Is this Ballast Problem?

[120inna55]

I have an HL-S6187W.

This has been an ongoing issue but it's recently gotten worse. I hope someone here can help.

My set flickers. Period. That's it.

The image is not interrupted, there is just a very annoying flicker of brightness level that sometimes lasts anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, then the flickering goes away just as suddenly as it starts. It seems to happen less the longer the set is on.

When this has happenend in the past, I've replaced the lamp and all would be good for about 3 months then it starts up again. It may not happen for several weeks.

I've essentially replaced the lamp about every 6-8 months to avoid the problem, but I know it's not the lamp. It's not even associated with a dim lamp.

It has the same characteristics of a standard flourescent bulb that is going bad. You know, like the annoying flicker of those overhead floursecent lamps.

The set is on a good quality UPS with power conditioner. It has also done this directly plugged into the wall. Reseating the lamp doesn't help either. The only thing that seem to help is putting in a new lamp, but that only lasts about 3 months before the flickering begins to start back up.

After researching it here, it would seem the most probable culprit is a failing ballast. However, I keep hearing people say that a failing ballast will make a clicking noise and the lamp will fail to fire up. My lamp has never failed to start up, nor has the TV gone off spontaneously. There's only the flicker.

I have a new ballast that I've yet to swap out, because I'm just waiting until I have time to do it. But the more I read about it, it concerns me that I may not be doing the right thing. There are some posts suggesting that the PCB Board Power Supply could be the culprit.

Am I just reading too much into this? Is this likely just a failing/weak ballast, or should I be seriously considering replacing the power supply too?

BTW, I only use lamp assemblies from SamsungParts (J&J International). I assume they are OEM. The packaging has the Samsung logo and the part number matches my TV's sticker. The description is Philips.

[Angel]

Hi 120inna55,

I think it's most probably a ballast issue. I guess it's giving you an inappropriate voltage and that causes the flickering.

However you already have the ballast so in case it doesn't solve the problem you can get back to us and we'll help you troubleshoot the problem.

Hope this helps...

[120inna55]