Two days ago I came home and noticed the house wasn't as cool as it should be up stairs,but downstairs it was fine. I checked the outside unit and the fan was running. I then checked my return vents and they had plenty of suction,or at least I assume so,they both would suck a sheet of paper out of my hand and onto the vent. I checked the outgoing air and it seemed like plenty of air coming out,but didn't seem as cold as I think it should have been.
I looked on-line to get an idea of what to check,most of the things I read suggested to check the filter and a-coil. I went into the attic(where surprisingly it was a lot cooler) and changed the filter,looked at the a-coil and there was no frost. I took a shop vac and cleaned the a-coil.
The house cooled down to about 68,and I went to bed.
When I awoke the house was the same as it was when I came home from work(warm upstairs,cool downstairs). Went outside and noticed the fan wasn't moving at all. If anyone can give advice on what to check to get an idea of the problem,thank you. Sorry about the length of the post,but I wanted to explain the whole situation in case that might give a clue to the problem.

Was the compressor running while the fan wasn't moving, or was nothing happening outside?

was the compressor running while the fan wasnt moving, or was nothing happening outside?
I'm assuming no,there was no sound in the outside unit.

Was the blower on the furnace or air handler running in the house? Sorry about all the questions, but I'm trying to narrow down your problem. There are a lot of easy checks to do. It may be as simple as a thermostat. I need more info about what exactly is happening. Hopefully one of the other pros will jump in and help you with your problem. But they are going to need more info also. Good luck.

was the blower on the furnace or air handler running in the house? Sorry about all the questions, but im trying to narrow down your problem. There are alot of easy checks to do. It may be as simple as a thermostat. I need more info about what exactly is happening. Hopefully one of the other pros will jump in and help you with your problem. But they are going to need more info also. Good luck.

I don't mind the questions at all,glad people are taking time to help me. As for your question,yes the inside is working.

First make sure that there are no breakers tripped. If all is good, take off the cover to your electrical components on the outside unit. Test to make sure that there is 240v on the inlet side of your contacter. If there is, check to see that you have 24v to the contacter coil. You may be able to manually push the contacts closed(careful, there is 240v here, use an insulated tool) some of the newer contacters have a cover plate on them, so you can't get at it without removing four screws. If this is the case, let me know. If you don't feel comfortable around this kind of voltage, I would call a pro hvac tech, or electrician. Personally I would go with the hvac guy, just in case it is not main voltage problem, hvac tech should be able to trouble shoot your whole system.
If you have an electrical tester, and are comfy around this kind of thing, let me know and I will try to walk you through some simple checks. Hope this helps, good luck.

While you are in the electrical compartment you may as well take a look at the capacitor. If it looks 'bulged' then it is obviously in need of replacement but I would kill the power, remove the wires and check the microfarads if your meter reads them (assuming you have an electrical meter). While you have the power off take a close look at the contactor. Most residential units will have either 2 sets of contacts or just one with the other side shunted. Do the contacts look pitted? I have seen it where one side gets welded close and this can prevent the other side from closing.

Great advice from Mark

MyGirlsDad77-I checked the inlet side of the contactor and there is 240V. You have to walk me through the checking the coil and pushing the contacts closed parts though. I saw the coil behind the contact but don't know what setting to put the multimeter on and where to put the probes.Plus it's about 2am here and had to use a flashlight,and didn't want to poke around w/o being able to see as well.

MarkwithaK-The capacitor wasn't buldging. I'm unsure of what you're asking me afterwards though,sorry but you will have to explain a little better with exactly what I should do(multimeter settings,etc.)

You should have three big wires coming into the unit. Two of them go to the inlet side of the contacter. One goes to a ground. My guess would be that they are red black and green. Then there should be two smaller wires coming into the unit. They most likely go to opposite sides of the contactor. Leave your meter on the voltage setting and put leads to both smaller wires. You should get about 24v.
Now, in the middle of the contacter you should be able to manually push the contacts closed. Do you see what I mean?
Let me know what you find.

When I push the contactor closed the fan started up and what sounded like some sort of pump. I'm still unclear about how to check coming from the coil though. On the contactor there are 2 wires on the bottom just behind the inlet wires,3 on the right,2 on the left,and at least 3 on the top. The fact the fan came on gives me a little relief though thank you.

The pump sound was your compressor. So you have eliminated all condernser problems except for the contactor. The two small wires you are looking for are coming into the unit from the house. They are low votage wires(24v) they go the coil on your contacter and When they are energized they close the contact for your 240. Wish I had a picture for you, so you could see where they go. Maybe one of the other guys on here can download one for you. So it comes down to this. If you locate these wires and there is 24v at the contacter, then your contacter is bad, If there is not 24v then your problem is either your thermostat wires(from condenser to furnace, or from furnace to thermostat) or a bad thermostat or control board in the furnace.
First need to know if there is 24v at the coil side of the contacter in condenser. Wish I could explain better. Once you find that out, if that is, or isn't the problem, we will move on to other areas.
One other thing, just to make sure the pump noise you heard was your compresser. Push the contacts in again and feel the larger copper pipe coming out of the condenser. Does it get cold? If it does, then your compressor is working fine.

Ahh OK,I understand now,I was assuming you meant wires coming from the contactor. There was actually 6 small wires-White,Red,Blue,Yellow,Brown,and Green. The green wire wasn't ever attached to anything so I didn't test it to any of the wires. I got 24+ volts from the following: Red to everything but Yellow;White to Brown and Red(obviously).
As for the big copper pipe I think it got slightly colder,but I didn't hold the contactor closed for that long(maybe 1 min.) Should I do for longer to make sure?

Excuse the double post,but I went and held the contact closed again this time for about 3 minutes and the pipe didn't seem to get any colder. Also after I released the contact and the fan shut off,I heard a "bubbling" type noise.

Did you find these five small wires at the furnace or condenser? If you have four wires hooked up at the condenser(red, blue, yellow, brown, its sounds like you may have a heatpump setup. In this case I don't have enough experience with heat pumps to help you. What make and model is your furnace?
On a normal central air system you should only have two small(thermostat wires) connected to your outdoor unit. They would normally be red and white. Hope you can post a picture of the inside of your outside unit.

What part of the country do you live in? What was the outside ambient air temp? There are several different things that come to mind that I would check but without being able to put my gauges on it and see how the system operates (or doesn't) it's difficult to pin point any one thing.

MyGirlsDad77-It is a heat pump system. Sorry I'm young and this is my first house and just bought less than a year ago. If it helps it is a Goodman model# CPLE36-1

MarkwithaK-I live in Georgia. It has gotten a lot cooler the past few weeks,Last week it has been in the mid to low 70s.

I'm just hoping to get some insight so that when I call a tech. out here I will have at least a little knowledge of the possible problems. I just don't like getting one person's opinion when it comes to things like this,and I didn't want to call 3-4 techs out here @ 50$ or so each.

Ok. I would definatley suggest calling a tech on this one. On heat pumps the low voltage wiring is quite a bit more complicated. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
I would specify that you have that you have a heat pump system when you call the tech. If they have experience with such systems, they should be able to diagnose (and hopefully fix) your problem the first time around.
Good luck and please let me know how it all works out.