A few days ago half of a circuit went dead. The circuit is on a 15 amp breaker and feeds outlets in 2 bedrooms(about 8 total), track lighting (in one bedroom) and a hallway light. If you plug in and turn on something it causes the outlets and the track lighting to go dead.or sometimes just turning on the Track lighting will also cause the same effect. The hallway light however stays working. I pretty sure the hallway light is the first on the circuit. I have checked the light fixture and both the switches to the light several times to be sure they are wired correctly and they are. I have also checked all the outlets and the track lighting and they are also all wired correctly. The odd thing is if I plug in a three pronged outlet tester the power comes back on to the dead outlets and the track lighting. In one room, when I test the outlets, the tester reads open neutral. In the other room it reads Hot/Neutral reversed. Before the problem started I had not done any electrical work on the circuit or put any nails or screws in the walls that may have caught a wire.
Anyone have any idea what may be causing this. Could it be a bad breaker?

Dman

It is not a bad breaker if only part of your circuit is affected. Get a better tester than the 3 prong tester, one with two test leds and check each connection at each outlet or fixture. Some where along the line you will find a wire that is making intermittent connections. If you have wires stabed into the back of the outlet they are most suspect. Start checking at the last live fixture and go down stream from there.