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If your dichroic reflector lamp, such as the EFP 12volt 100watt (known in the UK as A1/231) fails to work, don't throw it away immediately. Check the pins.

Over time, the small pins suffer from oxidation, this can be recognised by the pins being steely grey (or even black) in colour, this prevents the current of over 8 amps from flowing.

The answer is to clean off the pins and bring them back to their original shiny state. I gently scrape the pins with a scalpel or small hobby knife. I am told that your wife's emery nail board will also do the trick.

But from the start, it may be obvious why the lamp doesn't light such as the filament broken and loose within its envelope.

If you have a test meter with an ohm range you can check the continuity before you take the trouble to re-install the lamp.

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Maurice

Excellent advice! The emory board I have used many times to clean electrical contacts.

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The oxidation on EFP bulbs is common especially on NOS lamps because they were coated with a thin layer of silver. I cleaned the last one off with a pocketknife and works fine now. It was an older NOS lamp recieved with a projector I recently purchased as a replacement bulb. Even new when it was installed I got nothing at first, when I took it out and looked at the pins they were pretty much black. Scraped them off and reinstalled the lamp and it has worked perfect ever since. These lamps do die pretty dramatically though and usually you can tell it's burnt out because the last one I had blow turned the bulb itself completely white and even burned the reflector.

If the bulb's terminals are silver plated, I use a chemical called MS-70 Industrial Coin Brightener. It is made for cleaning silver coins. Just dip a cotton swab or a cloth or rag in the MS-70 and wipe it on the bulb terminals. Cleans the tarnish right off.