Dell Projector 1800MP Lamp light/Power bottom Blinks orange and wont turn on at all!!

Can someone post a picture of the cap in question? There are several boards in the unit and not sure I am looking at the right place...  thanks.

I don't have a picture but it's easy to find.

This is the largest capacitor on the Power board, near the far end of the board, away from the plug.

This board you want is the power supply board, that the 110 V power cord plugs into.  This is the bottom board in the stack.  This board is slipped into a metal casing which you have to remove.  It's just a bit tricky to get out.  I had to clip a cable tie to do so.

Ah, that helps a lot. Thank you.  I was able to take out the metal casing.  Now, I need to somehow remove the top board to get access to the bottom one.  The top one seems to be clipped in on the four corners - i don't see any screws.  What's the best way to remove the top board? 

I was able to squeeze the plastic clips on the 4 corners using needle pliers and pull each corner of the top board up and out.  After that it was easy to unscrew the bottom board and slide it out.  Now to desoldering the chubby cap.... :) 

Ps: do I just get the replacement cap in radio shack or you have a link for the replacement by any chance?

A Dell ATX  power supply, e.g., from a GX240 or GX260 tower has a 3300mfd 10volt capacitor. It's a 13mm diameter x 30mm high cap, that's slightly taller than the one that was in my 1800MP, but it fits perfectly.There's also a couple of 3300mfd 16volt caps that are the same dimension in this P/S. I used one of these broken power supplies that had good caps to fix my projector. Thanks srogers573 for the original post.

That's great but if a Dell-supplied 10V capacitor fails in this power supply, I wouldn't cannibalize another power supply to replace it with the same part.  Better to spend a dollar or two for a new 16V cap.

I found 3300uf 10V at mouser.com and got it the next day. Replaced the old cap and viola it's alive again.  thanks for the original post.

Ps: had to get a 40W soldering iron to get the old cap out - even then it was not melting all the way properly. 

Hey srogers573!

Do you have a wish list on Amazon?  Let me know because you just save my dinky little non-profit org well over $4k in having to replace these "broken" projectors.  Thank you!

For those who can't seem to find the part locally, you can order it from Mouser Electronics. Part number 647-UVY1A332MHD.  $0.81 each!

I have a few more projectors to go.  I'll take pix of the break down and replacement later today.

srogers573, you're a life saver! Our church had an 1800MP projector with the same symptoms. My first inclination was the expensive lamp, but after a friend pointed out your post I tore it down to look at the 3300 uF, 10 V capacitor on the power supply board. Lo and behold the top was bulged ever so slightly - not ruptured. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for it. I pulled the cap and it measured 450 uF. I installed a new cap today (Nichicon UHE1A332MHD, $0.67 from Digikey) and now the projector works like a champ! It was a bear to unsolder and solder - there must be power planes on that board without thermal relief pads, and the holes are marginally large enough for the leads which doesn't help.

Thanks so much for sharing your findings. You saved us mucho bucks!

I just bought it at a local electronic store for a big 0.39 cents

where did you order the cap?

Can you get me information? Where do we purchase the capacitor or the serice? I have 16 of these all with the same problem.

WOW I am going to try this? Where dd you get the capacitor?

is it a Leaded or SMD capacitors.