My Hampton Bay ceiling fan made a buzzing noise ( according to my daughter) and the lights suddenly dimmed. I have chaged the bulbs but cannot get lights to power to full brightness. Do I need to replace a capacitor? Any other ideas? :confused:

I am no expert on Hampton Bay fans, hopefully won't take long for ceilingfanrepair guy to show up. A capacitor should not be the cause, but the problem with the lights may be a bad connection inside the fan splice junction box. I caution you to leave the light off until the problem is found and repaired.

The problem may not be in the fan but may be the wall switch or dimmer that controls the lights. Or, I understand, HB fans also use remote controls to operate the fan and light. If your has this option, there must be a control board with a small relay that switches the lights that may be defective.

I hope this gives you some ideas to check, if not, I am sure ceilingfanrepair guy will be able to pinpoint the problem.

Thank you much for the recognition! You already covered the basics-- we will need more information before we can provide any real help.

Is the fan wired to any sort of control-- a remote, a wall switch, dimmer switch, etc. Does the light use standard light bulbs or halogens or fluorescents or the like?

A capacitor would not affect the lights. It could be a loose or bad connection as TK Russell mentions. But first, let's clear up the above!