# honestly



## punktech (Nov 8, 2007)

What went wrong? this is what i was saying to tonight when our main projector wasn't working. here's the story, we came, things were unplugged (how, when everything was plugged last night and the booth and theater were locked all day and night, is a another story, one which i do not know the plot line of yet). we plugged them in, made sure we were in the correct input, and it still didn't work. everything from the projector down to the booth was on and connected, yet still no projector...i don't understand. my brain wants to explode...we ran the show with only half of our projections, but it went pretty well even with out them...but still, how did the cords to the monitor get unplugged? why didn't it work when we plugged everything back in and turned it on? the monitor on the main projection computer wasn't even working for some unknown reason...gah, 10 am work for me...so confused!


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## icewolf08 (Nov 8, 2007)

Thus proving that every theatre has a ghost, and they are not all benevolent.

If your monitor wasn't working, it is possible you have a problem with your graphics card. This could be a bummer, but you should test the projector with a different source to make sure that it is working correctly.


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## Drmafreek (Nov 8, 2007)

This is also probably a silly question, but did you get anything from the lamp. You said it didn't work, just wanted to make sure you were at least getting the generic screen projection from the projector when the projector isn't plugged in to a comp?

The reason I ask because I've done it before, didn't realize my lamp had blown. Talk about not paying attention to the small things.


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## punktech (Nov 8, 2007)

yeah we got blue screen from the projector, and we got the monitor up at one point too, so it is neither bad graphics card nor bad projector...hence my confusion. signal just isn't running some how, even though everything is connected and claims to be working...my theory: rats. some of the projector cable runs through the walls, and early this week we lost internet because rats chewed our network connection. this however would be VERY VERY VERY VERY bad as it is a major task to get into the wall (physical plant would have to come and rip down sheet rock)


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## Footer (Nov 8, 2007)

punktech said:


> yeah we got blue screen from the projector, and we got the monitor up at one point too, so it is neither bad graphics card nor bad projector...hence my confusion. signal just isn't running some how, even though everything is connected and claims to be working...my theory: rats. some of the projector cable runs through the walls, and early this week we lost internet because rats chewed our network connection. this however would be VERY VERY VERY VERY bad as it is a major task to get into the wall (physical plant would have to come and rip down sheet rock)



Depending on how the cable is pulled/secured it may be possible to pull a new one with the current cable being used as the pull line.


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## soundlight (Nov 8, 2007)

You should also pull a piece of parachute cord through the conduit and leave it in the conduit so that if this ever happens again, you have a good pull line available. Always leave pull lines in conduit that has signal cable that may need to be replaced in it. Makes life alot easier.


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## jonhirsh (Nov 9, 2007)

I find that most unexplained unplugging's are done by a trusted person trying to do good. 

If it isn't working it probably wasn't working before who ever unhooked everything did so, trying to fix the issue. 

As for the projector; what is the issue? Are you just not getting picture? Or does the projector not recognize any inputs?

Please give us more detail. 
JH


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## Van (Nov 9, 2007)

Oddly enough I had a projector problem today too. I got it mounted, powered up, ran the video cable down to the laptop, hit the button to activate the aux vid output on the laptop. Checked everything, desktop properties, activated second monitor. Nothing. LD was trying to write some looks so I walked off. Twenty minutes later they wanted to see a look with the projector on. I told them I wasn't sure I could get it running. Then something hit me. I grabbed the genie, rode up to the back of projector. I had plugged into the monitor output pass through instead of the video input. I moved the cable to the proper input, everything worked fine. I had been rushing around so much when I was setting everything up, I made a simple mistake. I hope yours is as simple to fix.


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## punktech (Nov 13, 2007)

apparently our projector guru here needed to borrow a cable for another projector and forgot to put it back before he left for the day. fun part, we called him when we were trying to get it to work and he didn't pick up his phone, any of his multiple phones when we called each, three times...the cable came off of the computer running the monitor/projector. we thought we were missing something when we were plugging all the stuff back in. so we don't have theatre gremlins, but i'm still keeping the ghost light on every time no one is there, just in case.


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## jonhirsh (Nov 13, 2007)

jonhirsh said:


> I find that most unexplained unplugging's are done by a trusted person trying to do good.



I guess i was pretty close then


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## punktech (Nov 14, 2007)

yeah jon, you definitely were. in fact, when i saw your post i was like "wow, that hits the nail on the head!"


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## kwotipka (Nov 14, 2007)

Van said:


> I had plugged into the monitor output pass through instead of the video input. I moved the cable to the proper input, everything worked fine. I had been rushing around so much when I was setting everything up, I made a simple mistake.



I have seen this happen so many times from newbies to seasoned pros. Also another thing is that the projector like any other data "monitor" uses what I believe is the I2C protocol to tell the source what kind of signal it wants to get. Occasionally for some reason this little nugget of info is lost. When the source powers up again, it gets no response from the monitor or projector so it does not think anything is connected. If this happens, power cycle the projector or monitor by turning the mains off or unplugging it. A cycle through standby will not fix the problem.

kw


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## harry1989 (Nov 16, 2007)

jonhirsh said:


> I find that most unexplained unplugging's are done by a trusted person trying to do good.



Thats happened for me (although not with projection...moreso with the lighting...and not really an unplugging). 

Re-recording scenes for musical during a break in rehearsal, leave for five minutes to get a snack before rehearsal starts up again...I tell everyone in the booth to NOT touch the board...come back just as rehearsal is restarting...go to fade up a cue...nothing...try it again...nothing...check the DMX Cable...is fine...mains are up... starting to become frantic due to director getting ****ty...then I notice the Fade In fader is set to 3 mins...fade it down, set cue going...turn to the newbie sitting right beside me with a guilty look on his face...


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