Problem with new BenQ W500. Can someone identify what this 5-6" spot is?

Looks like a dust blob.

I don't know if it's a dust blob, but wouldn't a blob grow in proportion to the size of the image projected?

I had a dust blob on a previous LCD projector and it looked almost exactly like that.

Definitely a dust blob. Your warranty should cover it, or you can try fixing it yourself.

This is not good... one of the 1st actual user reviews of this projector, & it has a dust blob within the 1st day..

I'm seriously considering this projector... but this is making me shy away.

I think if you take it back and have them, in front of you, plug it in and display the white field, there should be no problem getting a replacement. If you ordered it online, I guess it will be dependent on the warranty you have.

Has anyone tried to remove dust blobs themseleves with this projector?

My unit is just over a month old with ~200hrs on the lamp, and my picture is riddled with dust blobs... There is a large circular green blob on the left side of the screen, and numerous little pink rectangles scattered around the rest of the screen.

Is this something I should contact BenQ about? I'm assuming that even if I replace the unit that dust blobs will return eventually, but I'm a bit wary of opening up a 1 month old projector to try to clean it myself...

Believe it or not, the Benq W500 I bought ended up with a very small dust blob in the bottom right-hand corner and my bulb time was below 2 hours.

I ended up returning it for other reasons (see my review) but I was surprised it happened so quickly. I wouldn't characterize my apartment as dusty but it's also possible it was there from the factory and I just noticed it (although I made a point of checking for blobs the second I turned it on).

Fan-freakin-tastic. Just picked up the W500 myself, from Newegg, which has a no return policy on projectors. I'm actually pretty happy with the image, but that won't be the case for long if this thing is a dust magnet.

EDIT: Newegg just dropped their price by $50, three days after I bought it.

EDIT2: and promptly credited me the difference

Thanks Klover. I just called BenQ and they're sending a courier on Monday to pick it up for service.

My place isn't all that dusty either, and when I checked the dust filter it was still completely clean. I was running the unit on 'high altitude' mode for a brief period as I thought the extra cooling might extend bulb life, but now I'm worried the extra fan speed might have actually just caused more dust to get sucked up into the unit...

Well it was a good month anyways, hopefully their service turnaround is quick.