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Optoma Dv10 Movietime Dlp Projector Loud Grinding Sound

15908 Views 10 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  BuffaloJim, 
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Hello... I Need Some Help Asap... I Came Home One Day And My Projector Was Powered On (i Thought I Turned It Off When I Left But I Don't See How It Would Power On By Itself). The Projector Is In Another Back Room Of The House. When I Walked In The Front Door I Heard A Funny Sound Coming From The Back Room. I Ran To The Back Room, Opened The Door And The Optoma Projector Was Powered On Displaying "no Signal" On The Screen With A God-awful Loud Grinding Sound. I Immedietly Shut The Projector Off And The Sound Went Away When The Bulb Shut Off. The Fan Still Ran On Low But Sounded Normal. After The Projector Cooled Down, I Powered It Back On And It Has A Medium Sounding Hum And Then When The Bulb Kicks On, The Awful Loud Grinding Sound Comes Back On.


There Is No Distortion In The Picture So I Don't Know What The Problem Is. The Projector Is Safely Mounted 1/2 Way Up The Wall And I Don't Have Kids Or Pets That Will Interfere With The Operation Of The Unit. It Has Been Safely In The Same Spot For Almost 12 Months Since The Day I Purchased It. The Unit Has Run Flawlessly And Now This Happens. I Pulled The Unit Down Off The Mount And Tipped It From Left To Right And It Sounds Like Something Small Is Traveling In The Direction I Tip The Projector. A Little Piece Of Something Is Freefloating. It Is Really Weird And I Don't Want To Turn Back On The Projector Until I Get The Problem Fixed. Oh, And One More Thing, There Tends To Be A Faint Burning Smell Coming Out Of The Side Of The Unit When It Is Powered On Since The Incident. It Happened Yesterday.


If You Can Help, Please Send Me A Message


Thank You So Much!
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Sounds like something is caught in the fan.


Try looking in the air intake grill and see if you can spot anything unusual (with the unit powered off).


Failing that, follow the directions for bulb replacement to open up the compartment and see if you can spot what is obstructing the fan from that side.
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Thank you for your response but I've already tried both of those. I can't seem to find anything out of place or out of the ordinary. The only other thing to do was take the whole projector apart. When I tried disassembling the unit i couldn't figure out how the darn thing came apart after removing all the screws. I didn't want to force anything, especially yet, in case I could get it replaced by warranty. As far as the fan goes, if I put my finger down in the fan and manually rotate it, there is no noise and appears nothing is in the way. Is there another fan on the inside that I can not see. Again, the noise only appears when the bulb is actually on. When the bulb turns off, the sound goes away but the fan still runs for the cooldown. I'm stumped.
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The only other thing in the projector that spins, beside the fan , is the color wheel. I,m not sure if you know how a DLP projector works, but the image comes from one display chip and the colors are produced from a spinning color wheel. The wheel is divided into different colors, red, green, blue, and sometimes white or clear. I have heard of similar symptoms from other DLP owners and it is usually the color wheel.

You mentioned that you have the unit mounted halfway up a wall. I also own a DV10 and could not imagine how much you must have the unit tilted on an angle to get the picture down on the wall. I have mine on the bottom of a coffee table about 2" from the floor, I tried putting it on top of the table, about 2 feet high, and I was uncomfortable with the amount it needed to be tilted. If you have been using it at such a high tilt angle, you may have accelerated the wear on the bearing for the color wheel. At this point I would contact Optoma and see about getting it repaired under warranty, before you open the unit and void the warranty.

Good Luck Biersy
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I've got the same problem... the projector was on the table. Not used it much less than 200hrs. Bought Nov 2005.


It happened whilst watching and then suddenly a loud noise. Nothing was near the fan so I don't think anything got caught. Something has either broken inside or come loose.


Been very careful with the lamp, so no fast power offs etc.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlastairGrant /forum/post/11500506


I've got the same problem... the projector was on the table. Not used it much less than 200hrs. Bought Nov 2005.


It happened whilst watching and then suddenly a loud noise. Nothing was near the fan so I don't think anything got caught. Something has either broken inside or come loose.


Been very careful with the lamp, so no fast power offs etc.
Click to expand...

Did you replace the bulb or the color wheel to fix the problem...?
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This same noisy problem has happened to my OPTOMA DV10. How did you resolve the problem.? Was the problem the BULB or the COLOR WHEEL..?
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This will clear up the confusion with the noise issue. Place your hand on the outer casing of the projector while it is running. If you feel a vibration, and there is still a picture and the projector is making a horrible noise. The color wheel needs replacing. If there is no picture, but the projector is running and there is no vibration, then the bulb needs replacing. If there is no picture and the projector vibrates while running as well as makes a noise, then the bulb and the color wheel both need replacing. The color wheel was 129.00 the last time I priced it which was about six months ago from the manufacturer. The bulb will cost you anywhere from 210.00 up to 380.00 from various retailers. The cheapest retailer I have found is amatteroffax [dot] com. As of Today, 6/1/09 the bulb (with housing) was $190.00. Prices fluctuate on a daily basis.


Good Luck,

The WakeRumster!
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If you notice any sort of abnormal noise or vibration it's not a lamp issue. The lamp will not move or make any noise of any kind unless you hear it blow, in which you'll hear a pop and the lamp will fail. If this happens, take the lamp out and look inside the projector. If the lamp is intact and you see what looks like broken glass, your color wheel shattered. If the lamp is broken and the color wheel is intact, your lamp blew. If you hear a grinding noise your color wheel is failing and will break in the near future.
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Does anybody know a source to purchase the color wheel from? I tried Optoma and their out of stock with no ETA. Or is anybody willing to sell a colorwheel or maybe an unused/broken dv10 with a used working color wheel?
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I've seen some non-working units go on ebay for well under $200. The problem is that you often don't know what's wrong with them. There's only one for sale now, but it's a working projector with 800 hours on the lamp.


Jim
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