Noob here. 23 years after the house was built an outlet in my finished basement went dead while I was using my computer, then recovered, then had intermittant power and now is completely dead. I shoved the prongs of a circuit tester into the slots and got no light, but with one prong in a slot and one prong touching an ear of the outlet I get a light. Same thing with any slot and any ear. After it first went dead I removed the faceplate and pulled the outlet outa the box, but didn't touch any wires. Power came back until I started a power saw, then went dead again. I assumed the wires were crossed somewhere in or near that box but I never tripped a circuit breaker.

I just replaced the outlet with a new one and stuck the 3 black wires in the brass side and 3 white sires in the silver side - no luck - same symptoms! I got power (slot to ear) but not how I want it.. ; (

Whassup? Bad breaker? It's not on a GFCI circuit.

Thanks for any help!

One of your whites are not making a good connection. Pushing wires in the back can give problems, either a white came loose at that receptacle or the one before it.
Tieing all whites together with a short piece(pigtail), and connect to one screw can help eleminate this problem.