outlet not working

Our house was built in 1977. In the last year our bathroom outlet just stopped working. Recently, I replaced it with a GFCI but it still doesn't work. I think the house was wired to have some sort of internal GFCI between the two bathrooms because on the electrical box, it is labled GFCI and has a test switch. I'm not totally sure the bathroom in question was linked to it. The other bathroom had two outlets each having three cables for a total of three black and three white wires in addition to the ground in each box. I put GFCIs in there and they work fine. Am I in over my head and is it time to call an electrician?

 

Are there any other outlets that do not work?(outside or in the kitchen,garage etc.) Check the GFCI breaker is it working properly/ Pust the test button does it trip and reset properly? what devices does tripping the GFCI breaker affect? Post the answers and we should be able to go from there.

 

Handy Mom if this is a gfci breaker in the panelbox I would turn it off and see what it deenergizes. If it deenergizes any Gfci's that you installed then they werent needed since the gfci breaker protects the entire branch circuit it serves.....RL

 

Whether you can investigate and fix this without an electrician of course depends on your level of experience. If the outlet was not working before you converted it to a GFCI outlet then most likely the power was not getting to the outlet. First verify that no power is reaching the outlet by using removing the wires from the receptacle (with the breaker turned off of course) and then using a multimeter to check voltage. If no voltage is present but all the other outlets in the house work fine, this means that the connection feeding this outlet may have come lose. Most likely the outlet will be receiving power from another receptacle between the breaker box and the outlet. I would suggest that you remove all receptacles and inspect for loose or disconnected wires.

On a general note, if a circuit has a GFCI breaker in the breaker box, there is no need to added further GFCI sockets on this circuit – the breaker in the breaker box should protect the circuit from ground faults.