What is wrong if two of my outlets stopped working in a room all at once, but the breaker did not trip and the other outlets are OK?
Though the other answers to this question already outline the important things to check, I’ve included a diagram below that shows how receptacles on a given circuit are connected to one another, in what is considered a parallel connection electrically, but a series connection from the perspective of the physical connections on each receptacle. This is because if any (hot and/or neutral) connection is opened at any point in the circuit, due to either a broken wire, loose lug/screw on a receptacle, and.or a wire-nut connection that’s come loose, etc., none of the downstream receptacles will operate. Each receptacle has a pair of termination points or lugs for each (hot/black and neutral/white) connection, which means the incoming hot conductor lands on one screw of the hot lug, and the outgoing hot conductor lands on the second lug screw adjacent to it; the same applies to the neutral lug.The other possibility is that you have a GFCI receptacle at the point in the circuit where you’re losing power. Like its conventional counterpart, GFCI receptacles are built with line-side and load-side lugs, but on a GFCI receptacle, the load-side hot lug is electrically separated from the line-side hot lug by the GFCI breaker (internal to the receptacle). This means that, if the GFCI breaker operates/trips, the loads served from that receptacle. and all of the receptacles fed from the load side lugs of the GFCI receptacle (and everything connected to those receptacles), will stop operating.The tripped GFCI receptacle is a possibility if some of the receptacles on the affected circuit are located near a sink or other wet area.Hope this helps.
Why would only 1 wall outlet be working in my room?
The other outlet(s) may be controlled by a “forgotten” light switch.We have a room that had a door jamb and door installed after initial construction. The result closed off what had been a family room into a more private space. A wall switch is outside the room in the remaining hallway, easy to miss.More than once, I have seen shelves installed around light switches.A circuit breaker may have been tripped.The other outlets may be on an Ground Fault Interrupt circuit, and the test/reset button may be on the “test” setting, breaking the circuit.It should be rare, but, there could have been a break in the circuit, heading from one outlet to the next. This might be that the screw holding down a wire has become loose.If this is a rented space, an older home divided into multiple units, it may be that the electricity has been turned off for a vacant apartment next door, and your outlets were on their meter.
Ants are invading my room through the outlet!?!?
I saw it happen once before, and so I cleaned my room and have kept it that way for about a month now. Although it was so terrifying because they literally swarmed my windowsill, that I have not even dared to move my bed back near any of the walls. I spotted an ant or two near the plugin a few moments ago and unplugged my lamp to casually take a peek inside. I half joked to myself that I'd see a withering mass of black ants if I did that, and I didn't. So I put the plug back in and mere seconds later a whole swarm of ants crawled their way out of my outlet! As if I had disturbed their nest or something! So I vacuumed them up (again)! I'm only 17, and I have a cat who lives in my room so sprays won't help much since they would hurt my cat. What do I do to get rid of these ants?! Could I just keep my room clean like I have been and wait it out a few more months? Duck tape the one outlet (I worry if by doing so, they would come through one of my others)?! I am terrified of these swarms, it was so shocking last time, I need help!
Whats that smell coming out of my outlet??? help!!?
your outlets are on a ring main circulating around you kitchen. each outlet is attached from the same ring. current does not flow until some thing is turned on , and the current flows from the distribution box around the ring to the appliance. only the appliance in use draws current. so no appliance on means no current untila fault appears.. get the smelly outlet replaced asap before you find yourself at best in the dark or at worst homeless as electrical faults start fires. you can isolate the ring main from the distribution box by throwing the breaker. to know if you have done it correctly, plug a lamp into one of the outlets turn it on and switch the breakers off one by one until the lamp is off. now turn on all other breakers and check your fridge is still on. if not get an extension and plug in to the up stairs ring.
Whats wrong with my broadband internet??
When ever any one turns on or off the light of my beside’s room, automatically my internet line disconnected and send message :“Local area connection is unpluplugged”, again within 2/3 seconds it connected by it self….without turning on or off, some times, automatically it disconnected and shows message like this…again connected by itself. This problem us occurring for last 20 days, before 20 days every thing was okay…. it never disconnected automatically – whats wrong? Is it my modem or what?
What's wrong with my computer after it blew my house fuse twice?
I put everything together and plugged it into my rooms outlet and it blew the fuse. I figured it was the PSU needing more W's then what my rooms outlets could handle. So I tried it in a more powerful outlet in the kithen where the 1100Watt Microwave was. Unplugged the Mwave and tried it there but it blew the fuse again. I checked the wires to see if I misplugged anything by unplugging everything and plugging it back up again. Now when I plug it up it doesn't blow a fuse or come on.
My outlets in my room are not working!! Help please...?
checked the circuit breakers. if any of the toggles are in the middle position between OFF and ON, flip the switch to OFF then ON If this didnt fix the problem, you most likely have had a wire come off an outlet somewhere and every outlet after that point is now dead. (i have found that this is a common cause to this kind of problem) if it probably your safest bet to call a qualified electrician to come and look at the problem. its not something you should do if you are not comfortable working with electricity. i highly doubt that it would be a problem on a GFCI outlet (the ones with the test and reset buttons on them) because it is in you room, not an area that will be getting wet. i hope this helped
Why aren't my outlets in my room working even though the circuit breaker isn't tripped and the light still works?
Other answers to this question have already mentioned the possibility that your receptacles are fed from a different breaker in the panel, or from a GFCI receptacle that has tripped for some reason (nuisance tripping of GFCI receptacles is relatively common, it’s part of the price you pay for their increased sensitivity to current imbalance between the line and neutral conductors).What I didn’t see mentioned, and what could be the problem in your case, is that you have one receptacle with a GFCI, that is wired so that it is sub-feeding other receptacles in the room, which aren’t equipped with GFCI protection. This is because GFCI receptacles are often equipped with “line” and “load” side terminals, and offer an inexpensive way of getting GFCI protection on multiple receptacles, without paying the additional cost for multiple GFCI receptacles.If the above is the case, and the GFCI receptacle is tripped, all of the receptacles that are sub-fed from (connected to the load side of) that GFCI receptacle will also be de-energized.Also note that sometimes GFCI receptacles fail in an an open or tripped condition, and don’t reset when you press the reset button. If this is the case, you’ll have to replace the offending GFCI receptacle.A qualified electrician can easily troubleshoot this problem and replace the offending receptacle if needed.
What should you do when an electrical outlet is not working?
Electrical tests before calling an electrician - Usually when an outlet goes dead, the fix is something simple and you can save the cost of a service call by doing the work yourself. We’ll show you what’s involved in troubleshooting a dead outlet. This article covers how to start your search for the problem by checking in the most likely places. If that doesn’t work, we’ll show you where to look for loose connections that may be to blame, and how to fix them.Dead electrical outlet. - Because it can be hard to spot a tripped breaker it is best to turn off ALL the circuit breakers and then turn them back on.➳ Unscrew the bad fuse and replace it with the same amperage (amp) size; either 15 or 20 amp and the same style; either the wide Edison base plug fuse or the skinny base Type-S fuse. The wrong style/amperage of fuse can screw in but not make a connection!➳ Find all the GFI outlets in your house and press the “TEST” button to trip it off. You should hear a “Pop” sound when you trip the GFI off. Next, press the “RESET” button to turn it back on. Look for GFI outlets’s in; Bathrooms, basements, garages, laundry rooms, kitchens and outside.➳ Flip all nearby wall switches up, one at a time to see if your outlet comes on.➳ Remove the wire nuts (wire caps), twist the wires together tightly and then twist on a new wire nut.➳ Pull the wires out of the outlet’s “stab in” holes and wrap the wires around the terminal screws.Outlet Problems - When you are troubleshooting outlet problems you first want to make sure it is not something simple. Checking the circuit breaker or fuse is a good first try. A loose plug is another simple problem.Source: Troubleshooting Dead OutletsHow to fix a dead electrical outlet.General ElecticalTroubleshooting Outlet Problems
Why have random outlets throughout my house stopped working?
Those outlets might not be as random as you think.Outlets, lights, etc. are intentionally wired in a kind of meandering path so that all the devices on the same circuit are actually located in different places. Thus an outlet in the living room, and one in your bedroom, the guest room and the dining room may all be on the same circuit.Why?So that you don’t lose all service in a single area in case the entire circuit goes down. One outlet in the living room will be dead, but the others might be alive. It “looks” random, but really is by design.Based on your report, I suspect the entire circuit has been shut down. Go to the panel box and look for a breaker which has tripped. Reset it, then wait about a minute or 2. If it does not trip again, you’re probably good to go.But if it DOES trip again, then you need to put on your detective hat and figure out why. This can get complicated, so proceed methodically. Basically you want test each outlet with something plugged in to it, because the problem may be caused by a bad device. Unplug them all, then plug them in one at a time until you find the culprit that trips the breaker. Be sure that any switches which control an outlet are ON. Make sure you test using the exact same socket the device was plugged in to, because often only one socket is controlled by the wall switch. If that resolves the issue, you have one more step. Use anything with a motor (such as a fan) to determine if all sockets are working. Don’t use a light, because sometimes a bulb will burn out -you have no way of knowing. But a motor will always run if it gets power. If everything is working, you’re good. If not, you may have found a faulty outlet. Replace it.If none of that seems to tell you anything, then you may have a faulty switch or faulty breaker. If the breaker does not trip with all switches ON, then the breaker, or some problem with the wiring itself, is the problem. Call an electrician.Hope that helps.