QuestionQUESTION: I am an ex-electronic technician with some audio visual experience trying to help out my church. They have an Epson Powerlite 7800p that is starting to lose any & all red colors & the display is starting to "wash out". I'm trying to help troubleshoot & repair as inexpensively as possible. Do you have any experience with these or similar projectors & /or maybe recommend some website(s) I can refer to? I'd appreciate any help. Thanks
ANSWER: It sounds like the LCD panel inside the projector has been damaged. Usually this damage is unfixable, unless this display is replaced completely (and it is unfortunately the most expensive part of the unit). My guess is that somehow the panel overheated (possibly due to a blocked air vent somewhere on the unit). Heat damage could definitely cause the problems you're describing.
Another possibility is that one of the connectors (specifically, the pin that connects the "red" signal from your video source (I'm assuming it's connected to a computer)) is broken or loose. A cheap and quick way to test this would be to buy/borrow another video cable and see if replacing it fixes the problem.
I've also seen a few of these projectors that would "wash out" when the bulb was about to burn out, but that woudn't explain the color problems.
Video is sent to these devices in a RGB format (red-green-blue) and there is probably something wrong with the red portion of this signal. Try a different cable first. If that doesn't fix it, you may need to bring in or send in the unit for service. It's also possible that you may be able to find a replacement LCD panel on eBay, but I wouldn't trust it to not get damaged in the mail.
Good luck!
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Is it going to be cheaper to fix the LCD display, or replace the projector? The company the church bought it from wants to charge $500.00 just to come & look at it, so even if it's the most expensive part, I think we can still do better. I will look at how it's mounted first, because it won't do any good to fix it if it's just going to break again. I don't think it's a cable, (although it's worth a try), because it's getting worse & worse. yes, it's connected to a computer, & there are 2 of them, with the other projector doing fine (so far). I'm assuming it's a color problem, as there's still definition in the display, but, say, if there's a photo of a person, they look very blue & cold. And in pictures of flowers, there's not much red in it.
ANSWER: Well, it looks like that projector retails for around $2900, so if repairs cost less than that, it's worth it to repair it. $500 for a diagnostic fee is a little expensive, though. You said you have some electronic experience; you probably have enough expertise to fix it yourself. The only issue would be getting the part... see if the dealer or Epson themselves will send you just the part by itself (Dell calls this "parts-only-service"). Also see if maybe it's still under warranty or if Epson will renew the warranty.
If you can't get the part, you're probably going to be stuck paying the $500 fee for the dealer to come out and look at it, but see if they'll waive the fee because it's a church. Some places will also apply at least part of their "diagnostic fee" to the cost of replacing the part.
As far as a parts source is concerned, maybe try eBay or an independent electronics dealer such as http://glenwoodsales.com/ They've been able to find almost every part I've ever needed!
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Can you recommend any schematic or technical manual or other assistance? I tried SAM's & didn't have much luck. I'm wondering if you'd had much success with any particular websites or references. Thank you for your help so far.
AnswerSorry, no, I can't really recommend any particular manual. Most of what I know about electronics has been learned through a lot of trial and error...
When I was in the library this past week, I saw a collection of manuals with schematics in them, but they were rather old and didn't have any technology newer than about 1980. Maybe your library has something like this that would help? Mine has a collection of manuals and so on; I think that most other libraries do. But if it were me, I'd just try taking it apart and see what I can do from there!
