Hmm, since 200 and 250w HPS lamps have the same arc voltage but lower current, I wonder if the reduced current from the dying cap will drive either properly. Yeah, Aerovox caps should be pretty decent.

I haven't tried a 250W lamp. I don't own a 200W lamp but I have several 250W lamps and like three or four 400W HPS lamps. I'm gonna try the 250W lamp and see... The cap will be here Friday so I'll throw it in and see what this light is really made of! Hopefully the light works with the replacement cap. I'm 99% sure the cap is to blame but I've been told the cap could've failed as a result of the ballast having a fault, but odds of that are slim. The ballast is in great shape visibly with no signs of wear at all and these capacitors GE has been using the past several years are crapola anyway. The M-250R2s both are fine though.

Interestingly, the OVZ take a LOOONG time to do a hot restrike though. Not sure if its the lamp or the fixture's ignitor. It does a cold start just fine and warms up like normal and stuff but on a hot restrike the M-250R2s already restriked and warmed up fully and were running a good five minutes before the OVZ's lamp arc tube started snaking a blue color and began to flash. I had to leave for my evening classes last night before it actually restriked so I unplugged it. Weird...

These newer Sylvania lamps sometimes have issues though, so it might be the lamp. I know of a M-250R2 that was relamped 2 months ago (250W had its original GE lamp for like seven years and then it just died cold turkey and was dead for about a year and was relamped recently) and last week I noticed it was just warming up as I drove home from class at 10PM at night. I assume it was bouncing back from a cycle, meaning the lamp is ALREADY CYCLING! The other lights were fine so it wasn't a power dip and I doubt stray headlights hit it since the PC faces trees on the side of the road. I know of a 50W M-250R2 that was relamped and was cycling a couple months later. The new Sylvania HPS lamps are junk I guess... I wonder how the new GEs are. I know they were good before NGrid switched to Sylvania, though the GE MV lamps sucked.

OK the capacitor came early today and was put in this light and she shines brightly!

About this being quiet... With the new capacitor and this thing running at full power, the ballast is about as loud as my OVX's. When the bad cap was in this it was very quiet.