Electrical Problem!!!

[o_vertical]

:P Ok, so I have this blacklight, and well I've had it for quite sometime now. (Probably 5 years+) and only had it turned on a short number of times, well its been through a good deal of moving around, new house, under the bed, in the closet, etc.

To get to the point, the thing didn't work when I plugged it in, and I could hear some broken plastic when I moved it around. So as usual when something doesn't work, I take it apart :P Well I found the broken plastic is what held the ballast in place, so no biggy there. But what else I found is what I believe to be the problem, and per the fact I don't know anything about electrical work, I tend not to connect wires when I don't know thier proper placement. Anyhow, theres 2 stray wires, one with a plastic cap (white-silver), and another (black-copper). I don't know if the white needs to be connected to the black or if the black needs to be connected elsewhere. The white would definatly not be connected elsewhere or it wouldn't have the cap on it. So either the black disconnected wire connects to the white with the white cap, or it connects to one of the prongs on the switch. Which I have never understood the concept of switches, so someone who does, tell me where the hell I need to connect this stray black wire! :P

Heres some images to (maybe) help you better understand, and perhaps enable you to offer a solution, or to a website that has a diagram detailing exactly where these wires need to be placed. The closest thing I could find thus far is here: http://home.howstuffworks.com/question337.htm (See diagram, it's exactly like the one (tiny scrap of paper under the ballast in the fixture) I have. But it's not detailed enough for me to make any reasonable assumption (It doesn't show wire connections, only theoretical connections)

Appreciate any help anyone can offer, these things only cost like $25 bucks, but I don't really wanna purchase another one, just wanted to screw around with this one if I can get it to work.

EDIT: Forgot the images you can view them here: www.hlevolve.com/electrical

These are probably the best images to view (then view the others, if needed) clear_closer.JPG clear_fullview.JPG (Names are incorrect, and are opposite of what they should be)

EDIT2: I just noticed most of the names for the images are screwed up. Just ignore the names and check out all of the images, if the two mentioned above don't provide enough detail.

[mervaka]

without having it here in front of me, its very hard to diagnose/fix :/

its one of those things. just make a diagram of everything that IS in place, and follow it up from there. the wiring isn't gonna deviate much at all from that diagram on howstuffworks

[o_vertical]

right, but the diagram on howstuffworks shows it like its simply one wire connecting everything, well everyone knows there is a nuetral, and a hot wire, and I have no idea how to do this with 2 wires, or what the ~ symbol means that is between the two non-connected wires. I'm assuming current, but even so, it still only shows in the diagram like it's one wire, when I have two, I have no clue how to do it... Thanks for the reply though

[mervaka]

the o~o thing is your AC supply, ie the plug.