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At my public school we had lamp bulb for a Smart UF45 projector burn out, pop and shatter within the unit, fortunately most of the glass stayed within the lamp housing. The projector hangs upside down and faces to the rear which leaves the access panel facing down and easy to service with a ladder. Following instructions downloaded from Smart's website I removed the old lamp, didn't originally notice any pieces of glass when I shined my phone camera's light up there. After inserting the replacement bulb and ensuring all the screws were tight, plugging it back in, the fan powers on but after 5ish minutes with just the fan and no picture, I get 5 beeps and right lights (blinking lamp, solid power.) I double check everything two or three times with the same results before I call my boss. My boss recommends double checking the access panels, I do that to also no success. Upon my bosses instruction I remove the projector unit from the boom and bring it back to my desk/workbench which is when my boss notices that one of the screws were loose and there were tiny shards of glass I did not see before. Since this is the only type of this projector we have and since the media center specialist uses it for almost every class period, I must get it cleaned and working asap, therefore what is the best way to clean tiny slivers of broken glass from the inside of the projector when you don't have a vacuum and is there anything I should be aware of that could be causing the projector reject the lamp? Also could I have done any damage by having the loose mounting screw which I originally thought was tight? Thank you in advance!

Hi, Where and how do we change the bulb for our Activboard +2? It's the orange one x x x J x

Hi I bought a new bulb for my Sanyo plc-xe40 lcd projector. It turned on ok, and when connected to my laptop I have had the projected image come up fine for a few moments, but within ten minutes the projected image had disappeared and the fan sound seemed to go in and out. I tried turning it on and off with the remote and muting/un-muting the machine. No luck. I pulled the power chord out and plugged back in. I pressed the 'reset' button a few times. The projected image came back for a second then vanished again. Now the projector turns on, and power light is on, but the fan sound goes in and out and no projected image is displayed. I've done some research and it sounds like this means the thermal trip may be bust? Or alternatively maybe i need to 'reset the lamp hours' as the 'replace bulb' light is still on (never went away!) Anyone know how to do either of these things? Or have any idea if i'm right in thinking this is what is wrong? Thanks!!

Hi there, I am looking to see what vmware stack images people used to get up and running in Moodle, if its worth doing or should I just look into building my own server ? I have looked at two at... http://www.turnkeylinux.org/moodle BitNami :: BitNami Stacks and some more are listed at Virtual Appliance Marketplace I'll be at reading this week as well if anyone want to "hook up" to discuss this.

Evening Guys, I'm not sure how many of you work in schools that let their kids mess about with LAMP servers and setting up their own space for hosting etc, but in case you do cPanel offer their Control Panel software for $30 (admin costs) to non-profit/educational establishments. Having used cPanel through Edutech Hosting I love it - it's very good. I bet most people out there have used it at all. The link to sign up is: Non-Profit License Application Form - cPanel Inc. As you know I don't work for them so I don't feel as though I am advertising. Gareth

Has anyone else had issues with Roche AV and sending lamps back on warranty recently? I sent back 2 without issue, but a 3rd failed (with a bang) so they offered to clean out the glass dust as part of the warranty service free-of-charge as well as replacing the lamp. To be honest I was quite impressed with that as they have to pay to have it shipped. I then got a call from someone at Roche who seemed to be a service engineer. He gave me quite a long spiel about the projector having a strong pink cast over the image and how it is caused by dirt on the blue LCD etc. etc. (our filters are cleaned very regularly and he agreed that the filters were clean in that projector). I could tell at that point we were building up a head of steam for a sales pitch. He then tried to sell me their service of cleaning the LCD for £69, despite the colour quality having been absolutely fine up until the lamp going. Obviously it didn't sound like such a fantastic idea, so I told him I'd want to get quotes from other companies for the work to be done and asked him to clean out the glass dust, put the new lamp in and send it back here as agreed. He seemed more than a little miffed at that and told me he would have to ask his manager about that! Ahem, no he bloody wouldn't! Is this a new thing with Roche? Have I just been unlucky on this occasion? I've never had any significant problems with them in the past and their customer support has been very friendly and responsive (a guy called Craig usually calls and I cannot fault him at all).

Hi Folks I look after the IT resources for a number of schools in West Yorkshire. The original tranche of funding for smartboards back in 2004/05 went to a local supplier with contacts in the LA (suprise suprise) who installed almost exclusively NEC Projectors (VT470's, VT570's etc) at massive cost. Most of these are now on to their second or third lamp, and are increasingly dim despite the purchase of a new lamp - some of these have been sent back to NEC for cleaning, at about £100, and then needed a new 'optical unit' which has cost another £100. This is stupid when contrasted against the cost of a new projector. Unfortunately if you've ordered a lamp for £150 to correct a brightness issue, then told the projector needs a clean, you're already wandered down the garden path of spending and it's hard to stop. I also look after a couple of schools who decided to shop around back in 04/05, and they went for Hitachi ED-X3400's and Epson EMP-S3's. Although they've received the same amount of use, these are still bright and usable wheras the NEC's are rubbish. My questions are: Are we the only ones who've encountered this? What lifespan do people regularly achieve / expect from their projectors? I'm considering planning to replace them every 3 -4 years now, and writing this into the ICT budgets. Did we simply get projectors with a design flaw? Lastly, does anyone reckon this scenario still applies to NEC projectors? I've seen the LP200's cheap with a 3yr hardware & lamp warranty but I don't know if I should trust NEC. Anyone got any good recommendations up to £450 inc VAT (3 yr warranty essential given previous experiences!) Sorry to be so verbose, but I'd like a good consensus to take back to my Headteachers. Your advice is both representative and greatly appreciated :-)