Unusable Dell M110 and the colour black....

Does anybody have any ideas about what might be causing this?  The fault is present in two projectors.

My new M110 is experiencing the same flickering colors. The problem appeared after only a total of 16h running time.  It does seem to come and go.

Will post if I learn more.   Will RMA of it persists.

Still no answer from anyone at Dell... not very impressed.

I've found that if you turn on the projector and swap the source when the signal is displaying colour, it is more likely to work than when it starts up with just black.  Hope that helps!

I also recently purchased a Dell M110, and after only 17 hours of use I am experiencing the exact same problem.  Unfortunately, I'm deployed to Afghanistan right now, it took 20 days to get shipped to me, and Newegg's policy was a 30-day replacement only.

I had only been using the projector once per night for about an hour to three hours at a time, watching Spartacus.  I got to the last episode of the first season and it started flickering.  I messed around in the settings and found that lowering the color temperature from the default of 'high' to 'med' helped for one night; the next night when I turned the projector on it started flickering.  Turning the temperature down to 'low' stops the flickering, but now it only displays blue and green colors, no red at all.  I tried to use the test images in the settings - the first showed all three colors, which confuses me; the second just shows an entire image of only red.  I'm not sure what it is supposed to be, but that seems odd, especially since I can't see red at all when playing back video.  I set the projector up with a brand-new HDMI cable and I was so thrilled to be watching a [mostly] crisp image at ~40" in my tent.  By 'mostly,' I'm referring to the fact the projector refuses to focus every point of the image evenly.

I tried to set the projector up using the packaged VGA cable, but it still flickered or only displayed blue and green.  This, quite plainly put, B.S.  I spent nearly $400 on something that should have lasted at least 1,175 times the amount of hours it has and there's nothing I can do about it to get it replaced or refunded because of the 30-day only replacement policy.  I can't call Dell from here because they only offer 1-800 numbers, and email support is, for some stupid reason, not available for this product.  I tried to use the live chat feature and it just brought me to a page stating "technical support is not available."  When I went to make this account to see if I could find someone who could help me in the forums the password requirements are not even clearly stated.  It says a minimum of six characters, one letter, and one number.  I tried to make a password with all of the aforementioned and two special characters.  No where on the page does it mention I cannot use them.  Took me four tries to figure out the site doesn't want us using special characters in the password.  That is just pure laziness on the part of the staff - that along with everything else tells me Dell isn't going to get back to me with any kind of actual help before I'm out of here.  Maybe two months from now I'll get a response saying I can pay to ship the projector out to their warehouse where they'll 'quality check' the device for two weeks, replace it with another faulty PoS projector, send it to me the next week with the cheapest possible ground shipper, and then when I receive it, the next one is going to do the same thing.  I can see it now.

...clearly I'm a bitter man that's tired of dealing with this service, and I'm tired of being tired.  I'm so glad I bought a ~$400 glossy, paper weight cube.

Thank you, Dell.

I was having the same problems with the strobing colors -  I have found that by unplugging the power from the projector and unplugging the AC adapter from the power bar when you're done watching, it prevents the buildup of residual power mentioned above.  It's worked for the last 3 days in a row, so fingers crossed that is the solution.

Hope this helps, because when it's working I think the picture is pretty impressive for the size and price.

In the mean time I've had three RMA's.  The third time they refurbished the projector I received after the second RMA.  The result remained the same: composite colour fields kept strobing as if the projector couldn't decide which colour to show.  This defect appeared intermittent, when changing projector modes. I always disconnected the power and this didn't make any difference.  Even a suggested reset (disconnect power en press the powerbutton for 20 seconds) didn't do any good.

Also after an hour or two: night-time scenes, scenes in space, the set of The Daily Show, etc., showed bright blue patches where dark colour fields were.  Bright scenes: desert, beach, atmosphere, skin tones, etc., showed as solid bright pink patches.

The M110 is indeed a very powerful compact projector. It delivers a very bright and crisp image.  I used it even during the daytime as a third monitor (50") for background entertainment.  But I wouldn't trust this projector for a presentation or a movie night with friends. In my opinion this product isn't ready for the market.

Kind regards
Kracklite

hey JB,

My dell M110 started showing a similar problem of switching colors and flickering after about 8 months of occasional use. I called up the Dell service centre and they kept giving me different numbers to call...it was really very very frustrating and disappointing. After a few hours of futile calls to Dell, I started searching for similar problems and possible solutions by fellow Dell users. Luckily I stumbled across your post.

I used your method of depowering the projector and resetting it to factory setting. And the project is again working beautifully. The images look as good as new.

So the problem was finally solved. I am really thankful to you to share this solution :emotion-51: :emotion-1:. I hope this keeps working. kind regards, Venky