passages for added visual entertainment. Meanwhile, am playing around with the idea of a plexiglass inverted L-shaped deal that velcros on at the top rail and rests on a glued on bar-stop somewhere down the back.

But still would love to know what that little 2x3 panel is hiding on the back....

Hi
My 50xbr800 just started doing the same thing. It turns off after about 2 mins and the standby light flashes. 30 sec later it turns back on. Went into the service menu and I also have a lamp driver fault. I only have a 1yr warranty in Canada so I think I am hooped. The tv repair guy for sony stuff is on holidays for a week, so I am waiting to find out what the real problem is and how much $$$$.

Sorry to hear about that!

It took the repair shop nearly 5 weeks to get my TV back to me. Very few people are qualified to service this television and parts (lamps) are at a premium.

The technican hooked mine up to a computer and determined that a safety circuit was faulty, they replaced it and it was still happening . . . it turns out that the technician will receive the same trouble code if the lamp is also faulty. He replaced the lamp and everything was cool! Imagine . . . 5 weeks to tell me the lamp was no good . . . good thing I got the extended warranty . . . wrong again! The lamp is consumable so it is not covered . . . I am currently fighting Sony to have them cover the $250 in labour.

I purchased the lamp and no extended warranty for this very situation.

Thanks a million.
I will try that 1st.

Boy, I have got to get busy & order a new lamp before mine goes. Otherwise I'll be going nuts for a few months if I don't. My GWII is at about 8400 hours now! I finally got a real nice AV receiver & sub woofer this past week. It makes the TV a whole lot nicer now!!!!!!!!!

Couch Patato,
It is really great to hear that you have 8400 hours on your lamp. That is 400 hours over the predicted 6,000 to 8,000 hour lamp life. I don't recall anyone on RPTV forum indicating that they have had a lamp last that long.
The lamp in my GWII has about 5,100 hours on it and I thought that I was doing good. I am going to put in a new lamp that I recently got and keep the original lamp to use when the new lamp eventually dies and another new lamp is ordered. I would have liked to "run out the string" on the original lamp to see just how long it would last, but the limited 90 day warranty on replacement lamps compels me to get the new lamp installed.

Jcjep,

I would only leave the new lamp in for a short (90 day) time and then run the old one. Sony does something behind the scene with that time to correct for color changes of the lamp. When you finally replace the lamp for real I would reset the timer.

I would assume that to reset it, it is as easy as hitting reset while on the timer page in the SM?

No. Here is how you do it.

Scroll through the service menu until you reach category OPTION-E. You will then need to press the 3 button on the remote so your top line on the screen will read OPTION-E 0 1. Then press MUTE ENTER on the remote to reset the lamp timer. You can verify that the lamp timer has been reset by pressing the 6 button on the remote so the top line of the screen displays OPTION-E 0 0 and then read the timer from the right side of the screen. It should now be 00000.

HI
I got my GWII xbr800 fixed today. All it needed was a new bulb to stop that dreaded led from blinking and the picture cutting out. Only $100 for service and $300 for the bulb.
The tv repair guy told me that Sony upped the warranty on the gwIII's bulb to a year from 90 days. Maybe if we all complain about our GWII bulbs that they might up it also. 3928 hours on the bulb.
Happy HDTV

That is excellent!

It's good to know that when one of these babies keeps shutting itself off, the first thing to do is replace the bulb. I know I was pissed when they realized it after 5 weeks!

I've been looking for the best place to pick-up audio from my system for my wife's headset amp (she's impaired) and was surprised to learn:

No audio appears at the Monitor-out audio jacks if tuned to my set-top box that's input via the DVI jacks. Perusing the manual suggests that the Monitor-out will not work for non-hd video, but I'm surprised it doesn't pass the audio, especially since you have to specifically route analog audio-IN to the DVI section of the GWII.

Can others confirm my no-audio finding? Any way in the Service menu to get around this maybe?

Brickbats to Sony for muting the "normal" audio-out jacks when the Speakers are On--not sure why they insisted on doing this...

C'mon you guys, nobody's bumping this thread! You all fixated on your TVs?

Someone here needs to get the new Mac mini (6.5"x2") for $500 (!) and get it to drive the GWII. Maybe one can tell from the specs?

Graphics support
ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with AGP 4X support
32MB of dedicated Double Data Rate (DDR) video memory
Video
DVI video output for digital resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports non-coherent digital displays up to 135MHz

This appears pretty weak I suppose...

Bought my GWII in March of 2003.
Bulb finally died yesterday after 2 years of heavy use.
Ordered from sonystyle.com today, then got email saying it's out of stock!

They're always out of stock. Word is it takes 2 to 3 months to get one. I'd better order one now while I have a little extra money! I keep putting it off.

vaile,

I would search for another supplier. It can take quite a while to get one from Sony.

I ordered mine from Sonystyle.com a few weeks ago and I got it in a few days. I guess I was lucky because I also heard it can take weeks or months to get it from them.

For the record, I've had my GWII for two years and I have amost 6000 hours on the original bulb. I haven't put the new one in yet. I'm also going to do the UMR filter mod at the same time.

I still love this TV.

Unfortunately my GWII-XBR displayed it's last frame on 04/06/05, I purchased the unit 01/2004.

I purchased a Sony GWII 50" from Circuit City (early 2004) and my set appears to be a "lemon" and has been repaired 4 times as of 04/06/05, the display is garbled to where it's unwatchable. Due to the cost of this repair CC is going to replace the set. I have a series of pictures that clearly displays the GPU is not working properly, problem exists with all inputs including DVI.

I'm going to get a *NEW* TV from Circuit City and my choice will be the 55" GWIV 55XS955 instead of the 60" GWIV 60XS955, my viewing distance is 8.5'.

I have pictures if anyone is interested..

Sony's Customer Service is outstanding !!

Sure post them here!

I got my XL-2000U bulb this Friday and had the GWII back in service on Saturday! Had to vacum out a lost of dust in the process.

I cancelled my order with sonystyle.com and submitted a new order with servicesales.sel.sony.com. Paid $199 for the bulb, $12 for DHL overnight and got it the next day.

Ironically, DHL delivered it 3 streets away from my house since that's where a Sony repairman lives and he get's shipments every day...hmmph!

vaille

Thanks! I just ordered one. The site did say it was in stock. We'll see what the e-mail confirmation says.

FYI: My bulb should be getting close to if not at 11,000 hours or so.

Coach,

You must be close to a record with 11,000 hours. You might want to replace it just to regain light output unless you just want to see how far you can go.

When I get the new one I'll test it to make sure it works. If I think it is brighter then I might keep it in.

My lamp has been loosing luminance at a nearly linear rate approaching 50% of a new lamp output at 8000 hours. You are likely at about 40% of a new lamps light output.