Supreme Overlord of the Internet

Monday, February 14, 2011

Saturday, September 26, 2009

I changed the name of my blog.

I found a better blog name, and I'm switching to that address. I'll keep this one around; but I'm not posting to it anymore.

The new address is : simpletonpattern.blogspot.com

If your reading this in a newsreader, please subscribe to the new feed.

Thanks,

Matt

Saturday, September 12, 2009

A year after the warranty expired, lots of little dots started appearing in my Samsung DLP TV. I did some research and found it would be around $500 to have it repaired. I also found I could repair myself for around $150. That seemed worth risk. Here is how I did it. Click the pictures to enbiggen.

I started with the following supplies left to right in the photo above:

Latex gloves - So as not to get finger oil on any of the sensitive parts – lens or dlp chip. Also, they provide some insulation against electric shock.
High quality heat sink paste – the (probable) reason the dots appeared in the first place was that the heat sink wasn’t properly melded to the chip, and it got too hot.
Needle Nose pliers
Replacement DLP Chip from samsungstore.com. My TV is the HLT5675S, and this is the part that fit my model.
Screw Driver
Disassembly instructions from the “Disassembly Reassembly.pdf” document found here.

I started by removing the back panel. The whole thing comes off including the lamp cover area. This metal tray holds the “light engine”. To the left is the power supply. I had to remove a screw from it to move it up and out of the way to let the tray slide out. Now is a good time to put the gloves on.The tray is out and I’ve removed the shroud that encloses the lens. The bulb is on the right behind that fan. Just to the left of the bulb assembly is the color wheel housing. The DLP chip is behind that heat sink. Be careful not to touch the lens.Use the needle nose pliers to lift one end of the metal band holding the sink. The band should come off easily. The heat sink will probably take a bit of a twist and pull to come off. Look what samsung put on the heat sink – tape! That’s the worst.

When I put the heat sink back on, I scraped all the tape off first. I cleansed it with rubbing alcohol to get all the gunk off. Then I applied some thermal compound to it. The heat sink is off, and there are just a few screws to remove the metal shroud. There are four screws around where the heat sink is – those have to come out to get the circuit board out. Do not ever turn the yellow/green screws in the picture below (in the above picture they have white half circles around them.) Those are alignment screws, and it is very hard to re-align the TV once it’s screwed up.This is the circuit board taken off and leaning forward. You can see where the light is projected through that hole onto the chip.Click the picture to enlarge so that you can see the dead pixels clearly. When the chip is at rest, the normal pixels are in the black position. The dead ones are permanently stuck in the white position.It just takes a little prying to get the chip out. I didn’t worry too much about bending the pens because the chip is kaput anyway.

There’s only one way for the new chip to go into the socket. Re-assembly pretty much goes the same way but in reverse.

I didn’t go into great detail because the pdf I linked to above does that pretty well. The components in my TV were only a little different than the pictures in the manual – so I made this post for other people with TVs like mine.

Special thanks to the people that contributed to avsforum in this thread.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Tour through Monument Valley 1

FJ at Monument Valley

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Katka giggling at 4 months

My youngest daughter is a much happier baby than my oldest. She rarely cries, and when she does, she "ramps up" so you have time to fix it before it turns to a holler.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009)

I wasn't going to watch this based on the title. Out of curiosity, I checked out the imdb profile, and saw that it was likened to Sean of the Dead. I liked Sean a lot; so I checked out LVK.

Although it wasn't as good as Sean, it was a fun goofy movie. I was surprised by the quality of the FX and acting. It wasn't the B movie I was expecting.

I'm not sure I would say it was the same kind of movie as Sean of the Dead. I guess they are both British horror-comedies. But LVK was a lot less horror and a lot more comedy.

There's more than a few funny jokes. It's definitely worth a rent.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Moon Over Marble Canyon

Marble Canyon, AZ

I took this on the way back home from vegas. I traveled along a road that stretched across northern Arizona, southern Utah, and northern New Mexico. There were incredible views the whole way.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Fry Thief

But you have plenty of delicious vegetables

Taken today at the Au Park shopping mall in Bratislava.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Lake Mead

Lake Mead from an overlook on the way to Hoover Dam

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Wolverine (2009)

This movie received a lot of negative reviews. They are not unjustified. Unless you really like comic book character or super hero movies, I'd say give this one a pass.

Here is what is wrong with it. The special FX are not super. There are points where the graphics look painted on. In one scene, wolverine is examining his claws by moving them around in front of his face, and the CG claws don't track with his hand. Things like this can take you completely out of the movie as you think about how bad it looks.

The plot is not super either. It's full of holes and a bit dull.

The acting was good, though. And the movie was full of action. If you're going to see it, see it on a big screen for the thrill ride.

Star Trek (2009)

This is arguably the 2nd best Star Trek movie (2nd to Wrath of Khan.) I think it's one of the best scifi movies ever. Whether you're a Star Trek fan or not, I think you'll enjoy it.

If you are a Star Trek fan, there is plenty to like. In particular, Dr McCoy was great. There are other great injokes and plot points that are put there just for you.

Due to a time travel paradox, this is a different Star Trek than the original series. The characters are very similar; but not the same. And the universe has been irrevocably changed in ways that will give future movies new plot points to follow.

I'm looking forward to future movies with this same crew.