On Nov 17, 9:10 pm, "Reactor" bruce.gettel-at-myactv.net wrote:
Hi All,

I have a pre-lit, 12', 5-year oldChristmastreewith about 2500 lights.
Entire sections (levels of branches, if you will) will not light. You can
imagine what it's like to search and replace burnt bulbs.

The bulbs are of the "shunt type" of course, but still, no lights. I have
good line voltage at the end of the string, so I am pretty certain it's not
a broken wire.

The firstbulbin each section is a non-removable, non-shunt typebulb. The
directions say only that it is asafetybulband cannot be replaced. On at
least one string, thissafetybulbappears to be blown.

What gives here? I have shunt bulbs that are supposed to keep a blownbulb
from taking out the whole section, but yet they are all out. I have line
voltage all the way through the string, and yet no lights. And I have a
"safetybulb" that cannot be replaced, yet is blown.

What happens if I cut thesafetybulboff (it's molded into its socket) and
twist the three wires together. Whatsafetycan this be providing any way?
Any other ideas, aside from what we did last year - just throw a set of
lights on it, which defeats the purpose of paying the price for a pre-littree?

This is driving me and my wife insane.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Bruce, I solved the problem on my tree. The "safety bulbs" appear to
be a "safety" for the manufacturer so the strings will all go out
eventually and force you to buy another tree. They are simply bulbs
without a shunt. I was able to pull the non replaceble white bulb
bases out of the sockets with pliers and dental picks and I replaced
the bulbs with ones that had shunts using the same white bases, and
everything works fine. If you can't get the white bulb bases out, you
could just cut the socket out of the circuit and splice the wires
together. The only result will be slightly brighter lights since
you've removed a little resistance form the series circuit.

Merry Christmas! Dish