outlets not working

Outlets in two bathrooms upstairs and outlets in the garage have stopped working. The GFI outlet in the garage stays tripped (when you push in the button it pops right back out). We tried replacing the GFI but it does the same thing. Any other ideas before calling an electrician?

 

Sounds like you have a real ground fault.

Make sure everything plugged into this circuit is unplugged, and all switches are off. Then see if you can reset the GFI.

If not, then take out all outlets and all switches on this circuit and look for things like a ground wire contacting a screw.

 

Expanding on John's excellent advice, if step A is successful and the GFCI resets OK, go back through and plug your stuff in and turn on your switches one-by-one until the circuit trips again. You will have found the culprit at that time. Good luck.

JH

 

After you have tried what the previous post suggested you might try the following; Another thing that was not metioned is that commonly found is moisture built up in an outside receptacle box. Your statements implied that the bathrooms and the garage were on the same GFI. This was common wiring practice in the 70' and early 80's. Also when you find bathrooms and garage on the same GFI they usually wired the outside receptacles on the same GFI. As time goes by the outside receptacle covers tend to deteriate allowing moisture to enter the box but won't let them dry out easily. The moisture can cause havoc with the GFI control.

Hope one of us hits your needs

Wg