[mgar08]

If a ceiling light is controlled by a wall switch, along with one wall outlet on the same wall as the switch, what would cause the switch to become inactive after a hampton bay ceiling fan is installed in place of the ceiling light? The ceiling box has only black, white and ground wire, and the fan, according to the directions, was wired fan white to 120v white, fan black and blue(blue is for fanlight, i.e. two wires total) to 120v black, fan ground (green) to 120v ground (bare wire). The fan and light now work with the pull chains only, regardless of the position of the wall switch, and the wall outlet is always on.

[ballengerb1]

I would have to guess that your switch has failed in the on position. If your pull chains work all of the time not matter what position of the switch then the switch is shot. Since the outlet is always on I'm fairly certain a bad switch is your problem, test it with wires removed using a continuity tester. If you remove the wires from the switch is the fan now stopped?

[mgar08]

I appreciate your quick response. That the switch was bad had occurred to me. Since I couldn't locate my continuity tester, the first thing I did (before posting my question to askmehelpdesk.com) was replace the wall switch with a new one. The ceiling fan still only operates with the pull chains, not the wall switch. Maybe the new switch is bad too, but I'll have to locate my continuity tester to find out.

[ballengerb1]

Two bad wall switches would be a bit unusual. You may have a switch loop where to power arrives at the ceiling box and then goes down to the switch and back up again but I doubt this since you don't have enough wires entering the box to be a loop. Do you have a muiltimeter tester or anything other than the continuity tester?

[ceilingfanrepair]

You probably connected the switched hot and unswitched hot together in the ceiling box when you installed the fan.

[mgar08]

At both the switch and the ceiling box location, there is only a single black, white and ground wire. No other wires. I don't have a multimeter. The ceiling light was connected black to black, white to white. That's what I did with the fan, per the instructions, with the one addition of the fan light blue wire being connected with the fan black to the 120v black.

[Stratmando]

Don't need a continuity tester, just remove 1 wire from switch to test, Did you change out any recepticles and not remove tab on side of receptacle. If so, a tester would show both wires that go to switch are hot, even when disconnected from switch.

[ceilingfanrepair]

Are you sure there's not another wire hidden in the box somewhere?

Strat's idea is a good one. Remove one wire from the switch, cap it off, and see if everything still works. If it does, the problem is in the wiring somewhere. If it does not, the problem is a bad switch.

[mgar08]

It turns out the neutrals were powered in the junction box that fed the switch, outlet and ceiling fan. The switch, for whatever reason, had no power when tested with the continuity tester. By moving some wires, marking the neutral from the switch as hot and connecting that to the black of the fan and outlet, everything is now working. Flip the switch, light and outlet are on! Thank you to all the many responders with your helpful suggestions. This is a great forum!

[Stratmando]

Glad you got it, supposed to have been marked with tape, Usually if you apply a continuity tester to line voltage, a fuse or tester will blow, they should only see resistance, not voltage.