# Sanyo Z2 projector problem



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Hi guys,

I recently got my hands on a used Sanyo Z2 projector. I have been really happy with its quality but had two questions.
One thing I have seen is when the video is black there is a slight almost lens flair look like a reflection on the left of the screen and I have narrowed it down to the projector its self. Could this be dust on the inside?
Anther problem is on Sunday night we watched a family movie with some friends and after the movie was over it would not shut off, I finally had to switch it off using the power switch and of course that kills the fan as well so there is no cool down. I dont want this to happen again as thats not good. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I'm not sure about the shut down part, but you could try blowing it out and seeing if the flare is a dust blob. The Z2 is somewhat tricky to blow out though. I had dust blobs on my Z2 from the dealer and had to blow it out.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Sonnie said:


> but you could try blowing it out and seeing if the flare is a dust blob. The Z2 is somewhat tricky to blow out though.


When you say tricky do you mean I have to take it apart or do I just blow air from a can into the side or back of the projector?


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

You will have to take the cover off and find access points... there are only a few. Before you place the cover back, go in a dark room and test it on the wall to make sure you have not created more blobs, which can happen. It may take several air blows to do the job.


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## <^..^>Smokey Joe (Jun 29, 2007)

Too gain the access to remove dust blobs , yeah you need to open it up.

Be aware that in some countries it is ilegal to open a electrical device that is above 24v without being a registered sparky.
Doing so could void, Insurance or injury claims.

If you are unsure about opening up the unit, find a service agent for Sanyo and explain the 2 problems you are having. 
Infact, I advise contacting an agent by phone and explain the faults first, might save alot of bother.

It may not be dust blobs. One of the panels may be failing or something similar. Dust blobs will show up all the time distorting the colours.

If you put a complete white, what do you see?
If you see a secondary colour, cyan,magenta or yellow it may be dust or a failing panel.
If you see a primary colour you may have dust on 2 panels, or 2 failing panels.

It is more likely to be dust, check the filter state. If very dirty and dusty it is highly likely dust is on the panels.

If you see a rainbow effect, there is another panel that the light passes through after the main LCD panels, sometimes these can go or collect dust.

Anyway If you want to open it up and have a go,

Obviously take precautions. Unplug the power.
Leave it a period before opening.
There is usually capacitors that hold charge, usually low voltage, but enough to zap something if short curcuited.

Do not touch any of the curcuits if you can help it. 

Have a very clean area to do this in.

Use air from a can, but dont spray to close as it is very cold and will freeze things and form moisture. It is cold because it is compressed and liquid, as it returns to uncompressed state, non liquid it steels heat from the area.
Dont spray your skin with these or near your face.
Wear protective glasses, dust or dirt could flick back into your face and your eyes.

Camera shops sell cans of compressed air for cleaning cameras and possibly hardware shops sell cans. 

The fact that it failed to turn off is a concern. You will kill bulbs quickly shutting down repeatedly like this. A oncer is not really a problem. Maybe the switching curcuit is going.

Have you new batteries in the remote? silly question I know, but sometimes thats as silly as it could be.

There is posts on the web about dust blobs and removal, do a google.
Look for a z2 service manual.

Because you have 2 issues going on I still advise contacting a Sanyo service agent first.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Excellent advice... :T


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Thanks for your advice so far. I am actually licensed to work on electrical so I have no issues opening it up plus I do minor electronics repair.
I will give it a go when I have the time. 

The so called lens flair I see is a faint white color and only visible in dark or black video. I can not see it with any of the other colors on when using my DVE DVD


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## <^..^>Smokey Joe (Jun 29, 2007)

Ok, 

hmm white.

Maybe the LCD panels are aging. 
LCD works like a light valve, effectively blocking light from passing.
It is why black can't quite be created with LCD.

Anyway if you are seeing white in a total black, maybe the LCD panels aren't clamping and thus not blocking the light.

Dust on the panel would actually cause the reverse, Equal dust on all LCD panels in one area you would see black or smudge on a white signal as the dust is filtering the light. Make sense? 

You could try blasting some air through to be sure, but thinking about this it seems the wrong way round. Sort of thing you need a signal generator to run up ramps on individual colours effectively isolating the panels.

Maybe as I stated earlier, contact a Sanyo agent who has experience with projectors where they can atleast confirm or deny this theory.

Keep in touch, I am interested to find out the result.


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

<^..^>Smokey Joe said:


> Keep in touch, I am interested to find out the result.


Ditto, me too.
I've had a Z2 for a while now Tony.
Regarding the "run-on" of the fan, I had a similiar issue with mine and found the filter to be dirty. For over a year I was able to clean the filter using compressed air. When the unit was new, I could watch a two hour movie without the fan 'kicking into second gear'. But as time when on it was shorter and shorter durations before the fan would hit high speed. This was with a regularly scheduled routined cleaning. Recently I purchased a new filter, things are much better now. I can again watch a two hour movie and it doesn't go into high speed.
I never noticed an increase in the time the fan stayed on after shut-down however. Normally, it's several minutes (less than 10?) that the fan continues to run after you've turned it of. Never manually turn it off after it's at operating temperature. Let it cool itself down first, otherwise you'll be buying a bulb. 
I don't recall you saying how long the fan ran after shut-down? 
How many hours are on the machine?

Bob


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Bob in St. Louis said:


> Ditto, me too.
> I've had a Z2 for a while now Tony.
> 
> I don't recall you saying how long the fan ran after shut-down?
> ...


I will let you guys know as soon as I figure it out.

Bob, its not really a fan running to long issue. The projector just simply would not shut off (so far it only did it the last time I used it on the weekend) . I pushed the power button on the projector its self just to make sure that it was not the remote but the same result. I get the "power off??" text but after hitting the power button again repeatably it simply would not turn off the bulb I finally had to kill the power using the main switch on the back. 
The projector only has 150hrs on the bulb and the projector its self was a demo unit and was used for only the 150hrs. (sat in storage for some time) I have the projector ceiling mounted.


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Ok, that's bizarre.:scratchhead:
There is a setting in the main menu that asks if you want the "_Power off?_" confirmation. You can change that to 'no confirmation' and it should power of with one press of the button. I don't like that setting just in case the remote controls 'Power' button accidentally gets pressed (then you're supposed to wait 30 minutes to power back on). I'm not sure what's going on there. Sounds like a software issue.
Anybody feel that a firmware upgrade is in order? Just throwing that out there.

About the visual problem: I read a while back that you can run a simple test to find if there are dust blobs on your panels. You take a piece of notebook paper and hold it about 12" from the lens. Then focus the lens so you get a clear image on the paper, the dust blobs should show very plainly on the paper.
Now....This is going by memory, and it's been awhile since I've read this "trick". I never did it myself, but never felt I had an issue with dust on the panels in the first place. It's a harmless thing to try regardless.
Personally, I'd be concerned with blindly blowing air into the unit. Be very comfortable with this procedure before you get all willy nilly and cause more damage.
Nothing else comes to mind Tony. I'm puzzled... Please let us know the things you've done, and the results. If I think of anything else, I'll chime in again.

Bob


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I will take a picture this weekend sometime and post it here of the so called lens flair I'm seeing.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Well after trying to get a clear picture of the dust blob this weekend I gave up and just bought some compressed air in a can. Opened up the PJ and found the closest access points to the LCDs. It worked and no more blobs.

Regarding the PJ not turning off it worked fine on Saturday but Sunday evening it would not turn off again???
I figured that by closing the front flap it turns the bulb off so I then waited for it to cool down and turned off the power switch again on the back.
Someone mentioned a firmware update? Is there one available? and if so How does one do the update on the Sanyo Z2?


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## <^..^>Smokey Joe (Jun 29, 2007)

Glad a blow out fixed that for you, you mentioned the hours were low in this projector. But for this much dust to be collected means it was sitting around in a dusty area. Could the switching problem be related?

Dust on a temp sensor maybe? The unit thinks it is hotter than it actually is and thus continues to run the fan thinking it is hot. 

Have another look around inside and see if you can see collected dust in areas?


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Hey Joe, I'm not sure a dirty power switch is the problem. Since the unit will not shut off by using the remote thereby bypassing the units built in switch I would "think" the switch is ok. I brought up the firmware as a possible solution since it seems he's got an internal software issue. I can't think of any type of electrical wiring/circuit issue being the problem. That's why I'm assuming an intermittant issue with software is the culprit.

Well, now that I've gone back to read Tony's post again, I'm not as sure about my last comment. He may actually have an intermittant open circuit in the switch, but only when the switch is hot enough. It may be as simple as a shot of electrical contact cleaner, maybe a new switch....

Tony, are you getting the '_power off?_' confirmation on screen then won't shut down? Or are you not seeing the confirmation at all?
Firmware upgrades are available, first you'll need to find out what version you currently have. There's a sequence of button you press while turning the unit on but I can't remember which button shows you the firware version. The only way (I know of) is to sent the unit to a Sanyo repair center. It's not not a downloadable DIY thing.
I'll see what I find out for you.

Bob


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Not found anything on the firmware stuff, but if you've got some time here's some "blob" info (and a lot of whining):
http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=339154


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Bob in St. Louis said:


> Tony, are you getting the '_power off?_' confirmation on screen then won't shut down? Or are you not seeing the confirmation at all?
> Firmware upgrades are available, first you'll need to find out what version you currently have. There's a sequence of button you press while turning the unit on but I can't remember which button shows you the firware version. The only way (I know of) is to sent the unit to a Sanyo repair center. It's not not a downloadable DIY thing.
> I'll see what I find out for you.
> 
> Bob


Hi Joe and Bob, Thanks for the help so far.
Yes, I do get the "power off?" text when I push either the remote or the power button on the projector. It just wont turn off if I push them again like it is supposed to do. It only seems to do it if its on for more than 2 hrs. I watched a one hour video last night and it turned off fine but over the weekend it did not after I had it on for about two and a half hrs.


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