i managed to get my regent mv lamp to work again,for a short time but it still has problems opperating because of excess mercury condensing around and shorting out the starter electrode other problems include.

arc swirls around in the arctube at startup

lamp ocassionally emits a rattiling noise when at full brightness

lamp will ocassionally flash a bright pink color at full brightness

arc will split into two arcs

are any of these normal behavior fo the lamp?

also later i mis-wired the regent ballast causing the lamp to blow.

Blue is form109's
Black is mine

-arc swirls around in the arctube at startup.
This is normal during warm-up. At full intensity it steadies itself.

-lamp ocassionally emits a rattiling noise when at full brightness.
Could be the ring which when the lamp is cold is snug around the dimple that widened up when it got hot.

-lamp will ocassionally flash a bright pink color at full brightness.
I noticed that on my US sylvania lamp. Still couldn't figure out what causes this.

-arc will split into two arcs.
Noticed this as well one time and it never showed up again. (It was a 175w MV lamp on a 150w HPS ballast.)

-are any of these normal behavior fo the lamp?
A few might be. Some I am puzzled and scratching my head.

-also later i mis-wired the regent ballast causing the lamp to blow.
I am sorry for you loss of that lamp. You probably bypassed the ballast to the lamp. (Made as if you connected the lamp directly to the mains.) Do you have a pic of the lamp? Did the burner take out the outer like the MH lamps?

Last time i encountered a lamp that had this issue, i ran it upside down on HPS gear for an hour, worked fine afterwards.

-arc will split into two arcs.
Noticed this as well one time and it never showed up again. (It was a 175w MV lamp on a 150w HPS ballast.)

The explanation is not that difficult: Each current polarity chooses a bit different arc path. Not as uncommon, may cause fixture 50/60Hz flicker, when one of the "legs" become obscured by some part of either lamp or fixture component...