"hexHead®" wrote in message
...

I bought a Sony KDF42WE655 42" LCD back in 07/2005.
I've been told that life expectancy of the lamp was about 2 years.
Lately, it seems the set has been a little slow in powering up, and
the screen stays dim a little longer than it used to when doing so.
Anticipating that the lamp may be wearing out, I went ahead and
ordered a replacement lamp (XL-2100) from Crutchfield just last month.

Lo and behold, the lamp finally did fail last night - the
Power/Standby indicator would just flash, and eventually the Lamp
indicator came on. OK, no problem, I have a new lamp and a Service
manual.

But when I removed the front cover and removed the lamp cover, I
noticed the plastic surrounding the lamp was warped, obviously from
heat - almost as though it had started to melt.

I can only see one fan - directly behind the lamp holder, blowing out
the rear of the set - and it seems to be functioning normally,
slightly dusty but easily cleaned. The Service Manual indicated that
there may be as many as FOUR fans in this unit.

Should I be worried? How hard is it to disassemble this TV for a
closer look?

Is it plastic that gets replaced when the lamp is replaced? If so, don't
worry about it, the lamp runs hotter as it approaches end of life.