Optoma HD 72 Bulb just went... I Think... - Page 12

marcusm750's 4.3Meg HD72 bulb and ballast replacement guide has 22 large images across its 14 pages. This is a reduced and compressed sample:



A must read!

(shoot, I need three posts to submit a url... see next post)

sigh... I need one more posting.

phue... here is marcusm750's HD72 bulb and ballast replacement guide.

Thanks very much, Picker, for your kind words and, more importantly, for hosting the PDF so others can simply download it instead of having to ask.

I hope these instructions will help others get their faulty HD72s back on the job. The lamp/ballast combo is not that expensive (especially compared to a whole new lamp assembly) so they should always be changed together. Nor are the repairs difficult even for novice or first-time tinkers. Take your time, do this in a clean environment and there should be no troubles.

Enjoy!

marcusm750

Very nice and helpful write up.

Ageed. Fantastic write-up and pics, marcusm750.

I will probably replace my (original) lamp driver and Osram bulb when my current bulb (#3) fails.

Is the only place to get the ballast from Optoma? I am thinking when next bulb goes I might as well replace the ballast to be safe! especially now i have a great guide. that really is a good guide ..thanks for that..so glad i kept my old bulb now as i have a spare assembly.

my pj counts 2 hours of use as one hour on the clock FWIW...

As far as I know, Optoma customer service is the only source for the lamp driver. They may purchase it from a third-party, but who that might be is unknown. There are no distinguishing marks on the old one to determine the original souce. No worries, Mary at Optoma is friendly, courteous and helpful. However, with my recent purchase I probably took their one stock unit so it may take a short while to replenish the inventory.

My old lamp still works (tried it once with the new ballast) so I'm going to study the replaced pieces to see if I can determine the root cause of the fault. I have access to laboratory equipment to safely measure and monitor the high-voltage strike through the low-current operation. Of course, this means buying another new ballast and fresh lamp to use for comparison. We'll see how far I get with this.

And finally, but not least of all, thank you to everyone for their kind words. I hope it helps.

marcusm750 sent the org doc, so now we have the full size photos when you click on them here. Plus now google will get a better shot at finding it! thanks again marcusm750...

I'm having a problem with my HD72 the first bulb burnt out then bought a replacement bulb (not the lamp) installed it and turned on the power and i hear the fan turn on and off 3x then the lamp red light goes on. Is there something I forgot? got all the connections right checked and rechecked it.

This sounds like a more severe lamp driver failure than not being able to keep it ignited. With the red error light going on, I'm guessing the lamp never strikes (ignites) in the first place, correct? If so, then the ballast definitely needs to be replaced. You did buy the same Osram P-VIP lamp as what you had, correct? Not some third-party, no-name piece o' crap, right?

Typically, neither the lamp nor temp error LEDs come on when the lamp/ballast are worn and can no longer hold ignition.

Yes it is the same Osram but it's just the bulb without the casing and used my old casing to install it in. The thing is i hear a noise the usual noise before this problem started happening then the fan turns on. Is there some kind of a manual lamp timer reset thing for it?

I need to know my options I don't want to spend more than $200 on this thing. If I go cheap I can buy the ballast and install it myself since I got the guide installation here. The problem is, Is it really the ballast and not any other parts. Or am I better off paying someone $100 for labor/finding the problem and another $100+ for unknown parts replacement?

Yes, there is a lamp counter reset in the Options menu under Lamp Settings.

Of course, if the projector isn't working I'm not sure how one would access this menu.

Difficult if not impossible for me to say conclusively. The problem you're experiencing goes beyond my write up for changing the lamp/ballast in response to a specific failure mode (ie. the lamp extinguishing after a minute or two). This sounds like a more severe problem that I cannot troubleshoot via comments on a forum.

The choice is yours whether to invest the repair costs into your HD72 or look for a new projector. I found Optoma customer service willing to talk a bit on failure modes and possible solutions so perhaps they can steer you to the best solution. Good luck!

Thnks for the great write up. I had the same problem as everyone else (lamp shuts off after a few minutes) so I'm really happy this info was available. I ordered the lamp driver from Optoma, it got here in less then a week, installed it, seems to be working fine! Thanks again!!

One thing though on your instructions, I didnt see you mention having to remove the two screws thru the vga connection into the main board. I struggled with it abit before realizing I missed these two.

Man, Im so glad to have my projector back! HD content and movies just arent worth it on a screen less then 8 feet wide

Thnx! I've decided to go ahead and let a local TV repair handle it. They charge $45 to check it and if I decide to have them fix it $45 goes to the part that is needed, not bad since Optoma charges $110 (Out of warranty) for them to check it and $10 goes the part. I'll keep you guys updated, Anyone want to take a guess what is wrong with the Projector? see if you guys can guess it right, once the tech tells me the part that needs replacing I'll post it here I'm going to guess it's the ballast circuit

Thanks for your kind words, Snowauger. Glad it worked out for you. Very good point on the VGA bail-lock hardware; I probably should have mentioned it in more detail. That'll be in v1.1 of the write up.


Agreed! My new lamp/ballast are on 58 hours and working great! I can't imagine not having the projector; it was kinda rough for those three weeks watching films on a 42" plasma again.

Did not know that about Optoma's out-of-warranty service. Then again, I never asked when I ordered the ballast.


Yeah, the ballast is still the usual suspect here. Hopefully, the problem doesn't go deeper than that. The ballast is driven straight from the AC line with a trigger coming from the main board (possibly with feedback to verify that the lamp has ignited) so I'm guessing that's as far as you'll need to go. You already have the new lamp so hopefully it'll be just another hundred bucks for the ballast (plus whatever labor is involved).

Again, good luck and let us know!

That's weird they said its the main board, anyone know how much those things cost and where I can find them? I'm guessing my best bet is Optoma if anyone know a cheaper way to get them let me know please.

Huh, it's not often I get proven wrong on a forum in a little over 12 hours but it does happen.

I guess after rereading your original post, it does sound like the projector is not booting up correctly so a problem with the main board could be the culprit. As that's a much more complex piece, I don't even want to speculate (this time ) what the root cause could be. One and only souce is Optoma for sure but no ideas what it costs; probably not as inexpensive as the ballast. If you can get the main board, my instructions still apply for changing it out.

THnx so much Marcusm750 for ur replies and instructions, I will continue to update until I get my projector running so the next person with this problem can use this post as a guideline.

Hello all. I'm looking for some advice and insight. My HD72 is four years old. About six months ago I started having problems with the bulb turning off and the Lamp failure light illuminating. The projector was unresponsive to the remote and had to have the hard switch cycled before it would respond again.

Once the power had been cycled the bulb would run fine. Initially it would run for some hours but the time between failures eventually became 15-30 minutes or so. I purchased a replacement bulb from Pureland and swapped it out in the original housing. Problem appeared to be solved.

The new bulb now has about 120 hours on it and is exhibiting the same behavior as the original. It will run for about 15-30 minutes then fail. Thinking that it might be related to the lamp driver as bulbs age I ordered one and swapped it out today. Unfortunately this did not solve the problem. It came right back. My original bulb had almost 1350 hours on it before this started up. With the new one only lasting 120 hours I thought it might be something other than the bulb so I figured I'd try the lamp driver.

My question is whether or not defective bulbs would exhibit this type of behavior. If so, I might try another replacement bulb. If this isn't normal for bulbs then I may be in the market for a new projector since I can't see replacing the main board for $350. That would be time to cut my losses and move on.

Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

P.S. Special thanks to MARCUSM750 for his outstanding instructions. It made the lamp driver swap a piece of cake.

So I found this video on YouTube that shows the same bulb symptoms as what I am seeing on my projector. The colors go all funny right before the bulb goes out and the failure lamp comes on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz3z129CDzk

Some of the posts talked about a failing color wheel and others talk about it being dusty and overheating. Hmmmm....

I recently had the 30second of lamp time occur to me. I bought my Optoma HD72/6800 through costco about 3-4 years ago. I have been extremely happy with the performance until now. It actually does a better job of smoothing the Wii image than I have seen on some 1080p systems that have been properly setup. As such I was looking forward to about a $300 repair for a new bulb and lamp driver as suggested in the pdf that MarcusM750 wrote.

I just got my quote back from Optoma for the light driver unit (ballast) and Light:




This quote is dated 2010/04/21

Marcus, when did you get your quote for the ballast unit being $99? Interesting how the price is almost 75% greater! wonder if these items are becoming in high demand.

What is everyone else that has paid for a new ballast unit actually being quoted for a price and roughly when did you get quoted this price?

I just received the lamp driver from Technical Service Corporation (Optoma's repair organization) last week. It was $99 plus $12 shipping and no tax. My part number was slightly different though: 75.83F01G002.

Wow great write up!

My ballast was replaced under warranty and my second bulb is at 2000 hours.

I have purchased another bulb to put into the housing but the directions I recieved were pretty crappy. These are much better!

Only thing I'm wondering ... if I keep my bulb in there till the bitter end will it take my ballast with it?

What was the contact information for Technical Service Corporation? Did you use the 1-800 number listed in marcus' repair manual, or did you email optoma requesting the part?

I had called the Optoma number in the write-up first and they transferred me to TSC since I was out of warranty. I also called the toll free number. I didn't e-mail Optoma at all.

I was also an early adopter... March 06

I am so happy I found this. I just got off the phone with Optoma Parts after ordering the $99 + $12 shipping lamp driver. I can state that they are still available.

My third bulb is starting to "flicker" after less than 1000 hours. I'm sure I got time left on it. I also have two other bulbs with only about 1500 hours each that would do the classic magic turn off and just "go out" after about 2 minutes.

Has anyone tempted fate and started using "Bright Mode" or AI feature after replacing the lamp driver? Do you think I am just asking for trouble?

I guess I can sacrifice one of my older bulbs to see how long it lasts.