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digitalfunk · Sep 25, 2005, 05:52 PM

Hi There
Today I tried to change the fixture in my living room as well as the switch and now I am having problems. Previously, the switch was a dimmer switch, which I removed and changed to a standard on/off switch, connecting the black and white wires (1 each) to the 2 connectors on the switch. Then I removed the old fixture to place a new one on. There are 4 wires coming from the ceiling box- 2 black, and 2 white. Only 2 were connected to the original fixture (1 black, 1 white), so I connected those same 2 to the new fixture only to find that the new fixture would not come on at all. So I switched the wires around and connected the other 2 and was able to get the light to come on when I turned the breaker on, but the switch will not shut the light off! The light just comes on and stays on and the switch seems to do nothing. I tried switching the wires around again, but no light at all would come on. I removed the fixture and now I'm not sure what to do. The 4 wires come from 2 separate areas in the box-one has a black and white coming from it, and then the other also a black and white coming from it. The previous fixture was connected with 1 black from one of the sources, and 1 white from the other source, with the remaining 2 wires left lose. As I said, when I connect 1 set to the fixture, the light comes on and stays on, if I change it to the other set of wires, nothing will come on at all. So I'm not sure which wires should be going where. Why would the light come on and stay on? I tried using a couple different switches, and they all do the same thing. Do I need some sort of special switch? There is only 1 light switch box in the room, so I'm still confused as to why there are 2 sets of wires coming from the light box in the ceiling. Either way, what am I doing wrong??
What am I doing wrong?

tkrussell · Sep 26, 2005, 04:08 PM

Best I can offer is it sounds as if the new siwtch is defective. Have you tested the powert at the switch? The reason you keep the light on with the other black wire you connected to is the feed wire, which splices onto the white of the other cable, sends power down to the switch, ( this wire should be hot at the switch), and then returns to the light as controlled by the switch.

As I siad the black feed must be spliced onto the white of the there cable, or the switch is bad.

Check these out and get back with the results.