Abstract: A cold cathode fluorescent lamp controller constituted of a pulse generator exhibiting a cycle period; a burst dimming control operative to set a burst dimming duty cycle for the pulse generator; a comparator arranged to receive a signal indicative of the value of current through a load driven by the pulse generator and compare the received signal to a reference signal; an error detection circuit operative to shut down the pulse generator responsive to an output of the comparator indicating that the received signal is less than the reference signal for a predetermined number of cycles of the pulse generator; and a disable circuit arranged to prevent, when the set burst dimming duty cycle is less than a predetermined value, the shut down of the pulse generator responsive to the output of the comparator indicating the received signal is less than the reference signal.