No power in bedroom or bathroom. We found the correct circuit breaker and it was not tripped. We turned the breaker of and back on and also turned the main off and back on. No difference. Switched the circuit breaker with one that we knew worked and still no power. We are thinking that a wire came off in a receptical, but have no wiring diagram. Can we use a circuit tester to find the problem? How is this done and where do we get a circuit tester and how is it done?

Have you checked for a Ground Fault (GFCI) outlet in the bathroom which may need to be reset?

Thank you. We had a friend who tested each receptacle and fixture and there was no power to the GFCI. The tester he used was one that you just stick in the receptacle. If the receptacle is bad, would the tester still show power coming to it? If the GFCI is bad, would that cause everything on the breaker to not work? We are going to replace it because it is old, but don't think that is the problem. We are thinking that there is a wire lose or broken, but have no idea how to find it. We saw a circuit tester, but they are expensive. Do you know if they would work?

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The tester he used was one that you just stick in the receptacle. If the receptacle is bad, would the tester still show power coming to it?

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NO.

That type of tester would not show power if the GFI is tripped.

Have you tried to reset the GFI? If the GFI will not reset, unplug every thing from all the outlets that do not work then try to reset the GFI. If the GFI will not reset you will have to trouble shoot the circuit. To do that you need a multimeter. Cheap little multimeter cost between $10 and 20.

To trouble shoot the circuit you will have to get the multimeter, learn how to use it, and begin checking different points along the circuit.
The GFI may or may not be defective. Most likely not. Wires do not just come loose from outlets, but there are other faults that can occur.

Unplug and try to reset the GFI. Then post results.

Check the outlets. If the wires are in the quick(push in) connects, move them to the screws. The quick connects when heated by electric can move away from contacts and give you an open and no power.

Chuck

Why not just call an electrician to find the problem? It'll be money well spent.
No offense, but you and your friends obviously have very little experience and troubleshooting is very hard to do if you don't know what you're doing. Just asking questions on the internet is a difficult path to get this fixed.

Thanks, Harold. We replaced GFCI, Breaker and since all receptacles are rather old will be replacing them as well. It is to the point that we have power by jumping from a working receptacle to the first receptacle on the circuit. Not a permanent fix by any means. Will continue tomorrow. We have been doing our own electrical work since 1980, so we are pretty familiar with how it all works - this one is just a bit different problem than we have ever had. May very well end up calling an electrician.

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have power by jumping from a working receptacle to the first receptacle on the circuit.

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If that means you made a suicide cord and connected from another receptacle to the first receptacle on that circuit, that would mean you have a bad connection of the power in cable to the first receptacle. That bad connection could be the hot side or the neutral.

As crehands said, if the receptacles are wired using the quick connect holes in the back of the receptacle, remove the wires and use the screw terminals. The quick connect wiring method is known to develop bad connections over a period of time.

Thank you so much for all your help. A multimeter and much searching found our problem. It was exactly as you said - the first switch on the breaker where a wire had come out of the quick connect - just took a while to figure out which one was first. Back up and working like a charm. Put in all new receptacles and switches and wired everything the old fashioned way - on the screws the way we used to do it. I think that is a more secure way to wire. Thank you again. Book marking this site!

Congrats and thanks for the feed back, always nice to know the end of the story.