You probably have seen mention on the web or heard people talk about the color wheel in DLP™ projectors. If you have wondered what the color wheel is you can look at the pictures below. The color wheel is made up of several colored glass segments that are mounted to a small electric motor. The light from the lamp passes through the color wheel and then passes into the optics of the lens assembly. This colored light is what is used to create the image we see on our screens.

Here is an example of a good color wheel and a broken color wheel where a segment has broken off. If you need a replacement color wheel for your PE7700, the only place I have found them is on eBay™. I have seen them both new and used for $60-$80. I replaced mine with one described as "Slightly Used" and have had good luck with it thus far. If you find a source for new color wheels please email me with the details so I can post it here. david at functionalchaos dot net.

If you think your color wheel is broken or shattered, it is fairly easy to check. Just remove the lamp side cover and remove the lamp. You can see the color wheel through it's housing down behind the lamp area. Use the pictures below for refernce. Please note that only about 1/6th of the color wheel is visable through the housing. If only one or even a few segments broke off you may need to spin the color wheel to see the broken part. Please be mindful of what you use to spin the wheel as you don't want to break it in the process of checking it. You also don't want a bunch of finger grease on the glass. I could recomend a long q-tip™ or somthing else you think would be safe.

When you remove the lamp, you may notice a big crack in the glass covering the front of the bulb. This is caused by a piece of the color wheel slamming into this lamp glass when it broke off. You can use the pictures below for reference. Please note that this crack rarely results in a runined lamp. However, you will need to find a replacment peice of glass if you want to continue using the lamp. I always keep my replced lamps, so I had two laying around to swap the glass from. If you didn't keep yours you may be able to find someone with a bad lamp who will give it to you for shipping costs or purchase one on eBay™.

If you decide to take your projector apart to replace a broken color wheel, you will likely find pieces of the color wheen insdie the housing. Please be carful not to cut your self and also cleanup any mess the color wheel made for you. Here are some pcitures of what I am describing.