On 7/4/2010 8:55 PM Spork spake thus:

thank you everyone for the help. I will take your suggestions and look
into it.

One thing you can *very* easily do yourself that doesn't require an EE
degree or an electrician's license is to simply measure the line voltage
at your outlets. All you need is any multimeter, like the commonly
available DMMs (digital multimeters). Make sure it's set to a
high-enough AC voltage range (typically they have a 200 volt and a 750
volt range, so select the higher one), and push the tips of the probes
into the outlet. You should get somewhere pretty close to 120 volts.
Anything more than, say, 15% out of range is cause for concern and may
indicate that something is miswired. (If you have access to an "old
school" analog meter, that's even better, as the digital meters can be
susceptible to "phantom" readings.)


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)