Ok. Upon completing my projector, as some of you may remember, I found my ushio bulb to be faulty. It could not get passed the green phase, and I sent it back to be replaced. I then bought a temporary replacement bulb at home depot which worked fine.

However about a week ago, my sister said she couldn't turn on the projector. I went down the basement and noticed it wouldn't turn on. Then I noticed the extention cord was unplugged. Strange. I plugged it back in, but my bulb would not fire. That night I tried turning the bulb on for a few minutes trying to get it to fire. Eventually it started flashing occasionally but quicky went out. Then after an hour or so, bing! It turns on again. The next day it took longer then usual for the bulb to turn on, but it did. Gradually it went back to normal and fired up quickly.

Today, finnally, my recplacement ushio arrives. I put it in and fired it up. It seemed to work fine, except again I found I could look directly at it, however the projection was still brighter then my old bulb, so I'm clueless about that.

But anyway, I began trying to do some lens shift testing and was fiddling with the optics for a while. Then I took a break for a snack and turned the bulb off. When I came back, about 20 minutes later, I turned it back on again. It flashed for a second then went out and wouldn't go back on again.

Now I'm not panicking since kind of the same thing happend last week with the other bulb, I'm going to let it rest for a while and then try firing it up again.

I put a glove on and felt the bulb and after 20 minutes it still felt a little warm. Could I have wrecked my bulb by turning it on while it was still warm? It had been off at least 20 minutes and I would have thought it had cooled down by then.

Even if the bulb does go back on, I'm a little disturbed by how often I'm having bulb issues. Maybe there is something wrong with my ballast and the ushio's are more sensitive to imperfection, while the home depot bulb was able to handle it.

Ok well I just tested it again after letting it rest for a half hour and it still won't go on. BUT I tried my old bulb and that won't fire either. So either theres a loose connection or a problem with the ballast. Great.

Well seeing as how you've tried a few different bulbs it sounds like something is wrong with either your ballast, or your mogul base, that would be my best guess.

Or the wiring.

I have my ballast mounted upside down. Could this be a bad thing?

Also, is it necessary to connect your projector to a surge protector?

Lol. I've got the whole forum stumped. Everyones just staring at my thread not saying anything.

Bulb still isn't firing.

I don't want lumenlab to pay for something I broke. But determining what is going on and if its my fault or the equipment seems almost impossible.

And having problems with the bulb and the ballast seems kind of odd. Unless the old bulb wouldn't work becausse the ballast was imperfect.

I just don't know what to do now.

My e-ballast ran for 2 hours then completely died. If you've checked your wiring, and you've tried 2 different bulbs, there's not much left to blame it on but the ballast.

Maybe...but the bulbs have been working, sort of.

Well brain saw the thread. I'll wait to see what he says.

In the meantime I'll drown my sorrow in chocolate chip cookies.

If a MH lamp is shut down before it has reached its proper burning state, it can deposit residue on the electrodes making the lamp difficult to fire. If you shut it down before it reaches this state or if your ballast cannot bring the lamp up to full burn, it could be harmful to your lamp.

A ballast not being able to sufficiently light the lamp could be due to a faulty ballast or too much resistance in your wiring. I would suggest soldering (clean fresh wire) and then wirenutting (new word) the connections and making sure that the lamp and mogul contacts are clean and making good contact.

Well that wouldn't explain why both bulbs are still not working. Can restriking too early damage the ballast as well? Because if it can't, we know that wasn't the problem.

If the bulb turned on and immediatly turned of, I doubt its a wiring problem. The fan and lcd are both working fine. I rechecked the wire caps. Everything seems good.

Any other possibilities?

Resistance from wiring or mogul/base connection problems often can keep a lamp from firing, especially with the eballast.

Ok. But I don't see why they would suddenly become bad when I turned it on.

I'll check the screws holding the mogul in. Maybe they aren't tight enough and are sticking out or something. I'll also try screwing the bulb in nice and tight.

Well brain was nice enough to offer to check it out for me so I'm sending it out tommorow.

Get a coil ballast. Too many problems with the e-ballast. Too much uncertainty.

Seems every time there is a thread with the title,"bulb does not fire", the author is using an e-ballast. It is hard for me to believe that all of your problems with 3 (count them) MH bulbs are from faulty bulbs.

My advice is to get rid of the uncertainty and go with a proven and reliable coil ballast.

My lamp was flashing and wouldn't fire! Once I solder all the joints and tighten the bulb in the base, it works perfect now! No problems at all!! You might want to try doing what I did and see if that helps.

When i spoke with the guys at EYE lighting( Their plant is near my house and went to visit) they said that when the lamp fires unsucessfuly repeatedly the electrodes get covered with halides. This could lead to having long startup times. To clean them, as death said, you have to run the bulb to the proper temperature. If you turn it on, then shut it off, then on, then off and not allowing the bulb to reach temperature then you would eventually have issues igniting the bulb. When i turn the lamp on now, I leave it run for an hour if not longer.

The very first time i fired my lamp, i let it run for 12 hours before shutting it off. Have had 0 issues starting my projector up going on 10 months with my current blub and electronic ballast....