Casio LED Projector Troubles

[lmgtfy]

We have bought Casio LED projectors for coming up to the last 5 years since they were first bought out on the market and all the hype about the 5 year warranty/10000 hour warranty and the potential for it to go on for a long time has kept us buying them even due to the high initial cost.

 

We have about 90 onsite here mainly XJ-A130 and A131 and wanted to let you know of recent issues.

 

I would say roughly 15-20% of all of the units have been sent back now due to one (I believe) inherent fault which are lots of tiny pixels on the image which when I ring they all seem aware of this issue and no further questions seem to be asked regarding the fault. I was wondering how many other people are experiencing this fault and is it on the same level?

 

I am also concerned about the quality of the refurbished units Casio are sending us as replacements for the faulty units. I have had two sent back with smudges and hairs inside the lens and recently one sent to us with a cable caught in the fan and the replacement for the replacement has a smudge mark on the image. It’s not the end of the world as I know if I ring them up they will send another one but everything at Casio seems to take a long time.

You speak to one person on the phone who logs the call takes all details which takes about 15 minutes normally and then a few days later someone else rings you to arrange collection. This is worlds apart from the experience we used to have with Epson who would remember all your details, log a call in a few minutes and send an engineer out the next day.

 

I am thinking about contacting Casio expressing my concerns but was wondering has anyone moved away because of these issues or have any input into my problems?

 

Cheers as always

[itgeek1989]

The old school I worked at had them and got the same fault as you on a couple. Like you said the time from logging a call and getting a replacement was some times over a week! Plus I had to take down and put them back up myself...

 

Where I am now it's all Epson. Any issues, engineer out next day to fit a replacement.

[fiza]

Sorry for your troubles - So glad I didn't go down the Casio route last year!! Stuck with Epson.

[sparkeh]

Just for a bit of balance, we have been buying Casio for the last few years as well, couple sent back due to not turning on and thought the service was excellent.

[TomC]

we have casio Projectors and haven't notice this issue. is it an Obvious fault?

[itgeek1989]

Yes. It was like small white pixels all over image. Very noticeable.

[TomC]

ah in that case we haven't had this issue

[zag]

We've got around 30 Casios here.

 

Not one has had a problem ever. They've worked perfectly since installation and never needed a bulb change either.

 

Game changing technology imo!

[localzuk]

Only issue we've had is them becoming discoloured or completely freezing. However, if we go by numbers, we've not done very well. We've got 5 casio A series (the original ones) and we've had to have 3 of them repaired. 1 of them twice.

[Chris_]

We've got quite a few of the M series Casio projectors. No issues so far.

[FN-GM]

We had some, we has similar issues to the OP. They have all been removed from service now, we just have a few we use for portables.

[MYK-IT]

We have approx. 30 Casio XJ-A140 projectors, and have suffered from the dreaded white pixel fault.

All but one one* were repaired by Casio, with them sending us loan units first and all courier costs covered by them too.

 

(* one was within 5 years, but technically it is 3 year warranty; with the light source only being covered for 5 years. Casio originally claimed fault was due to dust/lack of cleaning and wanted a few £100's to repair; despite it being white dots. I argued common fault, etc. and they supplied a replacement FOC)

 

Whether we have suffered more than others because ours were from one of the first batches supplied to the UK, I’m not sure...but many are now suffering from dullness to the projected image too.

 

Since then we have just gone back to installing ultra-short throw Hitachi projectors, with 5 year warranties, 3 year lamp warranty and a spare free bulb too! Which effectively gives us (a minimum) of 5 years peace of mind just like the Casios were sold to us as.

Edited May 1, 2014 by MYK-IT

[zag]

We've got around 30 Casios here.

 

Not one has had a problem ever. They've worked perfectly since installation and never needed a bulb change either.

 

Game changing technology imo!

 

Ahh just realized you are talking about the 1st generation slim models.

 

Those were indeed crap!

 

The thicker 2nd generation models are just about perfect.

[synaesthesia]

Got 10 x M series (130 I think) and not a problem on any of them. Very, very heavy use.

[XiJ]

The early A series models did suffer from this and I've seen one with it. I believe the were pulled from the market for a while - though nothing official. Just that supply became severely constrained.

 

Not sure if it was a heat issue - I think I recall reading that they'd redesigned / beefed up the fan/cooling.

 

The M series are thicker with better fan / airflow.

[xenonive]

The problem is due to faulty batch of DLP chips that Casio have to replace to fix issue , I've had about 40 repairs done over last 3 years. You will know if you have faulty chip if it as black/white pixels on the screen regardless of source connect or it is dim or out of focus in corners or grey lines on white background don't show up . To be fair to fair all have been replaced/repaired no issues and always got good projector in return

[caffrey]

It's the DMD chip that texas intruments make, it affects a lot of other projectors too - we've had BENQ and Optoma with similar issues. Im assuming that the casio uses the same.

[MbroTech]

Sorry for resurrecting the thread, but this pixel fault sounds like the dreaded Texas Instruments DMD chip error, which drives the DLP engine. We have suffered this on DLP projectors from several manufacturers so it isn't just affecting Casio. That said I haven't seen it on any of the A or M series Casio's that we have on site.

 

What I have had though, twice is the image going very pinky rose on an M series. Has this happened to anyone else and is there a simple fix before I arrange another return.

[Mr_K]

Sudden colour shift or has this happened over time?

 

These projectors use a hybrid light source - LED for red and laser diode for blue / green. Possibly over time the red colour has become prominent over the blue/green?

 

Other than that I’d just do some basic tests; swap the cables and play with the settings before speaking to Casio.

[mats]

The problem is due to faulty batch of DLP chips that Casio have to replace to fix issue , I've had about 40 repairs done over last 3 years. You will know if you have faulty chip if it as black/white pixels on the screen regardless of source connect or it is dim or out of focus in corners or grey lines on white background don't show up . To be fair to fair all have been replaced/repaired no issues and always got good projector in return

 

That's interesting. I have a Smart UF75 with random black & white pixels on the display. They stay there regardless of source too. It's just out of it's 2 year warranty - I'm hoping they'll take pity on us, especially if it's a known fault.

[Danp]

I have a Casio A130V with black and white pixels, it's only had 80 hours use in 6 years, Casio have said it's still in warranty so it's going back

[norfolkngood]

I have just replaced several AJ 131 projectors for a client with the same issue. I have told them to send them back as a warranty fail. So I will see what happens regards this.

We have started to install the core V10 now as this is a hybrid with laser etc but manual zoom and focus.Unlike the digital focus etc of the AJ series. And quite a bit cheaper