Epson Home Cinema 6100 Projector Horizontal Pink and Blue Bands Repair

After a year of putting up with horizontal pink and blue bands on my 6 year old Epson Home Cinema projector, I finally decided to take it apart and fix it. Thanks to http://www.avsforum.com/ for the tips which inspired me to give this a try. 

Sorry for some of the blurry photos. Hard to hold the iPhone steady while holding projector parts at times.

You'll need clean latex or sterile food handling gloves, a Philips screwdriver, and painter's tape. Different colored Sharpie's are helpful to mark a cable and its corresponding connection on the board or even the silver screws. However you do it, just don't get those things mixed up.

If you have your lens cap, put that on or tape something over the lens to protect it.

•  Turn the projector upside down and take out all the screws. 12 total.

•   Gently push the silver side panels away from the unit. There are small notches to get your fingernails in there or use your screwdriver. It won't take much pressure to make the side panel release. As the panel begins to clear the white plastic, push downward evenly and it will unsnap on the other side (top side) of the projector.

• • Disconnect the ribbon cable. Use your fingernail to slide the black connector lock back. It will move just enough for the cable to release.

• • Turn the projector right side up. Remove the 2 screws on the back panel. The one above the green Y composite connector and above the RS-232C connection.

• • There's the cable. Disconnect it and you'll be able to completely remove the cover.

• • Now remove all screws and connections that I've indicated in the picture.

• • The tucked away screw from picture 7 "see next photo".

• • Release the 3 ribbon cables by flipping the connector lock on the edge, upward. If you've removed all of the screws and disconnected all the wires, you should now be able to remove the board completely.

• • The red "X" means you don't need to remove this. I did and then realized I didn't need to. Just remove the iris assembly that I've outlined in green.

• •  The removed assembly and its screws. Looks like it gets a bit hot!

• • And here is the culprit. That lens looks perfectly in place. Hot glue and brackets are holding it steady.

• •  I have this shining on a sheet of paper still using the flashlight as the light source. You won't be able to see the blue band at the top and pink band at the bottom but you can see the discoloration at the top edge. It appears lighter than the rest of the image.

• • And now the fix. Are you wearing a clean glove? Don't smudge the lens. Using your thumb, push straight down on that lens. For me, it didn't seem to move and it didn't click. It was like the sound of a very fine point on a pencil lead breaking. A very small, quiet sound. 

• • I checked the color. The band is gone!

• • Here's a comparison. You can clearly see the light band at the top edge is gone in the "After" picture. Well, on my monitor I can clearly see.

• • UPDATE 4/21/2016  ----  I hang my projector from the ceiling. I should have known the lens would slip out of position. In 2 months, the lines reappeared. I fixed it again but this time I used a hobby knife and gently and meticulously removed the soft, rubbery glue that's supposed to hold the lens in place.

  • I then got out my "Bob Smith Industries" industrial epoxy and used a toothpick to dab the corners and work the epoxy into the crevice where the original glue once was. I rigged up a way to put 5 lbs of pressure on the lens and left it to cure overnight. It's been holding in place really well so far. 

  • Hey, you're done. Now just do everything in reverse. Remember where everything went? I hope so.

  • Here's a tip. Use painter's tape to lengthen the ribbon cables. You'll have much more length to work with so you can easily thread them back through the slots in the board.

• • Here's the board with the ribbons threaded through. Ok. I hope you get everything back together. That's really the easy part. Don't forget to get all of those cables reconnected. I missed one and got an "Auto Iris" error. Doh! Had to take the cover off again. Just took me a couple extra minutes. 

  • Talk about happy! I have eliminated the pink and blue bands!  The image on my screen looks great once again. This actually was an easy repair. Good luck to you! Just take your time and I'm sure you can do this. You'll be charging people to fix their Epson Home Cinema projectors and coming out looking like Superman!