Everytime I use my microwave the lights go out and I have to reset one of the breakers in the box. Can someone tell me if this is a problem with the microwave or a problem with the breaker panel or a problem with the wiring in my house? If it's as simple as replacing the microwave then I'd rather do that than spending a lot of money on an electrician. I'd like to have some idea as to what I'm dealing with so if I do have to call an electrician I won't be given false or inaccurate information. Thanks Mink

Been in this house +20 years and bedroom ceiling light never worked from day one. Changed bulbs, no help, but wife did not like it anyway because we had a floor lamp. Now, thinking about moving, it's time to fix that light. New wall switch, no help. Bought a new ceiling fixture. Turned breaker off, switch off, removed old fixture and cut the two old insulated wires, no color code, no ground. [110 year old house] Turned breaker ON, but silly me, left the wall switch OFF. Using a blinking squealer, the wire on the left squealed. Nothing on the right wire. Looking back, I suspect this was my mistake. I should have turned the wall switch on and tested. That should have shown me the hot wire. Perhaps by mistake, I assumed the left wire was hot, and connected the two black wires from the new fixture to the left ceiling light, white wires to the right ceiling wire, and did nothing with the fixture ground wire. Still not working. I figure I connected the wires backwards. Questions: 1-if I hooked them backwards, shouldn't the lights still work? [although unsafely] 2-if the connections were backwards, why wouldn't it pop the CB? 3-does my theory above make sense, that I connected them wrong? 4-perhaps the biggest Q: if there is no ground wire from the metal ceiling box, how do I test to find the hot wire? If I use a VOM, it will show 115 mystery wire to mystery wire. How can I tell which is hot? 5--Even in this old house, do you think the metal ceiling box is grounded through a conduit? Everything in this old house is tube and tie. The only ground wires are those I have added when installing AC, outside flood lights, etc. many thanks