Ok, not so much broke, as starting to break, and getting worse. I have a 65 inch Mitsubishi DLP TV. A while back, a white dot appeared on the screen that looks like a dead pixel, which I thought was odd because to my knowledge, DLP TVs don't have pixels. Slowly but surely, the number of white dots increases, one at a time across the screen, though they all seem for the moment to be concentrated on one side. I'm up to 9 dots now, so my screen is starting to look like the night sky with all the white dots.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on and if/how I can fix it? This TV was not cheap when I bought it 4 years ago.

 

It's a stuck mirror. Not really much you can do as it's going to worse over time.

 

Are there any electronics he should salvage and make something cool out of?

 

It could also be the digitiser IC - when the power supply starts going a bit funny it can get confused and leave lines and dots and other mysterious noise on the image. IIRC, it happens with LCDs and plasmas too. Maybe check the capacitors on the power supply.

 

Hello,

What is the model number?
Here is the 76 page owner's manual for Mitsubishi projection color TV model #'s WT-42313, WT-48313 & WT-65313.
http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/31775/Mitsubushi_WT-42313.html

Bertus

 

Blueroom is right, it's the mirrors. Something called a DMD (digital micromirror device) board. The TV was manufactured in 2007, what a shame such an expensive TV goes bad in 3 years. It's pretty irritating actually, the old CRT TVs last decades, but you get new stuff with better technology for $2,300.00 and it fails in 3 years.

After a bit of research, it seems this is a common problem, which you would think means it'd be a cheaper problem to fix seeings as how many people have it. But no, sadly. Looks like a replacement DMD board is about $375.00. For just a couple hundred more, I could buy a brand new LCD or plasma TV, which have better reputations for longevity. The problem with this is, I have no money. I'm certainly not in the same position I was 3 years ago when I spent 2300 dollars on a TV and didn't think anything of it, but the decline of the economy in the US and the loss of jobs isn't news to anyone at this point so that's a story for another time.

Can I fix the DMD or unstick the mirrors without spending a truck load of cash? Doesn't seem like it.

By the way, the TV is the Mitsubishi WD-65733 Bertus, so it'd be the 733 series.

 

I'm still using my 35" CRT TV for that reason. A friend of mine had a 3 year old Toshiba that couldn't be fixed due to parts obsolescence (the projector bulb of all things).

I spent $75 getting my old TV fixed, and will again if it is repairable. I thought long and hard about buying a plasma, but frankly TV isn't that important to me.

How are the receiver experiments coming along?

 

Blueroom is right, it's the mirrors. Something called a DMD (digital micromirror device) board. The TV was manufactured in 2007, what a shame such an expensive TV goes bad in 3 years. It's pretty irritating actually, the old CRT TVs last decades, but you get new stuff with better technology for $2,300.00 and it fails in 3 years.

After a bit of research, it seems this is a common problem, which you would think means it'd be a cheaper problem to fix seeings as how many people have it. But no, sadly. Looks like a replacement DMD board is about $375.00. For just a couple hundred more, I could buy a brand new LCD or plasma TV, which have better reputations for longevity. The problem with this is, I have no money. I'm certainly not in the same position I was 3 years ago when I spent 2300 dollars on a TV and didn't think anything of it, but the decline of the economy in the US and the loss of jobs isn't news to anyone at this point so that's a story for another time.

Can I fix the DMD or unstick the mirrors without spending a truck load of cash? Doesn't seem like it.

By the way, the TV is the Mitsubishi WD-65733 Bertus, so it'd be the 733 series.

You didn't get the extended warranty? Don't worry, many companies are still very good with this kind of thing with enough encouragement. Pester them enough, if necessary file a small claims case - people did this with Samsung (relay clicks) and they folded, if it's a common problem, Mitshubishi should give in.