Tag mitsubishi dlp white dots

So I left work early yesterday to meet the guy that was repairing my tv.  I was amazed at how polite this kid was, something I just am not used to.  I helped him lift the tv onto the floor so he could get access to the back of it.  In total he may have spent a half hour swapping out the DLP chip.  I was glad to hear that the replacement chips are engineered for better heat tolerance which is what evidently kills the original chips.

Once he was done with the swap we lifted the tv back into place and fired it up, no more dots, sweet.  I thanked Chris for his good work and sent him on his way after paying the $200 bill.

After he left I dug into an unplanned project.

My $200 Craigslist sofa and love seat has served me well since Ali moved out.  However there was one thing that has annoyed me.  The one recliner in the sofa has a cut across the foot rest.  The mechanism for the foot rest seems a little screwed up too.  When it is extended it has an obvious tilt to the left.

This wouldn’t be a huge deal except that  it just happens to be the recliner that sees the most use since it is next to the end table where I will eat while watching tv.  It annoyed me.

Well the other day I lifted up the love seat to look underneath.  I wanted to see how they were connected.  I was surprised to find that apparently all that held them together were 4 screws that attach to a metal frame underneath.  It seemed to me that in theory, I would simply be able to pull out these screws and then swap the right recliner on the love seat with the right recliner on the sofa.

Well for once, my theory proved to be correct the first time.  In about 15 minutes I had the two pieces swapped out with very minimal effort.  I enjoyed my straight, rip free seating position while I watched Hatfield & McCoy’s episode 2 last night.

I also completed mowing and weed whacking the property last night as planned.  The skies looked like they could open up at anytime but thankfully it held off.

I had one more another spur of the moment mini-project.  You may recall that I said that I wasn’t thrilled with the dip in the long edge of the new castle stone border I placed around the pool.  I decided to address it.  I pulled up about 5 or 6 stones and adjusted the fill underneath them so the dip more or less disappeared.  It looks better now.

I came out to my truck this morning to what appeared to be a bad battery.  It didn’t even click when I hit the key.  I quickly pulled the battery out and threw it in the van, surprised a battery that was a little more than a year old would be dead.  Well, it wasn’t.

When I took it to Wal-mart to get it replaced under warranty they threw a tester on the battery.  It came back as totally fine.  Well that is good and bad news. The good news is I don’t have to buy a battery the bad news is something else could be wrong.

I am hoping the lack of starting is due to a loose connection or corrosion on the terminals.  I am hoping that tonight after thoroughly cleaning both the truck will return to life.  I am not looking for another bill right now.

Last night as I was watching Boardwalk Empire on the 73 incher I noticed a small white dot near the top of the screen.  Hmm that’s odd, I wonder how long that had been there, I don’t recall ever seeing it before.  Of course once I saw it, it stuck out like a sore thumb.  I was annoyed my monster tv had a flaw.

Well as I was finishing up my second episode I noticed a SECOND dot had shown up, lower and to the right.  WTF?? This can’t be good.

So after I finished up the show I jumped on my computer and punched in “white dots mitsubishi dlp” My screen filled with a ton of hits, evidently this is a common issue.

The problem apparently starts as a few dots and grows over time, in some situations people reported having as many as 1000 dots on their sets.  Some people also reported having this issue happen rather early in the TV’s lifespan, less than two years in some cases. Well my tv was bought in May of 08, just now passing it’s 4th birthday.

As I read more I encountered outrageous repair costs for the problem which appears to be in the light engine or more specifically a chip in the light engine.  Some people were quoted outrageous estimates of more than $1000 to fix their sets.  The problem is so prevalent that there is a Facebook group dedicated to it.

Well when I bought my tv from Best Buy in 08 I decided to tack on an extended warranty, something I almost NEVER do.  It was an extra $400, not cheap at all.  I began a search through my files to find all my paperwork.

At first I couldn’t find my receipts but luckily they were in the third location I checked.  On the receipt it showed I purchased a 4 year extended warranty which when tacked on to the 1 year manufacturer warranty should still put me inside the coverage window.

I have no doubt that the process of actually getting the tv fixed under the extended warranty will be a pain in the ass.  It seems that anything at Best Buy outside of swiping your credit card at the register is a pain in the ass with them.  Boy it would be awesome if they said it was too expensive to fix and just gave me one of the newer models that has the upgraded 3D engine.  I could only be so lucky.

Yesterday I resumed production on the Jmo’s World cartoon series.  Unfortunately most of the humor in them are inside jokes that are most funny to a small inner circle that knows us personally.

I also discovered that Xtranormal has released a new desktop app that allows you to create the movies on your own pc instead of doing so via their rather slow and somewhat limited web site interface.

I played with the app a bit.  It is great, allowing me much more flexibility in character control as well as lifting the online 2 character limit.  The rendering happens nearly instantly instead of taking several minutes.  It should open the creative doors even further in the future.

Well I had plans for a fun weekend laid out with Randall coming over to play in a rare near by volleyball tournament in Fort Myers.  Unfortunately he wound up hurting himself doing some recreational activities over the Memorial Day weekend and had to bow out.

I tried to get some last minute replacements(Jeremy/Tabby) but was unsuccessful in doing so.

Tabby said that he was available the following weekend for a tournament that takes place in Siesta Key, a lot farther away but a beautiful beach.  It just happens to be the location I played with Tabby last year, winning the BB division in some of my very limited volleyball play.

So it looks like I will be heading 90 minutes north next Saturday for my first volleyball action of 2012.

This weekend I will be having a dog sleepover Saturday night as Ali has a local triathlon Sunday morning.  It will be nice to have the girls around for an extended period of time.

I also hope to buy and place the 25 landscape castle stones needed to finish the pool border.  That will leave the border around the pond to do at some point but I think that is going to be relegated as a winter project.  For the summer I will refocus on indoor projects like painting the master bedroom and bathroom. AC is my friend.