Have you ever been watching your DLP TV and see this message come accros the screen?

“TV will shut down in a few seconds. Please check if the air flow is blocked ”

Not only is this a scary thing to see your TV say, but it can be confusing and sometimes hard to determine why this is happening.

The reason you are getting this notice is because for some reason the lamp is getting too hot. This can cause  a lot of damage if the TV does not shut down and will lead to early and costly replacemnt of your lamp.

If you ever see this message the first thing to do is make sure something has not been placed in front of the air vents on your TV.
On a Mitsubishi DLP TV the vents are on the lower left side of the TV. It basically  looks like a  screen on the side of your TV. Other models may have the air vents elsewhere.
Make sure there is nothing blocking that area. If something is remove it and see if you see thiscome up again.

If nothing is, then you may have a problem with dust build up on either the lamp cartridge or the air intake vents.

Here is what you do.

First turn off the TV and wait about 10 to 15 minutes for everything to cool down.
Then remove the lamp cartridge from the TV. Depending on your make and model there are a few different ways to do this. You will need to read your owners manual on how this is done.

Once you have the lamp catridge removed  use a soft dry brush or vacuum cleaner to remove any dust that may be present on the mesh filter. Do not use liquids! I personally prefer the use of a good Shop Vac to blow out any dust.

 Also you do not want to  touch any of the glass parts of the lamp.

After you clean your lamp take your trusty Shop vac and vacuum and then blow out  the vent sreen area of your TV.

After this you can reinstall the lamp cartridge and you should be all set. Depending on where yuo live and how dusty it is you may have to do this a couple of times a year.