Official Toshiba 65HM167 and 57HM167 Owner's thread - Page 88

I had the light engine replaced about 6 months ago due to a different issue. It was under an extended warranty, so no cost to me, but the repair guy did say that the part was about $500. He had to go to a couple of his sources to get one back then, as many parts people were indefinitely backordered.

Once it came in, he replaced it in about 1/2 hour - most of that taking screws out of the cabinet.

This "heart transplant" got my set working as new. Only issues it displays is a distaste for any non Toshiba OEM bulbs. Any others will only work for a few days to a few weeks and then develop problems firing.

Good luck to those of you with light engine problems. Hopefully my origional light engine has been refurbed and is either working again, or, about to be on the market.

Question for those of you that got the white dots.... how fast did they multiply? Mine has 2 that both appeared at about the same time. I just picked up an LG 60LD550 to replace it, but am curious if I can get another year out of Tosh just using it as a second set to watch football on Sunday afternoons only (see the link in my sig).

Love my new LG 60 inch LCD!

Once the "stars" started appearing on mine, it deteriorated pretty quick. Each day when I powered it on I would check for further damage, and there would be a couple more. At ~22 specks on the screen I couldn't stand to look at it anymore.

My white dots, stars, etc... have increased rather quickly. I have about 30-40 of them now. I had bought a Sammy LCD and that had a problem out of the box and I was able to return it.

I would also love to know how pervasive this is so as to launch a class action, however, we need the one right person with enough time to proceed. Unfortunately that is not me.

Keep calling Toshiba if you have this problem. These sets are too new to die!

I called Toshiba again today to remind them of the white dot issue. It was a totally different call than the last time I called however. While the last two times they said...its out of warranty, good-bye... this time the rep said that this was a very common issue with DLP TVs (they did stress that its not just Toshiba but all DLP) and they will have a case manager contact me in the next 2-3 days to see if they can do anything for me.

Keep calling Toshiba if you have this problem.

Nope, they wont do anything. Tried to be polite but back to the class action suit.

My 65HM167 just developed 2 white dots this last week. Not too happy. I'll watch until it progresses further and can't stand it anymore. No way I'm paying $6-700 for a light engine when we only paid $1k for 2.5 years ago.

Is it possible to replace just the DMD chip on the 57HM167?

I managed to find somebody selling just the chip but don't want to buy it and find out I can't do the install myself.

I'm at a loss for ideas at this point with my DLP.

I have 52HMX84 that has no picture and no blinking LED codes. I power it on you hear the click, whine up then down, then the whine settles and no picture. You can see light coming from the fan vent and when the room is dark you can see the usual DLP lit black on the screen. No menu no nothing.

I pulled the bulb, looks good, stuck my finder in the lamp door switch and powered it on and the color wheel spins while it cycles through the restarts. I changed the ballast board on the slim chance it was just weak. No change after installing the new ballast board.

Before a light engine is there anything else I should check or replace? I haven't been able to find any posts online anywhere that has helped, so I figured its time to post for help.

Greetings All

Count me in thr GREAT WHITE DOT escapades.

Developed my first dot 5/2/11 and as of today I have three of em

already. I ain't call'n toshiba cause sooner or later I'd probably

just cuss em out for making what SHOULD be a simple repair cost too much.

Count me in the Class action once that gets cranked up. I KNOW i'm crazy

but, how about we all threaten to show up at Corp HQ with our broken sets

with the news media in tow, bet they might rethink their position a little.

Might take as little as a couple hundred of us showing up, and a hell of a lot

faster than the CA Suit.

Man I can't stand LCD or PLASMA, to Overpriced for a decent sized screen

and to dammed shinny. Its like trying to watch tv through a damn mirror.

Sorry I got worked up.

Can you guys help me out? I'll give my history with this TV.

After the first original lamp gave out on the 65" TV, we replaced it with an OEM lamp which lasted about 2 years.

We then went with a new cheap lamp that cost about $100 about a month ago. Now, the TV is emitting an odor after turning it on. It took me awhile to figure out it was the TV since we only had the odor off and on. We initially thought it was coming in from the outside of the house and then from other sources before we realized it was the TV. We can't quite tell where in the TV the smell is coming from.

The TV is showing a proper image. It runs our games and movies fine but the odor is horrible. Then I remembered my friend's adventure with his Sony TV and telling me it was somewhat common for the lamp in the Sony to melt the inside of the TV and I thought maybe that's what's happening with our Toshiba.

So I go to pull the lamp out and I can't friggin pull it out. It's not like my first time removing a lamp. You undo the 2 screws and then pull on the handle. Well, it won't come out. I even broke the plastic holding the handle trying to pull on it. Now I'm gripping around the lamp and pulling with all my might. Wiggling is not help. It seems like there's some give but no matter how hard I try, it's not coming out.

Any advice anyone??? We love this TV and the picture is beautiful and huge at 65". But we don't want it to become a money pit. This is the second lamp replacement. And if we have to hire a TV tech, we can imagine how expensive that job can be.

You've become acquainted with the notion that the cheap can turn out to be expensive.

I have the same set. When I bought the set, I also bought a lamp warranty through MACK. Sure enough, the original lamp went on the set and I activated my warranty coverage.

First replacement lamp was a Toshiba lamp - in Toshiba box. Plug and play and I was a happy camper again.

When that lamp went, I again went to my warranty for a 2nd replacement. Same vendor involved, but they sent me a lamp with no Toshiba branding on the box. Looked the same, but would only work for short periods of time, before startup problems became evident.

Went through 1/2 dozen replacement lamps - all not Toshiba branded - and they all developed the same problem.

Eventually, the lamp vendor (who advertises on this site) suggested that there was something wrong with my set for the lamps to fail so quickly.

I reported this under my extended warranty and they authorized an entire light engine replacement for the set.

New light engine, same lamp problem.

Finally, the lamp vendor suggested I try a lamp from Toshiba, although they insisted that theirs were as good as those in a Toshiba box.

I ended up ordering one from Toshiba and have been running perfectly ever since.

Long way of saying that cheap lamps just won't work reliably on these sets.

With the Toshiba lamps, I get immediate ignition each and every time - until the lamp gives out.

With any generic replacement, nothing but problems.

I'd guess that something has melted your lamp housing to the set somehow. The smell was probably from the melting plastic of either the set or the lamp housing.

Hopefully, you'll be able to get the lamp removed from the set without damage to the set itself.

If so, please spend the extra cash on a lamp directly from Toshiba. It costs significantly more the the aftermarket ones, but does come with a 6 month warranty. I bought my lamp with my credit card, which doubles the manufacturer's warranty - giving me a full year.

I will never try a non Toshiba lamp in my set again.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how to remove this lamp.

I just brainstormed about turning on the TV so that it could heat up and then pulling the lamp. Maybe the heat will soften the connection so that I can yank it out. Anybody see a problem with this idea? I'm really yanking my hair out at this point.

I thought about sticking with Toshiba lamps but after reading Toshiba forums, these lamps are inconsistent as well. Some last 6 months. Some last a year, some a couple of years. For our other 2 lamps, we never came close to the lamp life expectancy. We use our TV at most an hour a day, often less. In any case, paying $220+ every 6 months doesn't sound too smart. But at least you probably don't have to worry about melting when using a Toshiba lamp.

If I can't get this lamp removed, I'll contact a TV tech and if it's expensive, I'll just cut my losses and dump this TV. As great as a TV it is, no TV should require this kind of expensive maintenance.

Good luck getting the lamp removed.

Letting the set run and get good and hot might be your best bet.

I thought the lamp cage was mostly metal. Their is a plastic plug in the set that provides the electrical connection to the lamp itself. Wonder if that is what fused with the lamp module??

If the handle is broken off the lamp, you might be able to fish some wire into the lamp module through the holes in the lamp module itself. Might give you some leverage to give an even pull.

good thing you reminded me. now I have to figure out how to grab the lamp and pull it when it's hot. It'd be easier if I still had the handle to pull from or if the lamp faced forward (away from me).

the cage is plastic. it was plastic on all our lamps (the original, the OEM, and the cheap imitation).

fishing the wire through to get leverage sounds interesting. I'll check if it's feasible. I didn't realize how sore my forearm muscles would be. A couple hours after trying to remove the lamp, I had a hard time gripping strongly into a fist. My forearms were sore like after heavy workout.

Wow! My set is going on four years and I'm still on the original lamp. I didn't realize it cost over $200 to replace. I had a lamp warranty but it expired after three years.
I've always run the lamp on the low setting plus the tv has always been connected to a UPS. I don't know if those made any difference.

But at $200 I certainly will not be looking forward to the day the lamp needs to be replaced.

My set is still on the original lamp as well. It has almost 9k hours on it now. It sometimes doesn't startup on the first try but it eventually gets going. But the white dots are about to drive me up the wall. Up to 11 dots as of today.

It's strange but I started getting the white dots on my 65HM167 a couple weeks ago. Didn't really think about it but decided to come on this site to see if others have been having the same issue. Just called Best Buy today and my 4 year warranty had expired 2 days ago! Although the BB guy did tell me that I had a 7 day grace period so I was able to buy an additional 1 year, thankfully. The dots have changed in number over the last two weeks by I am holding steady on 2-3 right now. I do agree that it is ridiculous that this set is only 4 years old and it is having problems. Count me in for the class action..

Peace!

This is my first post, and it has to be about white dots. Mine (65HM167) started a couple of weeks ago with one dot and is now up to 22. I have a Mack extended warranty and I have contacted them about repairs. Hopefully I can get it repaired soon as I really love this TV.

I have the same set and MACK warranty.

I had my light engine replaced about 6 months ago - under the MACK warranty - with no problems from them at all.

Just filed a claim, had a tech diagnose the set, and got approval from MACK.

Zero cost to me and the set has worked perfectly ever since.

Only issue during the repair was that the repair company had to look through several supply companies for the part.

A follow up to my previous post. Mack has authorized repairs. The repair guy says he can fix it by replacing the chip instead of the complete light engine. I'll soon know.

How much did they charge for an additional year?

Called Toshiba today knowing they were going to do nothing about the issue but they now have my info on file about the DMD chip issue. Unfortunately I only bought a two extended warranty and it ran out over a year ago. But luckily my parents neighbor has been repairing TV's and electronics for over 30 years so I'm going to take it to him to fix. Does anyone know the cost of the DMD chips? He stated that the DMD chip in the Toshiba sets are actually made by Samsung. Which is why Samsung is replacing the DMD chips in their DLP sets outside of warranty from what I've read. I'm up to about 25 dots now. I may hold out for a few more before I get it repaired.

Where did you find the DMD chip as a standalone part? Toshiba is of no help as I may have mentioned in another post or 2.

I have the same white dot problem on my Toshiba. I've read through a lot of posts here. Is the bottom line that repair is going to cost almost as much as buying a new TV?

I have a 65hm167 but am no electronics expert.

I had the light engine replaced on my set under an extended warranty and at that time the repair guy told me that the set basically had two electronic boards in it. One was the light engine, the other the power supply board.

The white dot problem may be related to a chip failure, as some have indicated here. Getting the chip, and someone who actually replaces individual components, is the hard part of this type repair.

Most repair people are in the business of replacing whole components, rather than fixing defective parts of components. This is where things get expensive - replacing boards that cost hundreds of dollars for component failures that amount to pennies to replace.

I'm at the point where my extended warranty is expiring. We've made the decision that when the set starts to fail, repair is not an option.

I'll go for a replacement lamp, but that is about all. All my lamp failures have been loud pops and the sound of shattering glass, so I know when that happens.

Good luck with your set.

From what I've seen/heard, the part runs ~400-600 dollars, then you have the repair guys labor on top of that. Definately not worth repair to me unfortunately. I enjoyed the set while it worked, but I'm done with Toshiba after this one.

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know what type of repair person I am looking for? I am assuming just TV repair may not be sufficient? I have not called Toshiba yet, but will, but don't feel as if they will be giving much valuable information based on what I have read here.

Has anyone here successfully had the necessary repair done for the white spots and, if so, how long can one expect it to last?

I had my first light speck show up about a month ago, and went through calling Toshiba with no luck. I was told my only recourse was to write a letter to "The Manager of Customer Relations" in California. It was dated 5/18, and they acknowledged receipt on 6/3. I was told to wait for a call from them in 3-5 business days. Still waiting....no surprise to me.

Knowing that Samsung is repairing their DLP sets, it looks like Toshiba is not stepping up to the plate. And it has been from actual experience that Samsung does in fact stand 100% behind their products. I was told from a relative that works at Toshiba that it is actually a Japanese and Korean difference. Be that as it may, there is a difference that I can not ignore.

The second speck showed up a couple of days ago. It's a matter of time before this 3 1/2 year old 65" needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, there are not too many "competitively-priced" LCDs at 65" (I have a entertainment center that prefers a 65"). Toshiba has really soured my former opinion of them. I guess this is truly a throw-away society!

I'm assuming the amount of time we use the TV may affect how soon you get the dots? We noticed 3 dots last week and now there are 10. It is happening pretty rapidly. We got this TV as a gift (pre-owned when it was about 3 or 4 years old, I think), so since we have not put any money into it, we wouldn't mind paying for the repair if it means we'll get a few more years out of it. I'm not getting any feedback from people who have had the repair done, though. I'm wondering if most people just got a new set. How annoying this issue is. What a piece of junk.