TV is probably about 8 years old. Turning off on its own, red light on front blinks 34 times, and then picture comes back on.

Original specs on TV here.

Looking around the internets, I'm not alone.

Used system menus per instructions here and reset lamp timer. (was at 15,109 hours. yikes. 1.7 years of continuous watching)

Cheat sheet to reset lamp timer:

• With TV OFF, press the following buttons on the remote: Display, 5, vol +, power
• Use 2 and 5 to move through categories (whole pages of info)
  
• Look for "Option E" category
• Once there, use 1 and 4 to move through items in that category
• First one (item # 0) is the Lamp Time Operating (in hours)
• Show/change data with 3 and 6 keys.
  
• Hours shown when data is changed to 1.
  
• Hours reset when data is STORED as 0. (I had to store as 1 first, then back to 0)
• STORE a value by pressing MUTE, then ENTER (see red "WRITE" text top right of screen)

Didnt seem to fix anything right away. Turned it off and we'll see what happens.

Otherwise, maybe need a new bulb.

According to this post, get one from eBay and self install?

search eBay for "REPLACEMENT LAMP SONY XL-2100U", from seller "niosales"
$129
(make sure you get lamp that includes entire lamp housing, not just the bulb)

Can I self install?

(update 10/12/10)
Yep. Ended up buying this one, and self installing. TV works again, and no blinking red light!

(update 12/19/10)
Worked great for a while, now it's back to its old tricks. Every 20 mins or so, picture goes out, red light blinks 34 times, and then picture comes back.

We found a brand new bulb (same kind I ordered) in a box in the closet here at the house. Think it was the one our Sony extended repair guy ordered for us ("for safe keeping") before the warranty was over. Tried putting that one in, and now getting no picture, and red light blinks 3 times at startup.

This doesn't look good: "overvoltage, IC is faulty..."

DOH! After screwing with it for a while, realized that I was trying the TV without putting the lamp cover back on. Once I put that back on -- it works!! (safety issue I'm sure - TV cant turn on without the cover)

Now we just hold our breath and see how long this lamp lasts...

Posted 9:15 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink