Blade Mages

Seems to have been the ignition kill switch - at least I'm fairly sure. I used a little black foil to make a shim of sorts so that the kill switch would be depressed further and the light worked fine. Didn't have time on set to actually fix it but the short term solution help up for two days. Going to adjust the kill switch and hope that takes care of it. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

The light itself has a 18" or so cable coming from it. We just run that short cable directly into the ballast.

Now... I say this is a "strange issue" and maybe it is more common than I think but I'm hoping someone can help me out! I picked up a used Arri 1200 Compact HMI with a magnetic ballast on eBay a few weeks ago. Today, we were setting up for a shoot and realized a strange quirk with the light. Just for the record. The lamp is brand new. The 50' head cable is brand new. Fuses are good. Everything seemingly checks out. So, the problem: With the light attached to the head cable, it will not strike. The solution: Remove the head cable and attach the light directly to the ballast - turn it on. Voila! It works. We run the light for 2-3 seconds then power off, add the head cable, turn back on. Works fine - the light will run problem free for hours. Right now, we've just determined that the light has "character" and needs a little extra love to work properly. We we're just fortunate to come across this strange fix as we really needed the light for this shoot! Now, we're looking for a more elegant long-term fix. Any ideas as to what is causing this? Admittedly, I don't regularly work with HMIs - typically tungsten, kinos and LED. Any advice/help is greatly appreciated! Cheers!