This question and answer page will help you to troubleshoot why there is no power going to outlets in one room or on one wall. Remember to always remove or disconnect power before troubleshooting electrical issues.
Question: The power outlets along one wall are no longer getting power to them. The outlets that stopped working are located in our kitchen. This problem is only happening on one wall not the complete room. The dining room and kitchen are side by side and separated by a wall with the outlets that are not working. The outlets on the dining room side wall are still working. So our issue is just one wall of outlets in our kitchen where we plug in all of our appliances is not working. We checked the breaker box in the garage and no circuit breakers have been tripped. There is no GFI reset button on the outlets to press. What can I do to troubleshoot and fix this?
Answer: The first thing to do is to unplug everything that is plugged into all the outlets that do not have power. Then reset the designated (and hopefully labeled) kitchen breaker in the breaker box by turning it off and then on again. Sometimes a breaker will look like it is not tripped but in reality it is. By turning it off and then back on, you are making sure that the breaker is on and supplying power to that region of your house. Check to see if you have power on that wall and if so then it was just a tripped breaker. If this did not solve your issue, see below for what to do next.
If the breaker is on and the outlets are still not getting power on that wall, be sure that even if one of them is a GFI that you press the reset button. If there is no GFI reset button, then your issue may be that one outlet is damaged or has a loose wire. This could be causing the other outlets to also have no power. In simple terms, the outlets that are not working may be daisy chained. Think of it like the old Christmas lights. When one went out, they all went out. Your outlets may also be wired this way. You must determine which outlet is the first in the row to not be working. Most likely that outlet will be the one that has a loose wire or has become defective or possibly burned.
Newer USA outlets have an easier way to install the wires. These outlets save time when installing an outlet but sometimes the wires can come loose. These type of outlets are called back stab or stab-in outlets. If you have these type of outlets then you can check to see if possibly a wire has popped out. Turn off the breaker to the outlet before doing any type of electrical troubleshooting. Remove the 1 screw holding the wall plate on. Remove the 2 screws that hold the outlet in place. Pull out the outlet carefully and check to see if all wires are connected. If you find that the outlet has a loose wire, you can either push the wire back into the connector it came loose from or wire it to the screw connector so it does not pop out again.
If you did find an outlet that had a wire come loose and you fixed it, reinstall the outlet and turn the breaker back on. Get a night light or something simple and plug it in and be sure it lights up. If so then check the rest of the outlets and they should all now be working properly. If you encounter a burned outlet, then it will need to be replaced. Remember to always turn off power before doing any electrical work.
Is your outlet not working? How to reset your GFCI outlets and circuit breaker
If none of the above has resolved your power outlet issue, then it may be best to call a professional electrician to be safe. You may have a bad breaker in the breaker box itself or another possibly dangerous wiring issue that should be handled by a professional.
If you know of another safe and easy way to troubleshoot and fix an electrical outlet problem, please leave a comment below to assist our other readers.
We plugged something in and it shot out power on one side of the house except the outlet it was plugged in at? What do I do
Ray,
You may have a GFCI outlet that has tripped. Are you replacing all outlets with GFCI? Check all outlets to be sure one has not tripped and reset it if it has.
If one trips, the rest of the outlets may not work depending on how the outlets are wired.
-RR
I’m changing all the outlets and switches inside my house I haven’t got to the master bedroom or bathroom but after doing the living room all the plugs on the outer wall am the switch in the master bathroom do not work but the outlet next to the switch in the master bathroom works. ??
Sprayed a GFI with water tripping it. Resetting gfi didn’t work, and no other GFI outlets on the circuit. All other outlets on circuit are also down. I replaced the GFI with a new GFI, I also replaced the breaker box in the power panel to be safe. (This house has only one power panel.) Still no power. I checked every single outlet on the circuit, and none have power, nor do the wires leading to each outlet. The wires going to the new breaker in the power box do have power. Any ideas?
Today, I tried to turn on an A/C window unit I have plugged in to an outlet in the living room. I heard the plug pop of the A/C unit which has a builtin breaker in the plug. The A/C unit was installed in the living room window back in February and had been working just fine until today. Now the outlet has no power. I unplugged the A/C unit and relocated the plug to another outlet on a different circuit just 8 feet away from the original outlet. I replaced the non-powered original outlet with a new one thinking maybe it got damaged but still no power to the outlet. I checked the breaker but did not find any breaker tripped so I switched off and on all breakers in case any were stuck. Still nothing. So could this be a short or a bad breaker? I turned the circuit off by switching the breaker to off position and have nothing plugged in the circuit. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
I tried to replace a two prong outlet with a three prong outlet, now I do have some electrical knowledge, but this has me stumped.
Shut off power, replace outlet, Since the house was built in 65, ground wires were not on outlets, added ground wire. circuit powers walls three rooms, after replacing outlet and turning circuit back on, last room in circuit had no power. Now in the instructions for the new outlet it says to break off fin for separate feed, done, hooked up wires, no power in 3rd room. broke off other fin, disconnected ground wire, still no power, had to put old outlet back on, yea, power to third room. Any suggestions.
I have one outlet in a room that is not getting power to it, all other outlets work in the room and a light near this outlet works. So, I know this one outlet is not in that circuit. I need to know how do I find out what circuit it’s on. No breakers are tripped and I tested each wire in breaker box ,all tight and hot. I’m stumped on this one.
Thanks. GCFI reset upstream fixed my problem and save me an electricians bill!
I am teying to fix an electrical issue in my bosses house. He has a bedroom where none of the outlets were working.
I got power to the first outlet below the switch.
When I put my test light between 2 ends of the hot wire.. It lit up. I didnt connect it because that shouldnt happen.
Could it be that the next outlet is wired incorrectly?
The lamp in bedroom 1 went out therefore causing a chain reaction, now the outlets the bathroom and master bedroom are not working. We tested to see if any power was coming from the outlet that went out and it doesn’t, bought a new breaker still no power. What should I do next?????
Thanks for the tips. Had three plugs not working, turned out to be GFI reset.
Article helps , bedroom and the room adjacent and then downstairs, ( 3 rooms) all have no power on the outlets , circuit breaker doesnt show anything tripped, I reset all, nothing happened. Also no rooms labeled on breaker besides a.c and basement..so I can’t test the outlets myself..how do I no what switch to flip to turn off if not labeled. I probably need electrician dont I. Don’t want to electrocute myself, perhaps I can unscrew outlet cover and see if any wires are loose.. there probably daisy chained..
Just as you said, wires loos on a back-stab outlet. Your troubleshooting technique worked perfectly. Saved me loads!
Shut off breaker to part of kitchen to replace vent hood. Turned breaker on,, frig came back on, but none of the other 4 outlets or the vent hood which is hard wired. So, we figure if they are daisy chained, the next one in line may be the one that is loose? From what we are reading here, may be we pulled a wire loose. House is old, but was rewired. In the time we have lived here, we have found some interesting things.
Thank you, Turning the breaker off and on with where it worked for me
I have power literally every where in my house but my 3 bed rooms….I check the fuse box nothing trip… My Ac burnt my outlet but I can’t seem to solve the problem
Thanks. An outlet in my kitchen was dead. It had no reset button. Turning the breaker off and on did not fix it. This article helped me because when I checked other outlets on the same wall, one of them was also dead and it did have a reset button. Pressing it solved the problem.
My bedroom has 2 out of 5 outlet that work.
The switch that controls the lamp does not work and the bathroom is out too.
I replaced all outlets, switches and circuit breaker.
Still no electric.
I thinking now to replace the wires.
Please help me what shall I do to find the problem.
I will test the circuits today with an Electrical receptacle wall plug AC outlet ground test.
If this help I will proceed with this finding.
Kari Madara,
You most likely have one outlet that is faulty or it is disconnected.
Yes, flip the breaker to the complete room.
MAKE SURE THE POWER IS COMPLETELY TURNED OFF.
Then use a meter to be sure the power is off on the outlet you are going to remove.
Remove the outlet cover, then remove 1 or 2 screws that hold the actual outlet to the wall, there will be wires inserted into the back of the outlet, be sure they are connected, one may be loose or disconnected. If so reconnect and reinstall. Turn breaker back on and test.
If not, the outlet may be faulty and you can simply replace it by seeing how the old wires go into the faulty outlet. Do one wire at a time and wear gloves and use a screwdriver with a rubber handle to be extra safe.
Let us know how it goes. Please be safe.
-RR
In my son’s room there are two outlets on opposite walls.
One is working and the other one on the other side of the room is not.
When I go to take the outlet out all I need to do is turn the breaker off?
Will that remove the power on the outlet so that I can look at it?
I do not want to be electrocuted.
So I found your comment very useful. I chose a slightly safer approach. After I found out which outlets were dead. I checked the connectors on close by outlets that still have electricity, I turned the power off when working on the outlets
I had one of this switched in my garage to all the outlet in there and outside. It’s tripped before and I’ve always reset it. But this time it kept re-tripping every time I reset it. Then after listening to your video I heard about water on the plug could make it trip. Which made me think that my outside plug has an extension cord hooked up to my outside cats heating pad and it’s been raining. So I wonder if water dripped on the cord female end of the plug and cause the short. I unplugged it and reset it. Behold no trip, so far.
I had no power to six outlets. Tried all circuit breakers, they were ok. Tried to reset GFCI. Still no power. Back tracked to a working outlet close or next to the first non working outlet. It was in my case behind the fridge. Pulled the fridge out. Carefully took the cover off and gently twisted the outlet. Granted power was still on, so be careful. Checked the non working outlet and we had power. We then turned off power to the kitchen outlets. So you do have to know which circuit breaker cuts off power. We then tightened all connections on the fridge outlet and a couple of the non working outlets. Turned circuit breaker back on and we had power to all the outlets. It was just loose connections all along. I guess after 20 yrs things got loose.
Shirley Mahon,
You may have bad wiring or a bad outlet. Further troubleshooting is needed.
-RR
There is no power in one room of the house even the main light don’t work, we put a meter on it it reads .10 so we changed the circuit breaker and changed it to a new one and no luck.
I like how you said, “The first thing to do is to unplug everything…”. Whenever I work on my wiring I shut the power off. I find that this keeps me safe from being electrified. Also, I wear thick leather gloves for added protection.
I didn’t know that turning off and on the breaker resets it. Must be a built in feature for all systems. This would really make things simple if you need to reset it. I will have to try this with mine later today.
The information about how to fix an outlet that had a loose wire will help me out a lot. I suspect that may be the problem with the outlet that isn’t working in my living room. It seems like I should try fixing the loose wire, then try reinstalling the outlet if that doesn’t work.