HVM1540DP1WW General Electric Microwave - Instructions

With many thanks to those who posted their experience and advice replacing the bulb, I was able to remove 5 of the 6 screws holding the underside panel and remove the socket which contained the broken off base of the bulb and extract it with needle-nose pliers. I had broken off the glass portion of the bulb trying to unscrew it due to the awkward contortion of my wrist-hand-fingers trying to grip the bulb inside the tight recess the bulb is mounted in. After concluding that I needed more information, I did a web search for 'Hotpoint RVM1435' and found helpful advice at partselect.com telling me to drop the bottom panel. Good call! Thanks everyone!

My son=law did repair because I am elderly and it was necesary to remove the bottom plate of the microwave which I was unable to do. The microwave was installed in 1987 and I believe this was the first time to replace the bulbs. When my son removed them the bulb was diintergrated. That's how old they were. Once he was able to remove the underneath plate the repair was easy except for removing the old bulbs. I think that I could have done it myself but he was available and I am sure it was done much better. All in all the parts)bulbs) were correct and everything is workiin fine. This is a good place to order replacement parts. In fact I am going to order a new charcoal filter. He took the label off the old one and I am ordering the replacement. After all 1987 may have been a good year, but time for a new one. Mary

Unscrewed the lens, it hinged down, then I could remove the frame. Pulled old bulb out and replaced with new one. Replaced broken glass in frame. Reset hinge into the holes and swung it up into place. Screwed it in.

Very easy!

Since the job required replacing both the bulbs and sockets the unit was dropped from the wall. Used a towel and plywood to protect the range under the unit. Then these steps: Unplugged the power cable and placed a support board under the unit while removing three bolts from overhead cabinet. Next, removed support board and with a helper rotated the unit down and lifted it out of the rear wall mounting panel. Then turned the unit upside down, removed the bottom plate and unplugged the feed wires and two wires to each of the sockets. Next the single screws holding the sockets were removed and the sockets extracted from the mounting shells and new units were installed. When remounting the unit it was necessary to start all three bolts from the upper cabinet just a few turns and then tighten the center bolt completely first.

removed the lens cover with one screw and replaced bulb

Install your item works well. Will use you for other items,

remove cover-unplug wires from secondary switch-remove switch-snap in new switch-plug in wires-replace cover-works great. very easy to do.

As suggested, I placed a towel over the stove. Only had 3 main screws to remove from bottom of microwave. Dropped the bottom and changed the sockets and light bulbs. After replacing the bottom tray, I put the new glass light lens in. The clips on glass holder bent back like a photo frame-really easy. Turned on the lights and was done.

Removed 5 phillip screws from bottom plate of microwave oven to lower the plate and gain access to the socket. Then, removed screw(s) attaching socket to the oven. Installed socket, and secured the bottom plate of the oven with screws removed previously.

damper plate was a snap-in part. rotated fan discharge to top of microwave. installed ducting to discharge food odors outside.

replace socket

Unplug appliance, Staring from the rear sides, remove the four side screws. Remove the left and right front screws and finally the front center screw. The bottom panel hinges down toward the rear . Unplug the input wires from the sockets . Unscrew the two retainer screws (one each) and pull the sockets out of the panel. Note that the retainer screws are shouldered. The shoulder fits through the elongated slot in the socket. Screw the bulb into the socket and insert through the mounting hole. Insert and tighten the mounting screws. Note that the sockets may appear to be a bit loose. That's OK because of the shouldered screw. Don't over tighten or you risk stripping the threads of the panel. Plug in the input sockets and install the panel screws in the reverse order of removal. Plug the appliance in and test the bulbs.

Opened the microwave oven door, unscrewed two screws which held the control panel on, then I removed two of the door switches (each had two screws), and then used the continuity tester to see which one was not operating. It turned out to be the secondary door switch, replaced it and to my amazement, the microwave worked. I have never repaired an appliance before but I didn't want to replace our over-the-stove built in microwave. It was the best day ever when it was working again! The hardest part was getting myself to try the repair.

Removed the microwave with the buit in housing from the cabinet. Removed microwave from built in housing. Removed outer cabinet giving access to remove control panel and smart board where switches are located. Removed control panel to get to smartboard. Removed smart board after disconnecting a few wires to allow easy removal. Individually removed and then tested each switch using multimeter. Found seondary Door Switch (bottom of smart board) operation to be intermittent (switch trip button extremely loose and rattle inside this particular switch) Ordered replacement part which came very quickly on standard shipping order. Put new switch on smart board and remounted, reinstalled control panel and reconnected various wire connectors previously disconnected. Then plugged in oven and tested for opertation - didn't work at all! But, after bleeding off capacior charge by removing connectors and discharging capacitor to ground, then reassembling control board and smart board into oven, then trying agian, it has worked perfectly ever since. Do not understand why capacitor disconnect/discharge was required but suspect this reset the control electronics. Easy fix and hope to get another 12 years out of this appliance which is used multiple times every day. Also have two other identical micorwave ovens, one is 20 years old, but these get used relatively infrequently.

Because the microwave is old and the bulbs, I believe, had never been changed I carefully tried to unscrew the bulb. However, when I went to unscrew the bulbs the end of the bulb broke off and remained in the socket. I used a few different tools then remembered that sometimes a raw potatoe can be used to unscrew the remainder of the bulb, but to no avail. Finally had to unscrew the whole underside of the microwave to remove the broken bulb. May I suggest that you have the socket face away from the wall to screw in the bulb instead of the socket pointing toward the wall. You need to know yoga just to manuver the bulb into the socket.