My society "inherited a nice ACER PD525, Works fine as is, but 1) - WE HAVE NO MANUAL 2) THE MANUFACTURER/DISTRIBUTOR HAS NONE EITHER 3) IT WORKS IN REAR PROJECTION AND WE NEED FRONT-PROJ. Questions: a. where can I obtain a copy of the manual b. can I change it from rear to front projection? MacRadar

Guys, I need help with my projector. I have bought an ACER PD525, 13 months ago, and I have been very happy about it, so far. This unit rates at 2000:1 Contrast, 2600 lumens, XGA...very bright and silent. I have been watching movies with it in progressive scan 720p, my wife and I love it. Yesterday, we were getting ready to watch a movie, I switched the projector on, but the light would not turn on. The unit does, but no light. The lamp (bulb?) life is less than 600 hrs, Acer say this lamp would last between 2000 and 3000 hrs. A replacement is pricey, at $300, like probably most of you know. I have taken very good care of this projector, always allowing it to cool down after watching a movie. For 90% of its life, it's not been turned on for longer than the average 1:30-2:00 hrs than a regular dvd movie lasts. I find this weird, also because reading the manual it looks like I should have gotten some sort of message saying the life of the bulb was close to end, and I never saw any message of that sort on the screen. Also, on the manual, Acer say that when a bulb dies it does a poppin' sound...no such sound was heard ever. The last time the projector was used, the light did not show any sign of fading out, it was perfectly bright, as normal. Also, I have looked at the bulb and it seems ok to me, no sign of burns, no deformation, no cracking. I have used a multimeter to see if i could check its continuity, but the ohm-meter reads infinite resistance (I have no idea whether it's correct to check this lamps with a regular multimeter though). I have the feeling that the lamp may not be what has really failed. Any idea anybody? Have you ever seen a dead bulb, how does it look like? Please help me trouble-shoot this, I am trying to avoid spending $300 on a bulb if that does not fix the problem. It was a bulb used less than 600 hrs, can I have been so unlucky? If that is the case I'll change my name to Donald Duck. Thank you for reading this, Luigi.