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September 20th, 2007 13:00

2400MP random lockup with Bulb error

One of our 2400MP's will randomly lock up with a blank screen and give a bulb error. We called dell and tried to fix it several months ago and could no reproduce the error so they would not fix it. Now that the warranty expired last month it started doing it again (only during conferences when we really need it to work) The bulb only has about 70 hours on it. Any ideas?

Community Manager

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56.9K Posts

September 25th, 2007 21:00

o0westwood0o,

* Power the projector off
* Unplug the projector
* Open the Lamp Module cover on the bottom of the projector (remove the screws)
* Use a can of compressed air (ie.air duster) to blow out all the accumulated dust on the bulb and bulb surroundings. Do not touch the bulb with your hands
* Replace the cover and screws

Does that help the issue?

September 27th, 2007 12:00

I did as you said and dusted it, but the projector did not have a single speck of dust inside, the projector spends all its time in a case on a shelf except for presentations. It doesn't really have a chance to collect much dust. Any more suggestions? Thank you.

2 Posts

October 4th, 2007 18:00

I am having the same problem and would like other suggestions. Is it a faulty board? I am out of warranty also. However, I would really like to know if there is a fix for this. The teacher is getting very frustrated......

Community Manager

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56.9K Posts

October 5th, 2007 11:00

mindywhyme,

I do not know. Dell does not disassemble projectors. When they fail, we exchange while under warranty. The failed one goes back to the manufacturer.

2 Posts

October 5th, 2007 18:00

I was afraid of that. It is so weird. The lamp comes on and it appears to work and then it goes off and the orange light comes on. If you unplug it  for a while and try again 3 or 4 times, you can usually get it to work. He has found leaving it on works best....It appears to have problems only when starting up, not in the middle of use....
Thanks

2 Posts

February 21st, 2009 11:00

OK, I'm typing this for the benefit  of others who are having the Orange Bulb Error problem. Hope it helps.

I have had happen this several times. Even though the lamp is perfectly fine, but for some reason the dell 2400MP thinks it's past it's number of useful hours or something. We use our projector maybe once or twice a week. And every few weeks it seems to come up with this Orange Light saying it had a bulb error.

After researching various forum posts and experimenting, this is what i found.

What seems to fix it is... after resetting the power several times (sometimes you just have to walk away from it and come back the next day to get the lamp to actually come on) and then if & when you get the lamp to actually come on, you do what is called a Factory reset, which is basically stepping it through the preferences and find where it says Factory Reset, and turn that field to On.  When you do that, the system resets everything to factory defaults and it thinks it has a new bulb, and stops giving a Lamp Error (until the next time).

If you're in a hurry, it helps to have a spare bulb I think. Because when it gives the Orange Bulb Error, you can just change the bulb, and then do a factory reset.

Finally, the pains with doing a Factory Reset: (PLS DON"T ASK ME WHY DELL JUST DIDN"T PUT A FACTORY RESET BUTTON ON THE PROJECTOR)

1) You have to do the Auto Adjust thing for to fit the screen, and sometimes manual adjust cuz the Auto didn't do it right.

2) There's supposed to be a way to hook up your computer to the serial or USB port and give it ths Factory Reset Code that way. This method would be needed if you just can't get your bulb to light up, which in turn would keep you from stepping through the preferences to do a factory reset. But I haven't been able to figure out just what utility software you would use to do that. There's nothing in the Dell Manual about it that I can find...only a Code table which indicates there must be a Utility to access through the USB or Serial port. Hmmm....

More on this for the Technically Addept : Dell Has the cable pin assignmengt and command codes for serial communication here at this URL:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/2400MP/en/rs232/RS232-CommandSet.pdf

I suppose you have to make your own cable if you're handy with a fine soldering gun (imagine if your 2400P is mounted 20 Ft in the air, and your PC is in another room), and then use a Windows serial Communication software and type the following commands (in the order shown) to do a factory reset:

0xbe, 0xef, 0x10, 0x05, 0x00, 0x1a, 0xbe, 0x11, 0x11, 0x01, 0x00, 0x2e


 

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