On 4/24/2011 11:06 AM, Bill wrote:
"Jo" wrote in message
...
The other night I went to turn on the lights at the light switch by my
front door and it made some noise and the lights wouldn't come on.
Some of the electrical outlets in the neigboring room wouldn't work
either. It tripped the circuit breaker so I reset it. I tried again to
turn the lights on at the switch and it tripped the circuit breaker
again. When it does this, the light switch makes a weird noise.

Does anyone know what might be wrong here? I know the wiring in the
house is piggybacked, if that makes a difference. And should there be
any problems using the electrical outlets that are somehow connected
to the light switch, as long as I leave the lights off? My TV is
plugged into one of those outlets, so I want to make sure it doesn't
get damaged somehow.


Could be the "straw...".

You can only use so much electricity per circuit, then the breaker will
trip. New TV's use a little more electricity than older TV's.

Try turning something off on that circuit and see if the light then works.

If that is the case, plug something from that circuit into another
circuit or have an electrician install a new outlet on a separate
circuit in that room for the TV. That will off-load the circuit...


I still think it is the switch, or maybe a fried light fixture, creating
a dead short. A breaker trip due to load wouldn't be 'instant' like OP
implied. Check the cheap and simple stuff first.

--
aem sends...