My LED Driver Got Hot and Shut Down: What Caused It
If an LED driver got hot and shut down, the shutdown itself is usually the healthy part of the story. Many supplies include thermal protection that cuts output at a set internal temperature, so the unit stopping is a response rather than a failure. What matters is why the temperature climbed, and five answers cover most of it: a supply sized under the load it feeds, a supply sized with no margin above it, a sealed or unventilated location, a hot space around it, and protection stepping in as designed.
Everything below assumes the unit has already tripped at least once. Readers still at the specification stage want how to size an LED power supply instead, or why LED drivers need headroom for the argument behind leaving margin.
Read the timing, because the timing names the cause
Write down the pattern before you order anything: how long it runs before dropping out, whether it returns on its own, and whether the interval repeats from a cold start.
A run that lasts an hour on a cool morning and twenty minutes on a hot afternoon says the room is part of the problem. One that drops out at the same point whatever the weather points at load or at the enclosure. A supply that never restarts until you cycle the power behaves differently from one that recovers by itself (verify whether your supply has thermal protection at all and how it is documented to recover).
Cut the power and let the unit cool before you handle it or open its cover. Hardwired supplies, junction boxes and any permanent connection are for a licensed electrician, done to the manufacturer's instructions, local code and the NEC where it governs.
