I know we've dealt with this issue before, so please bear with me if I'm repetitive. Last night a 50 amp tripped. 99% sure it was overloaded (dryer & a/c.) Now it will not reset, even after a long "cooling" period. It has happened before and I have replaced many receptacles and most switches just because they needed to be replaced. This house is extremely old and the service panel looks pretty old. It has no "main" throw at the top like most panels. The 50 amp is listed as 1 of 3 breakers called "Main Disconnects" (stop laughing) and controls several breakers beneath it in the panel. My question is this: If i shut down each of the breakers that this 50 amp controls, shouldn't that mean that the only thing that would cause it to trip (instantaneously btw) would be either a bad breaker or one appliance or outlet (i'm thinking the dryer's 220) was inexplicably wired directly to the 50 breaker and is shorting. All of the other breakers under the 50 are off. If the breaker is bad it looks like I have to call someone, which will lead to an enormous expense, as the service panel will have to be moved as well as the utility's service, as they are both installed in locations they are no longer supposed to be. Panel in a closet, service in an enclosed 3 season room. (really, stop laughing) The house is a teardown in 1 more year, i hate continually investing in it. Thanks so much.

Lightning struck a tree in my front yard last night (so glad I was not home!). When I got home, the first thing I found was that my garage door opener would not work. At that point, my neighbor came over and told me about the tree. So...I proceeded to do some checking in the house. Here is what I have found, so far. 1) the garage door opener plugs into a ceiling outlet, but there is a garage ceiling light that is working fine. Also, there is a GFI outlet out there as well, and I htought that might be the problem. I can't get it to "pop" with a reset, BUT, that outlet does appear to be working - I plugged in a batter charger unit and the light came on. So, it is likely that the opener unit got "fried"? 2) I have an old range/oven. The [U]burners[/U] work, the [U]broiler[/U] works, and the oven light comes on when I turn the oven on, but the oven [I]element[/I] does not come on. Is it possible for just [I]one[/I] element to go out? 3) The toaster oven appears to work when I turn it on - the light comes on - but there is no heat, so that element too, appears to be "toast" (hey I still have a sense of humor at least!). Does it make sense for the power on lights to work and the heating element not to work, on such a small item?? 4) I've not finished testing my TV/stereo equipment yet, but there is definitely a problem. I think it may be just the receiver that got wacked, but I can't tell just yet. All the video seems to work fine, but there is no audio. Oh, also the VCR got fried - it was flashing a strange error light and I had to uplug it to get it to turn off (hardly used, so not much of a loss I guess). My computer was fine...but I use a UPS for that purpose. No internet, but I think that is the provider....at least I hope. So, in addition to the questions above (not sure if anyone here can answer them ) what is the next step that I should take? Should I have an electrician come out and check this stuff? I am completely clueless where electrical stuff is concerned. :( Thanks for any advice!