A technician reads it and writes back, usually the same or next business day.
What we repair
DLP and LCD projectors: colour wheels, DMD chips, optical blocks and prisms, power boards and ballasts, lamp housings, fans and filters, HDMI and input boards. If it is a projector and it has stopped behaving, it is worth asking.
Where we are
The bench is in Margate, Florida, and we work across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade. Everywhere else in the United States, send it by post — most of what we repair arrives that way.
Why us
We refurbish and sell these machines as well as fix them: over 10,000 sales on eBay at 100% positive feedback, and every projector we ship runs four hours on the bench before it leaves. The same bench does the repairs.
Already sent one in?
Your repair code is in the email we sent when your fault report arrived — eight characters, like MW3K-8QP2. Type it in and it takes you straight to your repair.
Follow a repair
Your repair code is in the email we sent when your request arrived — eight characters, like MW3K-8QP2.
Before you send it in
The faults we are asked about most, and what they usually turn out to be.
What does a projector repair cost?
We do not quote before we know what is wrong. Tell us what the projector is doing and a technician reads it the same or next business day, then comes back in writing with a likely cause and what the repair would cost. Nothing is charged until you have seen that price and agreed to it.
There are black or white dots on the picture that never move. What is that?
Dots that stay in the same place whatever you project are almost always the DMD chip — the mirror array at the heart of a DLP projector. Each dot is a mirror that has stopped moving, and cleaning or a factory reset will not bring it back. The chip itself is replaceable, and it is one of the repairs we do most.
The full explanation: what a DMD chip is and when it is worth replacing
The projector turns itself off after a few minutes. Why?
That is nearly always heat. Dust in the filter or a fan that has slowed down lets the temperature climb until the projector shuts down to protect itself — the shorter the run before it stops, the further along it is. Cleaning the filter is worth trying first; if it still cuts out, the fan or the thermal sensor is the next thing to look at.
The full explanation: what the run time before shutdown tells you
The colours are wrong, or there is a whirring noise that was not there before.
On a DLP projector both point at the colour wheel. It spins in time with the image, so as its bearing wears you first hear it, then see colour break up, flicker or drop out altogether. It is a mechanical part and it is replaceable.
The full explanation: how a color wheel fails, and why waiting costs more
No power at all — no lights, no fan. Is it worth looking at?
Try another power cord and a different outlet first; it settles the question in a minute and costs nothing. If it is still completely dead, the power board or the lamp ballast is the usual cause, and both are repairs rather than write-offs.
Light comes out of the lens but there is no picture.
The lamp is doing its job, so the fault is further along. If the projector's own menu still appears on screen, the imaging side is alive and the problem is usually the input or HDMI board. If even the menu is missing, it points at the DMD chip or the optical block. The questions on this page separate the two before anything is opened.
Can I send a projector in by post?
Yes — most of what we repair arrives that way, from anywhere in the United States. The bench is in Margate, Florida, so if you are in Broward, Palm Beach or Miami-Dade you can bring it instead.
Is it worth repairing, or should I just replace it?
Sometimes it is not, and we will say so rather than take the work. We refurbish and sell these machines as well as fix them, so we know what a given model is worth against what the repair would cost — and if replacing it is the better answer, the diagnosis will tell you that.
Which projectors do you repair?
DLP and LCD projectors of any make: colour wheels, DMD chips, optical blocks and prisms, power boards and ballasts, lamp housings, fans and filters, HDMI and input boards. If it is a projector and it has stopped behaving, it is worth asking.