Power Out In One Room But The Rest Of The House Has Electricity?

Question: Power outage in one room only! Right now I have no electricity in my small bedroom. Basically I lost electricity in one room. The rest of the house DOES have electricity. I had my computer plugged into the wall, it was sitting on my desk. It fell over and landed on the floor and the cord ripped from the wall. This resulted in a small spark and instantly all the power in my room went out. My TV, lights, ceiling fan, aquarium lights and pump won’t turn on. Can you tell me how this happened and how I can fix the electricity off in my room?

power out in one roomPower out in one room

Answer: When the computer fell off your desk, it caused a short either in the computer or in the wire which overloaded the outlet resulting in the breaker to your room to trip or move to the off position. A circuit breaker is used to prevent the wires inside your walls from getting hot in case of an overload on that circuit. Your house or apartment has many circuits in it that will be separated by room or appliance. Bigger appliances, such as washing machines, water heaters, and clothes dryers have their own circuit.

A circuit breaker is an ON/OFF Switch. It’s designed to automatically flip to the OFF position when an overload is detected. This is what happened to you when your computer fell off the desk and created an overload.

check breaker box for tripped breakerCheck breaker box for tripped breaker

Your computer is most likely damaged so leave it unplugged. To reset the electrical breaker and turn power back on to your room, find the electrical panel usually near the utility room or in the garage. Find the breaker that is for your room. It may be marked “bedroom”. If the breakers are not labeled, it should be obvious as the tripped breaker won’t be in line with the rest. When you find the correct breaker, flip it all the way to OFF and then flip it back to ON. You should hear a click meaning it went from off to on. Go into your room and see if that has brought power back to the outlets and lights. If so, then that was all it was, just a tripped breaker.

Even though your power in your room is back on, be sure the outlet that had the computer plugged into it is not damaged. If so call a professional to come and replace it. If the outlet looks undamaged, you can attempt (at your own risk) to plug the computer back in. If it trips the breaker again, you know that either the computer or the outlet is fried. Try plugging in something else into the outlet such as a lamp and see if it is working properly. If so, this tells you the outlet is okay but the computer is fried. If you have a bad outlet and you have electrical experience, a wall outlet with 2 USB ports is perfect for a replacement.

wall outlet with 2 USBWall outlet with 2 USB

Always use extreme caution when dealing with electrical outlets and breakers. Use common sense and if you do not know what to do, call a professional electrician.

4 thoughts on “Power Out In One Room But The Rest Of The House Has Electricity?”

  1. Elizabeth Woodford

    I have no electricity in my living room.
    Just replace all new breakers and still have no electricity.
    What could be the problem?

  2. Ken Coniglio Sr

    I have a downstairs bathroom with GFI I have no power to plug and no lights when I turn on light switch, my upper bathroom has the same problem, along with the upper bedrooms no lights when I turn on light switch but most plugs are working in each room on one side but nothing on the other walls. Can you give assist me in fixing my issue?

  3. One and a half of my bedrooms do not have electricity.
    The breaker was not tripped.
    What could the cause be?
    The fan light are all burn-up (bulb).

  4. One and a half of my bedrooms do not have electricity. The breaker was not tripped. What could the cause be?

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