A lamp lighting device is arranged such that the optimum specifications of discharge lamps that may be mounted are integrated or entered in advance into a control circuit and the type of a discharge lamp mounted is manually or automatically presented to a microcomputer. This allows any of the discharge lamps to be driven under the optimum conditions at all times. As a result, lamp makers and lamp power can be selected relatively freely, making it possible to select discharge lamps by purpose. Furthermore, the cost, color, outgoing luminous flux and noise caused by a cooling fan can be set to user's better likings.