Help!!! Horizontal Red Lines on screen

[Sarah Homer]

Small theater with only 4 screens. Three of our projectors (Christie 2210 with GDC SR-1000 server), periodically get horizontal red lines on the screen during playback. We resolve it by shutting down the projector, re-seating the LEQD board, and restarting. Occasionally we have to do this twice before it resolves. Our technician has said that it may be caused by climate changes, but our booth is cool and we haven't had any drastic weather changes when this happens. Could anyone tell me what might be happening?

[Steve Guttag]

Reseat the ICP board as well. Humidity changes on that card's edge connectors WILL cause issues.

[Leo Enticknap]

Worth giving the contacts the DeOxit treatment, too.

[John Eickhof]

you will experience more contact problems due to the inherent high humidity in FL , Do as Steve says as well as Leo, pull each board, wipe contacts, spray some de-oxit on connector and reseat them, in your area this should be done at least every 6 months or so. We don't have as many problems out here in the dry west!

[Rick Cohen]

When I reseat one board, I reseat them all, just to be safe. On my Barco projector, this includes the ICP, IMS, and CCB boards. Ditto on using DeOxit if you are having persistent problems.

[Leo Enticknap]

We don't have as many problems out here in the dry west!

Once you're 20-30 miles inland, agreed, but near the ocean, high ambient humidity is also a problem. I've recently had to replace a CCB on a projector that is only 14-15 months old about three miles from the Pacific coast bceause of oxidization on the contacts causing errors. When I worked at the Egyptian, a DP4K-30L was installed in 2015 or so, and a dehumidifier had to go in the booth along with it, because without it, the lasers kept shutting off spontaneously with excessive humidity errors. SP4Ks and NEC lasers I installed in the same neighborhood or close by after I went to MiT seem to be OK without them, though.

The only L-series projector I currently look after is in Vegas, where, needless to say, humidity is not an issue! In fact, the quart jugs I set in the pedestal for the condensation hoses coming out of the air dryers are always bone dry - not a drip in them - when I'm there for PM visits.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

If you are in a very humid area, then applying De-Oxit should really be done on brand new projectors IMHO. Doing so will help eliminate future problems related to edge connectors.

[Bruce Cloutier]

We're moving more and more temp/humidity sensors with JNIORs for monitoring I think for this very reason. The booth might be cool but you still might need to run dehumidifiers.

[Sarah Homer]

Thank you to all that responded. Really appreciate your help. Question on the DeOxit - cleaner or conditioner? Or both?

[Leo Enticknap]

When installing a brand new projector, I will clean the contacts of all the cards in the cage with an alcohol prep pad, then apply a coat of G100 to both sides of the contacts, leave it to cure for 30-60 minutes, then reseat the cards. For pre-existing projectors that I service, I will apply a coat of D5, leave it for 10-20 minutes, then the alcohol prep pad to wipe everything off, then G100, wait 30-60 minutes, then reseat.

[Marco Giustini]

Sometimes I wonder why projectors have all those issues with connectors while my computer CPU and RAM and cards never needed a re-seat over 10 years of use Are projectors running at so much higher frequencies than computers?

[Leo Enticknap]

I suspect that their card cages get significantly hotter, especially ones in close proximity to a xenon arc lamp and its power supply module.

Edit / afterthought: my wife's laptop (a Dell bought in 2017, but as it has a TPM 2.0 on it, it runs W11 without any problem, and so we have no plans to replace it) started throwing BSODs a couple of years ago. Gave it a strip down, clean (in particular, the CPU fan was caked in dust, cat hair, etc.), and reassemble, treating the RAM boards with DeOxit in the process, just like I would a Series 2 projector card. No trouble since. Whether it was carefully cleaning the fan and grilles or the DeOxit that did the trick I don't know, but I guess it could have been heat cycling and/or oxidization compromising the RAM board connections.

[Marco Giustini]

CPUs and GPUs run at stupid temperatures sometimes! But yes, I see a home environment more stable than a projection room.
Re-seating/cleaning does work for computers indeed. But just imagine if our computers required re-seating as cinema projectors do. There are millions of computers, there'd be queues of people outside of computer shops. In fact, there would be "ReseatYourCard.com" businesses

[Leo Enticknap]

I would speculate that a lot of PC and laptop owners simply trash these machines when they present a fault that could have been fixed by reseating the RAM boards and/or PCI cards. Unless there was a defect in assembly at the factory, such a fault is unlikely to appear before the computer is 4-5 years old, which many believe to be the useful life of a PC (and which with zero maintenance likely is).

[Bruce Cloutier]

Of course it is a different level of concern between a consumer PC and a commercial product upon which a revenue stream is dependent. Murphy's Laws in effect make the connections in the latter appear much less reliable.

Leo, those are very impressive procedures.