CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Perry · Joined: 04 Mar 2011 Posts: 25 Location: London, Ontario

I came back from a vacation to find the H-Fail LED on. Crying or Very sad

One of my siblings was using the PJ when it apparently just cut out and had the H-Fail LED on the CLM.

There is no HV crackle, and the relays do not engage on the HDM. I have three extra HDM boards that may or may not work, but before that I would like to find out why exactly the board failed. There is no visible damage on the board (fried components, charring etc), so it leads me to hypothesize that a tube may have arced. Is there any way to check to see if a tube is arcing without the HDM?

I have also swapped out the CLM with a known working CLM with the same problem. I do not have any more HV PSUs, but I really doubt that to be the problem.

Any help you guys can give me would be much appreciated!

Perry · Joined: 04 Mar 2011 Posts: 25 Location: London, Ontario

Also, I am slightly afraid to install the other 3 spare HDMs, as they could fry due to another problem in the PJ.

zGman · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 599

I lost a HDM on my test rig due to old & arcing anode leads - If

you suspect them - if they are old and discolored - then you may

want to replace them - I think Curt has them new.

G

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Is the PJ Ceiling mounted? If so maybe it just came loose. Re seat it and try again. Also remove the daughter board and reseat that as well.

Oh I just saw you looked for bad components. So try the daughter board reseating.

Athanasios

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:52 pm Post subject:

Do that, and if not, then put in one of your other boards. Unless you have HV arcing, you won't smoke another HDM. You won't know if you have HV arcing without getting the HV to fire up again though.

Perry · Joined: 04 Mar 2011 Posts: 25 Location: London, Ontario

The PJ is floor mounted. I'll try reseating the daughter board on the HDM...see what that does. I've already tried one of the three extra boards...to no avail...but I will try them all and report back.

Thanks guys!

Perry · Joined: 04 Mar 2011 Posts: 25 Location: London, Ontario

Well...I tried all four boards, and the last board worked!! Now...what really fried that original board?? And what went on it? Hmm. At least I have a working PJ again.

Another problem that I have been having is the blue tube being slightly defocused in the center and completely unfocasable in the corners (it isn't great, but it becomes less noticeable when watching a movie at 16:9). Would a complete magnetics realignment fix this problem? I have also considered the neck board to be a possible problem, and have swapped the neck board but have not done any mods to it. I really think it is the tube face that is defocused and not the optics...but tell me what you guys think.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:58 pm Post subject:

No, magnetics affect the whole image. Put on sunglasses and look into the tube face. See if the image on the tube face is out of focus in the corners, my guess is that it's OK.

If so, then you have an optical alignment issue, most likely the Scheimpflug screws in the corners of the lens plate.

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

Perry · Joined: 04 Mar 2011 Posts: 25 Location: London, Ontario

Also, I should add that the focus gets much worse on the blue tube as the contrast increases. It actually seems in focus around 25 but 50 and above has really poor focus. I have a spare focus board that I could swap in/mod...but I will try swapping the leads.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:42 am Post subject:

That's normal, the tube gets pushed harder.

if the focus is working properly, then you want to focus the set at 90-100 contrast while doing focus and astig. Dial each tube in for best focus, then once you take the contrast down to 50-65 or so, in normal viewing, the pix really pops.