MH not turning on?

[Jack04]

Hey, I had bought two used 175 watt MH pendants and ballasts a while ago, they both worked and i only used one over a tank for about 5 months with a new XM 20K bulb.

So i shut my tanks down last spring do to money issues and now i am thinking about setting one back up and so i tested my light and when i pluged it in the ballast made the little electronic sound it usually makes and the bulb just flicked for a mili second then turned off, I let it sit for a few minutes, then when i unplugged it the bulb lit for another mili second defusing the power stored in the ballast.

after about 30 minutes of messin with it i decided to come and ask the experts.

I was wondering if i should try a new bulb, or should i turn it on and let it sit for a longer time to see if it fires up completely?

I dont think the ballasts are shot cause they worked fine not too long ago

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

swap bulbs, you have one known good ballast+bulb that you are using, so good bulb in ?ballast and ?bulb into good ballast should tell the story.

 

[bpd964]

Might be a grounding issue...

 

[Jack04]

the bulb was good when I stopped using it, and i've done every known combo, with my different ballasts, bulbs, and pendants.

I'm thinking i'm going to take appart the ballasts and look for corrosion and the connections