Outlet with Switch

I've been replacing the electrical outlets in my house and haven't really had many problems up until this point. For whatever reason, I cannot for the life of me figure out this one outlet. The top of the outlet is controlled by a switch and the bottom of the outlet is always on. Here's a picture of the wiring of the old outlet:


(If image not shown, it can be found at http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/683/outlet2.gif/)
I've indicated the colors of the wires, with the wires being the circles.

I went ahead and wired a new outlet like this:



(If image not shown, it can be found at http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/outlet1.gif/)

I thought that that was the correct wiring, but the top of the outlet doesn't work (I've checked when the switch was both on and off). Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? Thanks.

On the break away tabs between the top and bottom plugs did you break away just the one on the hot side, or black wire side.

The other side for the neutral or white wire should still be intact.

Why do you have a white circle on both sides of the receptacle?

I broke the break-away tab only on the hot (black) side. The neutral (white) tab is still intact. As for jwelectric's question, that outlet was the original outlet and I cannot answer as to why there are white wires on both sides.

First, take a look at the switch that is supposed to control this. Is there only one cable coming in? How about at the outlet, more than two cables?

On the picture in your post, are the white and black on the upper right from different cables? Is the upper one the one that is always on?

Essentially, at the switch, it connects the two wires attached to it together. One is always hot, and the other one becomes hot. If the electrician was on the ball, he would have taped or painted or some other way identified the switched lead with something red.

One cable at the switch is always hot...if you can identify that, the neutral and hot should go on the outlet you want always hot. It looks like you were using the receptacle as a junction, which is why there are two leads on that one side. Going to the switch, the one cable will have one side (probably the white they way you show it) as hot, and the black as the switched hot. If those are from different cables, there's nothing for the switch to switch.

First step is identify which cable is always hot. Then, determine which one goes to the switch. Then, get one lead connected to the hot side, and then the other lead goes to the switched outlet's hot side. Put some red tape or paint on it to help the next time.

YOu have the "hot" and "neutral for the light" on the same terminal. In your "old" diagram the neutral is indicated to be in the correct location, on the "opposite" side, i.e., silver terminal.

I figured it out. Thanks all to those who helped. It turns out that I was treating it as a single-switch outlet when it was actually a double-switch outlet. Stupid mistake. Thanks though.

quote; It turns out that I was treating it as a single-switch outlet when it was actually a double-switch outlet.

I do not know what that means, since it WAS a single switch and an outlet, but glad you got it working.