Panny AE900 Official Thread- Please post here! - Page 211

Perhaps the filter is partially clogged or the fan is dying?
[Edit] Or the sensor that tells the fan to turn (if there is one).[/Edit]

Mark

No, it stays green. You just see the lamp shutoff and hear the fan on.
It was very hot. I have my fan speed set to high in the menu.

I hope I can get this one running right. ALthough I could upgrade to one of the new DLP $999 1080p jobs....none of them would work with my setup:

106 Graywolf. 16 ft throw. PJ sitting on shelf 5 feet high behind couch.

One of the new pannys would be the best upgade but can't afford it.

That's not good. My guess would be:

1. The unit is overheating and either the temp sensor is failing or the temperature is too high to function normally but below the threshold which trips the temp sensor.
2. The lamp ballast, power supply or main board is failing.
3. You are turning the unit off after 6 hours but have consumed enough alcohol to erase your short-term memory.

The only thing left that you can try is cleaning the filters (if you haven't done so already) and using an external fan to increase the amount of cool air going into the air intake. If that doesn't keep it running I'd purchase a new projector.

HAHA! Wish number 3 was true!

I did clean the filters but I will try again.

Man, I hoped to upgrade to 1080p but it sounds like rather investing money in this I may be better off finding a deal on a 720p unit. WIth a new lamp and a repair bill I could easily spend $500-$700. I could find a 720p unit w that.

Sorry, how many hours on your lamp again?

1450

My lamp hours is flashing red on the menu screen at 1870 hours? I bought my projector in June 06. I just passed 1800 hours and I noticed it turned red in the menu. I've had the lamp on low power since day one and iris has been disabled recently. I was under the imrpession I could get 3000 hours out of my bulb using the lamp on low. I clean the filter often and never turn my projector on and off without a 2 hour cool down.

Should I be concerned? The manual doesn't say much other then the unit will shut down once it reaches 3000 hours. I hope I can get at least another year out of this bulb with the way I've been babying it.

As long as your lamp still functions you're fine. If you want to get rid of the warning you can reset your lamp timer and it'll go away.

If you projector is shutting down after 20-60 mins and then comes back on by itself of the lamp light flashes yet you have replaced the bulb I have the fix.

You need to replace 3 capacitors of the ballast main board. Takes about 30 mins or less.

You have to replace C9617 (1.6kv,4700pf), C9618 and C9619 (630v,.15u)..Parts are about $8

Enjoy.

If you looking for the service manual I found it here: http://home.orange.nl/rdls/AE900_servicemanual.pdf

The other option is to go to the service menu and turn the fans on full all the time. Its noisey but it seems to cool the unit enough that the failing parts seem to keep going for a while better.

Service menu is found by turning unit on then go to the shut down menu and move over to the cancel position, then hit up,down,up,down,enter...

I've seen a little on the thread here, but nothing solid. I've got what sounds like a fan belt noise. It started recently [bulb @ about 2850hrs]. Bought a new bulb, replaced the old one, noise went away for one night. Night number 2...it's back.

Doesn't matter what the setting is for Lamp Power or Dynamic Iris. The noise remains.

Can I deal with this without sending it in? Filter is new/clean and new bulb has 12 hrs on it. If I have to send it in, where would you recommend? Seems like a little WD40 would fix it.

This has been a FANTASTIC projector. I'd hate to give up on it.

Just curious. I have had this projector for about 3 years. My orig bulb last august was at 2300 hours. seemed a little dimmer. I searched around for a bulb say one at Advanced Lamps for a reasonable price inc shipping. I purchased it before labor day and it made a huge difference. Been runnign at high. Also when I removed old bulb cleaned dirt off outside and put away. Two weeks ago watching a red dvd upscaled to 1080p and started to flicker finally stopped and played through. Monday after thanksgiving went to watch movie. and no pic and red light flashing and PJ cycled to fan and shut off did this several times. Put back old bulb and worked fine. Called company and they suprised me. They had orig warranty of 90 days and I am week over but because I bought before labor day warranty special 120 days. They gave me return for inspection notice and rm I returned and they are replacing. The new bulb had just 85 hours. I hope this is not because it was and aftermarket lamp but the service so far at advance lamps is great and so is theyre pricing. Can it be that bad to run pj at high as It gives a much brighter pic and all the years I suffered with it at low. I do not expect 3000 hours but about 1500 at high for the price is okay. Hope second last longer. Just a reccomendation for advanced though. Great csr.

My 3.5 year old AE900 (about 4000 hours) has had a nagging convergence problem, which I understand from posters here requires service.

Now I've got a grinding fan noise, and it's unclear from what I've read here whether this problem can be fixed at home.

So, anyone know what these problems cost to fix out-of-warranty? I'm trying to decide whether it makes sense to keep this projector or upgrade to a new one.

Thanks...

was tempted to create a separate thread but i figure this was a better place for my issue

just bought an used PT-ae900u from ebay.

seller said the bulb has 2000 hrs on it but otherwise in great working condition.

When i got the pj the first thing i noticed was that under options menu the lamp runtime was @32 hr (made me uneasy since it wasnt what the seller said it was)

also when i hooked it up to my dvd player / playstation / tivo , etc i noticed a greenish tint to blacks and a generally pale or dull image.

i had to increase brightness all the way to max and it still looks very dark and dull.

do you guys think its the bulb? , im afraid it might be the lcd filters , read somewhere that the greenish tint on my blacks might indicate a problem with the green lcd filter.

any ideas?

A grinding Fan noise probably means the bearings in the fan are giving up the ghost.....I am guessing you could simply replace the fan yourself...but if you are seeing tinting in the colors....ehhh that ain't good.

Yeah, the fan seems to be a fairly common problem. A number of posters have asked whether the fan can be replaced at home but I've never seen a definitive reply.

Well if its a standard 12v fan you can likely replace it yourself, panasonic makes fans like that for the computer/electronics industry...its just a matter of finding the right one online. Even if the connector is non-standard you just clip wires and use a little electrical tape.

The point was that its not worth servicing a panny 900 at this point in time with questionable LCD panels. Better to sell it off for whatever you can get for it. How many hours on your bulb, I have a 900 thats in great working order (I dont use it) but the bulb has 2200hrs on it....

Yeah, that's why I'm trying to get a ballpark on the service costs. If it's 100 bucks, that's easy -- fix it. If it's 1000 -- that's easy, too. I just don't know where in between the repair is apt to fall. Incidentally, used the projector last night and the fan hums like a champ -- go figger.

My (second) bulb's got about 890 hours on it.

Unlikely to be fan. More likely the iris. Disconnect the iris on the board and all should be good with only a slight picture difference

You're talking at least as much to fix it as it would cost to almost buy a new projector, with better specs and a brand new bulb.

After a couple years these things just aren't worth repairing unless you've got some super high-end machine that can hold its own against the modern PJ's.

My advice is to sell it for parts, or sell the bulb, and look at the $1k PJ's.....just make sure you get one that works with your room setup, eg: if you use a lot of lens-shift, etc, etc. (I'm a DLP guy myself so I'm used to funky angles and weird setups and image offsets).

anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

I would buy a new bulb if it does not fix it you should be able to sell bulb on ebay for a bit less than you bought it for.

My AE900 has a really annoying issue that has reared it's ugly head once again, and my searches on the topic have proven mostly fruitless, and am hoping someone can help.

THE PROBLEM: My pj has just started doing this thing where the light output changes (basically it dims, then goes bright, dims, etc, etc.) every few seconds. This is NOT a "the flicker issue" ... this is a light output issue. It happened on my last bulb and it only had about 500-600 hours on it, and I had Panny send me a new one, and this new one has started doing it after only about 300 hours, so I'm guessing it is not the bulb.

It is EXTREMELY annoying when watching a movie, and is very noticeable in all but the darkest of scenes, and even those once you start seeing it. Switching back to ECONO mode, then back to NORMAL mode has no effect. This project sees relatively light use, and is well maintained (clean the filter normally every 50 hours, max every 75-100), very clean environment, not subject to vibrations, never abused, etc.

I read about this issue with at AX100, and there was some kind of "black-tape over a sensor fix" but could never find any more about it, or if it would even apply to the AE900. I doubt it is a power issue as it just pops up out of nowhere, and the power supply/source has not changed at all. In fact nothing has changed. Also, it does not matter what input I am using (HDMI HD-DVD, COMP1 DVD, COMP2 BLU-RAY, HD-CABLE TV, etc, etc.)

Has anyone had any experience with this or heard about any remedies to this problem? I would GREATLY appreciate any input. Thanks!

^ A problem with the lamp ballast could exhibit these symptoms...

I bought a new bulb , the image does look a bit brighter , way better than the old bulb, but it still looks dull / pale.

Blacks look washed out , like greys , i have a PT-ae700 and blacks look much better on the 700 with than the blacks on this ae900 with a brand new bulb.

what should be the next step here? should i take the ae900 apart and clean it for dust? does this sound like a dust issue? or maybe filthy poralizers? any1?

^ Thanks, I do remember reading something about a lamp ballast way back when, but could not find it again. Although I imagine that is something that would have to be sent out for repair too.

I also remembered (or re-read) something about it just being the lamps for these models that go through some type of arcing cycle, and just needed to work through it. Evidence is pointing that way considering the problem went away when I replaced the 600-700 hour bulb, and then did not start again until around 300 hours on this new one.

Sooo, I left the PJ on for 8 hours to see if I could get it to "burn through" the problem. Sure enough it has gone away ... for now. Never know when it will rear it's head once again is the problem. Anyway, that was better than suffering through 3-4 movies that are essentially ruined by this annoyance.

Take care,
Tim

timoteo - I think this is what you were referring to:

http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5820302&&#post5820302

HELP.

I just replaced the bulb for the first time on my 4 plus year old AE900 and now when I plug in and turn it on, I get a green light, but nothing else. No fan or light from Bulb...

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I've enjoyed my 900 since its introduction. Just upgraded to the 4000, but have to admit to a tear in my eye over the 900. It has proven to have aged well, and even against a projector that is many generations newer, it holds its own.

Thanks to all the helpful people on this thread and the body of information. I feel like I'm leaving an old friend behind.

I may be skirting the rules a bit here but if anyone is ditching a 900 with a bulb that has less than or around 1000 hours on it, I may be in the market for a used bulb. nuff said.