Any electricians in the house???

[Rich Riesmeyer]

Ran into a problem today that had me tearing my hair out for hours. New to me house built in 76. I was working in the bathroom and the power went out, GFI plug and lights. Checked all the usual things, GFI wasn't tripped, neither was the breaker. Checked all the breakers at the box with a meter, they are all live. Later power came back on all by itself. Turns out the wife had plugged in a fan in the next bedroom. When she plugs it in the fan works, and the lights go out in the bathroom, unplug and the lights come back on. Anyone have any idea what to check to fix this, besides annoying its probably unsafe.....

[Dave Martel]

Figure it out yet?

Its most likely a loose connection in the outlet your plugging the fan into. Turn off the power at the panel and open up the outlet. I bet the wires are 'backstabbed', meaning they are pushed into the holes in the back of the outlet. One or more wires are most likely loose and will probably pull right out if it didn't already when you pulled the outlet out. Buy a new outlet and use the screw terminals, whites to silver color screws, blacks to brass color screws, ground to green.