Dell 2400MP Lamp question

[pmo]

I have a Dell 2400MP.

The machine starts up fine and the bulb fully lights up. After about a minute of operation the lamp shuts down and the orange "LAMP" indicator light comes on. The manual says this means the lamp needs replacing. My question is, since the projector still starts up and displays an image shouldn't the lamp be fine? I have reset the projector and the lamp hours. I am not sure how many hours were on the lamp to begin with.

1) Does the bulb need replacing? It otherwise seems fine.
2) Is this a sign of a faulty ballast. I have a VIP 4ac/380 ballast which i believe is serial and can communicate errors back to the main board.
3) How does the ballast and the main board have the intelligence to say the bulb has aged.
4) Is there an easy method of bypassing these serial ballasts.

 

[Gizmotech]

It could be a faulty ballast. The main board cannot tell the bulb is aged other than what the counter states. f the lamp gets bright enough in that minute then more than likely the ballast is shot. Purchasing a lamp would be taking too much of a risk for a projector which is most probably not worth so much in its current value. The ballast in these are osram P-VIP ones used in the HP MP3130 and I have seen a few to go wrong. I think its time for an upgrade and sell this as spares.

 

[pmo]

Thanks. I guess there is no way to repair these ballasts? There seems to be a micro controller on board that sends serial communications back to the main board, no way to alter that I guess?

I will keep a look out on ebay for a new one perhaps.

 

[nuLumen]

Actually its entirely possible that the lamp could be at fault, take it from me i run a projector repair business, although projectors are prone to electrical failures, in the majority of cases its the power supply that fails not the ballast, small high power projectors need high precision lamps that take up the same amount of space as a less powerful one which means they have to be made to higher tolerances, if you have a projector that cuts out after a couple of minutes or so the problem is usually with the lamp, what happens is that it heats up to a point and can no longer maintain a stable arc because the gas and mercury within the lamp is not conductive enough, the ballast senses that its no longer drawing any power and reports back to the main board that the lamp has gone out, ive tested hundreds of lamps independently from the projector and confirmed the case, lots of people assume its the projector at fault, and lots of times it is, but in some cases like these its most likely to be the expensive part (the lamp) ive found that this usually occurs when projectors are not properly looked after, for example if they are moved just after turning off, or if the air filters become clogged or obstructed.