On Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:54:26 -0500, mm
wrote:

On 9 Mar 2007 05:27:20 -0800, "T.J." wrote:

Hi
I have a problem that confuses me. I have 1 circuit going to a
junction box and in the junction box there is a line going down to 1
outlet which works fine, the there is another line coming from the
same junction box on the same circuit going down to another outlet.
The problem is the second outlet was working and somebody plugged
something in to the outlet and tripped the circuit breaker.

Did you see this happen? Not counting ground faults that cause a

I asked because if you had seen it happen you would have heard noises
or seen sparks and you might know that they came from the outlet, and
not from whatever was plugged in. If you saw spark or heard noises
from teh outlet and now it doesn't work, a good chance it's the outlet
that is bad.


breaker to trip, if a breaker trips it is because there is too much
current going through the wires. This can damage the outlet
(receptacle). This is especially true if the device is on, or the
short is present whether the device is on or off. So the receptacle
could be damaged inside. That is, there might be proper voltage
reaching the receptacle, but the prongs of plugs can't make good
contact with the slots inside the receptacle, the device still won't
work.

They then
reset the circuit breaker and now the second outlet will not work
however the first outlet does work fine. What could be causing this?
Thanks