A low cost method for operating a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp including a ballast circuit. The method includes generating DC in an AC-to-DC converter, capturing any AC ripple of the DC with a buffer capacitor to generate a control signal, generating a high frequency lamp power signal from DC utilizing an HF inverter circuit and modulating the high frequency power signal utilizing the control signal to generate a frequency swept lamp power signal to drive the lamp while avoiding acoustic resonance.