wonky light

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topher5150

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We have a 48" florescent light fixture in the bedroom, and just recently the bulb died. So I bought a replacement, and now when I turn it on it either takes a couple of seconds, or I have to tap the bulb at the end to get it to come on. It worked fine before with the old bulb.
 
Can you take a picture of the fixture. Then remove the bulb and take a close up picture so we can see what type of connectors it has etc. Also approximately how old is the fixture. Do you know if it has a ballast.
 
Many times when a bulb is beginning to fail, the ballast works harder to try to keep that failing bulb lit. When the bulb fails completely, many times, so does the ballast. I always suggest to change a ballast fired bulb as soon as it shows signs of failing.
 
This might not be the case for you though, maybe the bulb died because of a bad socket, loose connection, or you put a replacement in not compatible with that fixture.
 
It's the same bulb that I took out.
Not sure about anything with the fixture, it came with the house.
I tried rotating it in the socket but I couldn't get it to stay in that spot for more than a split second
 
It's the same bulb that I took out.
Not sure about anything with the fixture, it came with the house.

I would assume that since it is in the bedroom there is a drop-ceiling. Anyway, pictures please.

Also I would think that there are tomb-stone ends (two pin twist or single pin push-just to show you what a tomb-stone is) to seat the bulbs into. Possible that the tomb-stone end/s may be mis-aligned and not making good contact with the bulb pin/s. Some bulbs have single and some have two pins. Double pin twist in and single the tomb-stones have a spring where you push the end of the bulb into the tomb-stone connector.

I tried rotating it in the socket but I couldn't get it to stay in that spot for more than a split second

What you describe here leads me to believe it is the twist kind. You must make sure that the pins are inserted/aligned properly and then twist the bulb into the tomb-stone evenly on both ends. If while you are rotating the bulb in the tomb-stone it sounds as though the tomb-stone may be either mis-aligned (they do have some give to them) or the tomb-stone may have to be replaced because the connectors are not making good contact with the pins; over time they tend to loosen up. The ones I show above don't necessarily fit your fixture; was just trying to show you what tomb-stones are.
 

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