Hi everyone, I'm a new homeowner and long time DIY'er. I've got a good bit of experience with home electrical wiring which is why my current problem is driving me up a wall. Hopefully someone can help me with this problem and save what's left of my sanity. I'm installing a ceiling fan in my daughter's room where there was previously no ceiling light or fan. The room has a receptacle where the bottom half is always on and the top half is controlled by the light switch beside the bedroom door. The wiring is set up so power from the breaker box goes into the bottom of the junction box and connects to the bottom of the receptacle. The receptacle is a new, back wired, two plug grounded receptacle; your standard "power outlet." The top half of the receptacle has a 2-conductor cable connected to it that goes up the wall, through the attic and comes back down to the switch by the door. The "hot side connector plate" of the receptacle has been snipped so the switch controls the top plug of the receptacle. What I've done is, in the attic, broken the black wire in the 2-conductor cable and connected another 2-conductor cable run that leads to where the ceiling fan is at. I've connected the black wire in the new run to the black wire leading from the receptacle and the white wire from the new run to the black wire leading to the light switch. This places the ceiling fan in series with the light switch and the switch should now control both the fan and the top half of the receptacle. Unfortunately it doesnt. No matter what I do I cant get power to go to the ceiling fan. I've rewired the new 2-conductor cable run and the receptacle every way I can possibly think of. I've even gone so far as to remove the receptacle, use wire nuts to connect the wires in the junction box and then connected the new 2-conductor cable directly to the lead from the receptacle, basically wiring the fan directly into power. Nothing. I have a voltage detector ([url=http://www.lowes.com/pd_464286-295-40110N_0__?productId=50129720&Ntt=]Shop Southwire Analog Voltage Detector at Lowes.com[/url]) that absolutely screams when I check the cable run going to the fan but no matter what I do I cant get power to the fan itself. As a troubleshooting measure I've disconnected the fan from the new 2-conductor cable, connected a receptacle and then plugged a lamp in for testing and nothing happens. There's no power at the end of the cable run even though my detector says there is. My next step is to simply replace the new 2-conductor cable run that I've installed. Everything else in the circuit has been tested and is working as normal. The only thing I can think of is that the new cable I installed is bad somehow and needs to be replaced... If anyone can give me any thoughts about what might be going on I'd truly appreciate it.

I have a circuit that runs to 4 switches: 3 exterior lights and 1 foyer light. One of the exterior switches leads to 3 carriage lights. I previously had one of the Home Depot automatic switches in there but I decided to take it out and put back the original switch. Unfortunately, that switch now trips the breaker every time. The other 3 switches all work just fine. So I'm guessing the breaker is fine. There's been no nailing in the area that I think leads to the carriage lights. I am wondering if it is one of the carriage lights that is causing the problem and how I could pin this down. Previously, that automatic switch was working fine but I did notice something odd, the lights would be on at a low level if it the switch was supposed to be off. The lights I used were LEDs candelabra style. I just tried one of those in another carriage light (on another circuit) and they tripped the breaker after a few seconds -- very odd. Took out all the LEDs thinking it could solve the problem. Nope, switch still trips breaker with regular incandescents. I tried different switches, even a 20 amp one. I'm so confused...