comments Written By: Scott Jangro
August 15, 2006

Samsung DLP Frequent Questions

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Since I posted a few how-to articles on repairing Samsung DLP televisions, I get a lot of email about the subject.

I’m not a TV repair-man (well I guess I am now technically, but not by trade) and I cannot offer professional advice, but that’s never stopped me before!

Here are a few questions that are representative of what I’ve been getting.

“I have a samsung dlptv which I replaced the lamp with no problem. The tv works but the color is messed up. What do you think is the matter? Of
course, our warranty expired.”

My response to this (which is, by no coincidence, the same response my family all gets when their computers aren’t working) was to “reboot” the television. To do this, you must actually unplug it from the wall. Televisions and other electronic devices don’t actually power down completely when you turn off the power switch. Unplug it (after powering it off and waiting for the fan to stop!), wait a few minutes, plug it back in, turn it on.

I’m happy to report that author of the above question wrote back to me and the problem was resolved by unplugging the set. She also said she unplugged the cable box, so maybe the problem was there. Who knows. Doesn’t matter. It’s fixed.

“How do you reset the lamp hours counter?” and “How do you get into the service menu?”

I don’t know if the service menu is a big secret or not, but since I’m not the first to publish this, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

From Extremetech.com:

For those inclined to get into service mode on Samsung DLP TVs, simply turn your system off, then use the remote and press the following buttons with about .5 to .75 seconds delay between presses: MUTE-1-8-2-POWER.

Once in the service menu, select the bottom item, Options, and from there you can reset the lamp counter.

I’ve never played with any of these settings. I’d strongly caution against any “curiosity tweaks” in there.

I turn on the set, it tries to turn on the lamp, but gives up after several attempts and several seconds. Finally it ends up with three blinking lights

I think the most common cause of this problem is a faulty lamp. If you have replaced the lamp, or otherwise have reason to believe that it is not the lamp, it may be the ballast (the thing that starts up the lamp). You can purchase a ballast at a good price at partstore.com. (approx $140 vs. $180 at samsungparts.com)

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