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

You have to remove the two mounting studs on the vga connector. After that you just pry it apart.

Thank you so very much.

Howdy all, I had the same symptoms and opened up my projector to find the same bulging capacitor.  I replaced it with a 16V 3300uf capacitor, and now nothing.  when I plug it in there is no sign of life at all.   I managed to do the whole thing without cutting any wires, I have tripple checked that I re-connected all of them.  The one that seems the most questionable to me attaches the lid to the top circuit-board.  all the screws and parts went back into place smoothly.

so here are my questions:

Has anyone else been successful with the 16V capacitor?  (I'm seeing a lot of 10Vs listed in the thread)

any other thoughts on things that may have gone wrong?

It's very possible that I damaged something else myself while opening it up or soldering.

Thanks for any tips

Be sure to put the lamp cover in place or the projector will not start.

10V or 16V is not the issue. We used 16V just to be sure not to replace it in 1 year.

Thanks for the tip.  to clarify, what do you mean by the lamp cover?  if you mean the external plastic piece removed to replace the lamp, that's in place and it's not working,  if you mean something internal can you please give a description of it or be more specific?

  Thanks Again!

I want to say this,i been thinking the same thing my self my bulb has 1700 hundred hours on it ,it a 1800mp,i been real happy with it the lamp cost 300.00 dollars ,but i have found out you need to shut the power off when not in use ,the unit is still running you can feel the heat from it,so i got mine on a switch and when the fan shut down i turn the power off,that keeps from wearing it out i hear on the inter net how the power that works the lamp goes bad,thats why i turn it off by the switch alse i take the lamp out and clean the fan with a cotton swab just make it damp so the dust comes off the fan,when the blades are dirty it cut down on the cooling,and can cause shut down,dont clean the lamp leave it alone

SUCCESS!!! Our projectors are back from the dead after replacing the capacitor – Thank you srogers573, your suggestion has been valuable to our school system as well.  Much like charliech I removed caps from a Dell GX260 power supply, we have over 30 of those dead PCs laying around because guess what?...  their motherboards have faulty capacitors.  The power supply caps seem to be from a different mfr so I feel safe putting them in the projector.

Here is a picture of the case with the power supply removed; Red indicates the capacitor in question, it is the largest in the group.  Good luck to all in your repairs.

This post has, should I say, been a Godsend? :-) My school district has around 150 of these projectors, with the vast majority being at my building, the high school. Started having this issue about a year ago, and we are now sitting on about 30 bad projectors. I always figured it was a capacitor to blame since that rash of bad caps about 6 years ago, though in this case, it seems bad engineering is to fault.

At any rate, looks like we'll be having some soldering to do now. I would need to get the capacitors from an approved vendor we currently do business with. Amazon being one, does anyone know if this part would be ok? Only thing I am reserved about is the size deminsions, which isn't listed. Anyone know? I read that the cap needs to be 13mm diameter, and 30 or below in height.

http://www.amazon.com/3300uF-Radial-Mini-Electrolytic-Capacitor/dp/B0002ZP4A4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A385A0XNQBW8HY&s=generic&qid=1278680883&sr=1-1

Replaced cap and no change, still get he amber blinking power and bulb lights!

Can I just buy the actual power supply for this 1800MP? Anyone have a part number?

Many thanks!

Hello there!

I have two words for you "srogers": THANK YOU!!

I had exacly the same problem with my 1800MP last week and thanks to you I have my projector back on track again. Here are some pictures I took during the procedure. Hope this will help more and more people. Cheers from Canada!  

I replaced the capacitor and now the unit turns on with blue lights, but the lamp does not come on at all.

The navigation lights will also be solid blue which turn off for 3 seconds some times.

Finally, after a minute or so, all the solid blue lights turn off and the LAMP light turns to solid orange.

I had just replaced my lamp and there is no way I came close to it burning out.  Is it possible that my lamp blew as well or I put the unit back together improperly?

Could this replacement of the capacitor be done by a novice?  I too have many of these projectors in my school and they are losing bulb projection at an alarming rate.  I know it is not the bulb because there was 100's of hours left on them.    Please provide detailed instructions if you can.  The pictures were great, but need more detail.

Also, can the bulb be 'reset' without being able to see the menu projected?

thank you

There is a great deal of dis-assembly to be accomplished to gain access to the failing component.  Also the removal of the failed capacitor would normally require a desoldering station or more damage could be caused due to the large ground plane that one of the leads is soldered to.  Resetting of the lamp counter will not correct this problem.  I highly recommend contacting an individual with solid skills in repair of electronic equipment.

Well...I'm a dentist not a technician and it was hard but not impossible. But I agree with "srogers" if you don't have any skills at all.