It was such a great tv for the year and 3 months that it worked...


Now when I power it up I get no video and it is unresponsive to the remote. The lamp light blinks for a few moments (as it should on startup) then it stops blinking and no indicator lights remain on. After about 40 seconds or so the set turns off and the normal red standby light comes on.

From reading online it seems to be either the colorwheel or the ballast. I do not know what a ballast is, and not much more about a colorwheel. If it was a lamp, it says that the status lights would indicate that with a LED status code. Anyway, I dont have a problem fixing it myself, there are plenty of tutorials online, but I do not know what to replace....

Anyone know this shit??? Or know someone who could check it out for me and fix it for cheap.


HAAAAALP!

5/29/2008 11:09:49 PM

Try tech support.

5/30/2008 12:07:09 AM

Awesome idea!!! [roll not even necessary] There is no real tech support

While I was on hold with them listening to a neverending music and "Have you visited our website?" loop.... I removed the back panel and definitely think it is the colorwheel. The bulb and fans seem to be working fine. After it powers off the colorwheel makes a clicking/grinding noise. After 20+ minutes of being on hold with "tech support" the lady new absolutely nothing about tvs and instead was an repair appointment setter apparently and gave me the number to a local tv repair shop about 40 minutes away! Awesome!!!!

...But I think I will just stick to calling the list I already have from a few places about 5-10 mins down the road. In the meantime I wanted to know if anyone from TWW could fix it for cheaper or had connections... or had similar probs... Also, do not buy Samsung... 1500 for a tv that works for 14 months is not worth it IMO. LCD or plasma next time for sure.

5/30/2008 12:33:35 AM

Hey I've got a good idea. Lets make the entire basis of our tv revolve around a moving part in front of a lamp.

"But wont certain viewers see visual artifacts?"

Yeah but if we spin it fast enough the amount of people will be minimized

"Wont that increase the failure rate of the color wheel"

It's the mirrors!

5/30/2008 8:17:29 AM

[smoke] and mirrors

5/30/2008 9:25:30 AM

You're going to need a qualified technician to work on the TV. You paid $1500 for the TV, just pay $150 for a guy to come out and fix it.

5/30/2008 10:25:37 AM

Yeah... the guy quoted me 400-500 for the repair.... He said it is a factory defect with these. That was all the ammo I needed to call Samsung up and they extended my warranty 5 months so it would be covered. There are plenty of sites online that show you how to do it yourself... but I will now let Samsung pay the guy 400-500 to fix it. Decent customer service.

5/30/2008 7:28:17 PM

I've had the same TV for about 1.5 years now. I purchased a 3rd party extended warrentee for a total of 3years of coverage, so we'll see how lucky I am. I know a friend of mine replaced his color wheel by himself and said it was not too difficult.

5/31/2008 8:22:09 AM

how much is the part itself for this...i've got the 50" version of the same TV...since january 07, no problems yet, knock on wood.

5/31/2008 8:51:09 AM

You can order them for $75-100 online I believe

5/31/2008 11:10:35 AM

Quote :

"Also, do not buy Samsung"

Gonna assume you meant don't buy Samsung DLPs.

6/1/2008 11:41:27 PM

well at the time I was obviously upset with the company. I meant both Samsung and any DLP. But they have owned up and I know they are a usually good quality. This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

6/2/2008 9:40:12 AM

http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=511354&page=1#11207551

I hate to tell you man but the color wheel is probably screwed over. I had the same stuff happening to my 61" model. Good luck!

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 11:12 AM. Reason : Wrong topic initially... doh!]

6/2/2008 11:10:28 AM

Quote :

"Also, do not buy Samsung... 1500 for a tv that works for 14 months is not worth it IMO."

same thing happened to my dvd player.

6/2/2008 11:44:40 AM

I personally have had no flaws with my system since they replaced the color wheel. Was just outside the 1 yr mark when it happened so I was happy with the purchase of the PSP from BestBuy. Now that it has been replaced it works flawlessly and I personally love the picture more than any other model I looked at in a comparable price range.

6/6/2008 11:39:24 AM

Guy came out today and said it was not the colorwheel! Instead he is replacing the entire assembly, which would cost $900 for the parts alone (pretty much the brain of the tv)... Crazy shit, cool guy though

6/6/2008 12:53:32 PM

^Good reason why you shouldn't try to fix things like this yourself. You did the right thing by calling Samsung where you determined it was a factory defect that would allow the warranty to be extended to cover the repair. If you got inside and monkeyed around with stuff too much, the tech might have found out and you may not have been able to extend coverage. Plus, if the tech screws up, Samsung would be liable for the cost. This is also a good reason to get an extended warranty, particularly on RPTVs. I've got a 5-year on mine that cost $150. Pretty good investment if there is the potential for $900 repairs.



[Edited on June 6, 2008 at 3:04 PM. Reason : .]

6/6/2008 2:58:05 PM

150 for 5 years I would do.. 250 for a 2 year (That coincided with the manufacturers - so really only one more year) is not worth it.

6/6/2008 3:09:12 PM

Yeah, that's what they replaced on my TV the entire light engine (containing the color wheel).

Either way, that PSP from Best Buy paid for itself four times over!!

6/9/2008 2:57:55 PM

Update: They have replaced everything within the tv and it still does not work. They are taking it to the repair shop to try one last time, but the guys said most likely Samsung will be buying me a new tv. I am kinda worried they are going to fix it and I will have pretty much a refurb with no warranty. We hope we can just get a new one that is better quality.

6/27/2008 1:17:01 PM