HQI lighting

I have a hamilton tech 2x250W HQI with 2 96W PC's.
It is only about 6 months old. I have just installed 2 250W xm bulbs. I noticed that one of them did not seem as bright as the other. More yellow. I had been running one hamilton and one osram.(hamilton sent me a replacement.) I had noticed a differance between the two bulbs, but thought that it was because of the differant types. When I opened up the canopy and pulled the one day old XM out I found that the ends had melted some. I then put the hamilton(that had been on the oppsite side when installed) in. At first it was a bright white, then it dropped back to a slight yellow tint.
I thought that it had started to melt also, so, I pulled it out, only to find it in perfect shape.
NOW MY QUESTIONS.
Do you think that I could have a week ballast? If so, I was thinking that it might be cheeper to buy a replacement rather than send it back to Ca. Have them fix it, and ship it back.(5 days one way on ups. could take up to 3 weeks, not counting the shipping charges for 45LBS.)Any ideas on a good source for the ballast?(tar type)
Could it be from a shortage of amperage? I have an older home and it only has 14/2 wiring. My tank is an electrical nightmare behind it. I figured out a way to split the load on to 2 differant breakers for safty.but I am still pulling a good amount of juice. I tried to run a heavy duty extinsion cord,just for the lights, I did not notice any improvement.(my breakers do not trip)
Is there such a thing as a power booster? Like you use for the speakers in your car sound system?
Is it a fire hazared to run th XM with the slightly melted ends? I don't think that they will replaces it because they will say that i installed it wrong.( I was very carefull when i put it in. I feel sure that it was in correctly.)
I am reluctant to use electronic ballasts. I tried one about 2 years ago from chanpion lighting and it interfered with my TV.(old MH set up) I also had a jbj pc fixture do the same thing.
Seems like it is alway one thing or the other that you end up dealing with?
Feal free to chime in. There is no such thing as too much information.