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electrical problems?

I have a two story house and am having electrical problems.

Some of the lights and outlets have stopped working. In one bathroom the lights do not work but the outlet does. In my daughter's room her over the ceiling light does not work but her closet light does. She also has an outlet not working. My son's room his light and closet light does not work. In the master bedroom 1 outlet does not work, my closet light and the ceiling light are not working but the master bath and outlets do work. We've checked the attic and all is okay there and the circuit breakers appear to be okay.

Any suggestions?????

4 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    First off make sure the circuit breakers aren't tripped; Sometimes they do not appear tripped, because of positioning. Take a closer look or to even be on the safe side flip all of the suspected circuits off and back on. Also, some rooms may have more than one circuit in them so somethings work and some may not. Next, make sure that none of your circuits are on a GFI, that may have tripped. These would be the electrical receptacles that have a "Test" and a "Reset" button. They're usually on a circuit that may get wet, like the kitchen, bathroom, garage or outside. If that all looks ok, get yourself an inductive voltage tester, you can buy them relatively cheap. Now you need to think like the electrician who wired your house, and try figure out what outlets or switches are on what circuit. With your voltage tester check the circuits for the loose connection. For instance, lets say the circuit was ran through 4 outlets on 4 different walls. Start with the south wall, then the east wall, then the north wall. If the south wall and the east wall test, show that there isn't any power, but the north wall does, and then you test the west wall and it also has power. Then the north wall probably is your bad connection, since it's still getting a hot wire, but because of the bad connection can relay it onto the other outlets. I'm a terrible at trying to explain things, so if you understand at least half of what I said, congratulations and good luck. Oh yeah after you've found the bad connection, flip the breaker for the circuit before you begin working on it, or at least make sure no ones standing behind you, because those elbows really jump back fast, when shocked and can give a nice fat lip to who ever's standing behind you.

  • 1 decade ago

    you have lost your neutral on the circuit somewhere. I would start with tracing the wiring to see if all the problems are on the same circuit, and trace them back to the last place on the circuit that is still working and work from there. Another thing is if you recently installed something like a new light or ceiling fan, you may want to see if the connections are still intact. If you have recently had an electrical item short circuit, that would also be a place to start. Remember to cut off any breakers before working on a circuit.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    If you know where it is, try resetting the circuit breaker. There should be one large and brightly colored switch, usually orange, larger than all the other switches in the breaker. If you reset that, it should sort it out. If that doesn't work, you need an electrician.

  • 1 decade ago

    call a electrician,check leads from pole to meter can connections,check main fuses, sounds like not making a good connection

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