Any electricians here?

[SAWYER]

I have this outlet in my living room that will only work(well used to) when a switch is flipped by the front door. Now it has not been working at all, or example I will use my laptop. When I hook the power cord up the green power light n my charger will come on for just a second then go off. Any ideas?

 

[ConwayJim]

hmmm....i'd buy a new laptop, clearly it's broken

 

[DrawninwarD]

Plug in something else just to make sure.

 

[JohnCU]

get a voltmeter and see what its reading

 

[SAWYER]

I can use the same laptop charger on a different outlet just fine.

 

[mrrman]

could be a faulty breaker

 

[BillGates]

wiring is loose on the receptacle or switch - or at some other connection point along the way

 

[bobdole369]

loose wire, or loose receptacle. Both easy fixes.

Step one - turn off the breaker.

Step two - call an electrician

lolz - well the plug itself (the receptacle) is easy to replace. Any man can do it and doesn't need to be told how. Bonus points for not turning off the breaker. Extra credit if you live through it without dying. Supreme credit if you don't get shocked int he meantime.

 

[Perknose]

Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him?

While you're waiting, click on "Hear it Now", enable the pop-up, smoke something nice, turn up the volume, and listen.

And remember, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers! :laugh:

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Originally posted by: mrrman
could be a faulty breaker

no

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Originally posted by: BillGates
wiring is loose on the receptacle or switch - or at some other connection point along the way

probably yes

 

[Evadman]

stick a fork in it and let us know.

 

[finite automaton]

Not enough information. Do any other outlets work? Have you paid your electric bill?

 

[Modelworks]

A hammer, definitely requires the use of a hammer.

 

[Paperdoc]

At one time it was "fashionable" to set up outlets in a room that were controlled by a wall switch. That way you could plug table lamps into them and control them all with the wall switch. Roughly this corresponded with the move away from a central big light fixture in the ceiling. I have seen many places where the room was set up this way: on every 2-outlet receptacle, one (say, top one) was always on, and the other was controlled from the wall switch. So, the setup is not that rare.

So, why is it misbehaving now?
1. A loose connection that is intermittent. However, you say when you plug in the laptop charger, it ALWAYS lights up briefly then fails. Does not sound like an intermittent problem.
2. Loose connection that is constant, but high resistance. It can supply full voltage to a load only at start-up, but substantially limits the voltage and current as soon as the load pulls any significant power.
3. Here's my most likely one: the outlet is so old the metal prongs inside have lost their springiness. When you plug in the laptop power supply it makes a connection. But as soon as you let go it starts to sag down because the outlet's parts are not holding it in tightly. Very quickly it sags down enough to disconnect from the interior prongs. I fixed one of these for my mother-in-law.

To find and fix 1 or 2 you need to check out the entire circuit. Fixing 3 is easy - replace the outlet in the box. In either case you need to know how to work with household electrical circuits to avoid creating another problem and to avoid injuring yourself. If you're not good at this stuff, call a pro electrician. Especially the tracking down / diagnosing things involved in 1 or 2 may need an experienced pro.

 

[DrPizza]

I agree with Paperdoc. However, quickest solution, since you're probably heading to a store:
purchase all three: new switch, new outlet, electric tester to determine if a circuit is live. You can get a cheap tester. Total cost: $4. $6 if you have to purchase a cheap screwdriver, because you're going to purchase both, a flathead & a phillips (#2). Spend an hour online, learning about how to wire a house - especially "minor" things like connecting the "hot" (black) wire to the brass colored screw on the outlet (the side of the outlet that only accepts a narrow blade from a plug).

Then, turn the breaker off, remove the outlet and switch cover, double check that neither are live, and just replace both. And, make sure to check both plugs on the outlet! As mentioned above, it's possible to have one always on and the other switched. Normally, they'd still be on the same circuit, so when you turn the breaker off, both would be off, but it's possible that they're on two separate circuits. I recently ran into something similar. Some bastard who wired my house had two separate live circuits in the same box - and all the neutrals were wire-nutted together. Caught me off guard - the bright blue flash made me jump & created yet another paint-can opener out of my screwdriver. I'm, of course, often too lazy to pick up my tester. Ironically, sometimes it's a more convenient way of figuring out which breaker needed to be turned off.