Aaron Fude wrote:
Hi,

One of the circuit in my house has all of a sudden died. It happened
when I was trying to plug in a (working) device in the outlet, and
something in the outlet popped with a bright spark. Now the circuit is
down, except when I use a voltage detector it beeps and when I use a
meter it shows a voltage of 3V. I don't think it's the circuit breaker
because I swapped it out and it didn't affect anything. What could
this be?

Many thanks in advance!

The outlet is likely fried.

I've experienced several of these. The outlets are connected via stab-in
connectors. The current draw is just too great for the minimal contact, the
socket heats up, partially melts, distorts, rusts, barnacles develop, and
god-knows-what, such that the next time you plug in an electric clock, the
whole thing goes BOOM!.

The fix is simple. Replace the outlet. Might as well get a good one and
don't use the stab-in connections.