Change your Lamp in 5 Minutes

Required Tools

• Philips head screwdriver

0:01 Remove the access panel
Locate and remove the lamp access panel on the rear left of the set (left if you’re facing the front of the set). There’s one screw holding it in place. Remove that screw and ease the panel off. It removes most easily if you hold the back of the panel and slide it toward the side.

0:02 Remove the old lamp
Unscrew the two brass screws on each end of the base. They won’t come out completely as they’re designed to stay on the lamp as it’s removed. There’s a pull-handle for removing the lamp. Give that a tug, and if it gives and stops, you may need to loosen the screws more.

Pull out the lamp. Don’t touch anything other than the plastic casing as it can be hot. Put it in a safe place, especially if it isn’t entirely dead and you wish to keep it as a last-ditch spare.

Once the lamp is out, make a mental note of the color wheel in the space where the light shines. You may meet this part in a future episode of your television’s maintenance.

0:03 Insert the new lamp
Look at the connector plug at the top of the lamp so you know what you’re dealing with. Carefully slide the new lamp back in the same way the old one came out. That plug needs to connect with it’s mate, and the two tabs that the screws are on will meet flush with the ends of the rails. It can be tricky to get the new lamp back in. I watched a repair guy struggle with it for quite a while once. He just kept wriggling it. I wouldn’t recommend using force, however. Keep trying, it’ll go.

Once it’s in, tighten the screws that should already be there attached to the lamp.

0:04 Close up the access panel
Put the cover back on the set and secure it with the screw. The television has a sensor and will not turn on if this panel is not in place. This is a safety feature as things get hot in there.

0:05 Turn on the TV
Power up the television and if all went well, your set should start up like the old friend you know and love.

Next Steps

• Consider buying a backup lamp. By now I probably don’t need to convince you that your set could die in game 7 of the World Series, or right in the middle of your Super Bowl party. They’re expensive, but what do you expect? You dropped a lot of money on that set in the first place. Projectors need spare bulbs.
• Read up on the color wheel replacement and bookmark that page for later. This is the other thing that can go wrong with your DLP set, and you should know the signs of a dying color wheel.

Thank you to Scott Jangro for creating this tutorial