I'm new here but can use the gardening portion of this site.

Anyway, I got a two-headed halogen lamp that the bulbs were dead so I went to the box store, took the burnt bulbs, and got 2 more. (The new ones were broken trying to get them in so I have to go back. aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh). I managed to get one plugged in the lamp and the bulb lit up even though the dimmer dial was in the off position, the lamp was merely plugged in. I double checked that the lamp was indeed set to off but the bulb was obviously getting power. Question. Is this a sign that I got the wrong bulb (cause theres millions of them and the writing was gone on the old bulb so I had to hold it up to package. I got G8 but I also saw one like G8 - 6 or something)? Surely the dimmer isn't bad. I have 2 other halogen lamps that I've had 20 years no hiccups.

Anyone have advice. I'm thinking I'll go back and buy a few different kinds and see what works. No writing on the lamp body, but when I figure this out I'm writing what type of bulb with a nice big sharpie.