switched receptacles

I have a receptical in the bedroom that is switched on/off by a wall switch. The other day, my wife was using her hair dryer in that receptical and it just died. I've checked the circuit breakers and they are fine. Now nothing works in that receptical. I know very little about wiring but I decided to take a look at the receptical itself. There is one red wire and one white wire. I figured that this was simple enough. I turned off the circuit breaker and put in another receptical - red wire and white wire. I turned the circuit breaker back on. Although my little tester shows power, the receptical still does not work any that is plugged into it.
Do I need a special type of receptical? I just used one that I found in my junk box. It looks brand new so I don't think that its the receptical itself. By the way, this is a non-grounded, two pronged receptical.
Thanks for any help you can give-
Gordon

 

Go to your garage. There, behind that cabinet where you store the paint, you will find a receptacle with "T" and "R" buttons on it. Push the "R" button.

 

I don't think this one is that simple, he said his tester shows power. What kind of tester is this and how are you testing it. Hot to white or hot to bare?

 

Yes, I believe that you are correct bwetzel. And you have asked the right questions. If the tester shows power between hot and ground but not between hot and neutral, then there is an open neutral somewhere. If ghandler confirms this, we can suggest ways to find it.

 

There are only two wires, red and white. I used a meter on the two wires and it showed power. I also have a cheap gadget that is two wires with a small bulb at the end. It lit the bulb as well. After I hook the wires up to the receptical, and try the meter on the two screws, it shows power. But it doesn't work when I plug in a lamp.
I'm going to try a new receptical from HD.

 

I hope you tried the lamp in another outlet first to confirm the lamp is not the problem.

 

Thanks for all your great suggestions. Turned out that the on/off switch blew when she used the hairdryer. It was one of those lighted switches with some type of power limit. Just replaced the switch and the lights work again.

By the way, I'm still looking for that receptical in the garage with a "T" and an "R" on it.

 

The recepticle that JN mentioned is a GFCI recepticle in your garage that protects all receps in garage as well as bathroom receps. On it, there are two buttons, 'T' for Test and 'R' for Reset.
If there's a ground fault and your recep trips, all downstream receps are DEAD. Then, you need to push 'R' button to re-energize that circuit. This is what JN meant.

Since you have 2-wire system with no grounds, I do not think you have any GFCI in your house. How old is your house??