On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:23:52 -0500, Sam Goldwasser
put finger to keyboard and composed:

This one was rather strange, at least to me.

One of two horizontally mounted spiral GE CFLs in a semi-enclosed fixture
simply winked out. It's one I had repaired cracked solder joints on a year
or so ago so I figured time to resolder if the transistors/MOSFETs weren't
toast.

Checked all common suspects for shorts/opens as well as the lamp for
good filaments, no problesm found.

Resoldered some questionable joints - no sign of life.

Then I noticed IT - a dimple near one end of the tube and a resistor
lead could be inserted straight into the inside. A pinpoint on the
inside surface of the glass must have gotten really hot.

How often do you see that?

A colleague claims that he witnessed a case where the neck of Philips
CRT was pinholed when his colleague removed the tuning capacitor in
the line stage. shrug

BTW, I've had a bad run with Edapt CFLs. Typical faults include dry
joints, O/C startup resistors, and O/C filaments. Strangely, in the
latter case the lamp flashes once when I touch it.

- Franc Zabkar
--
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