Who turned the lights out? (I did)

[ian1511]

Was placing a screw to secure a wall outlet receptacle in my garage. Had just painted that wall. Had to jiggle it a little and sparks appeared, I let go and all the lights in the room and the adjacent room went out. Garage door opener also won't work. The strange thing is that the circuit breaker does not show the fuse tripped on that circuit. Just to check, I turned the circuit off and then back on and still no lights. Where might the problem be? What do I need to change or fix?

Thanks,

Ian

[kreemoweet]

Quite possibly a wire splice came apart in the box you were messing with. Make sure all the wires in the box are dead
before investigating.

[hj]

If the lights did not go out until you released it, then it was not the circuit breaker. More likely a loose connection.

[jadnashua]

Often, especially if it is to code, things in the garage are protected by a GFCI...find it and reset it, and things will probably work again...could be something else, but that one is fairly common.

[drick]

Look for a GFCI first, but breakers are known to fail. Where you have multiple rooms out I'm leaning toward the breaker. Don't just assume it is still working and passing current just because it didn't trip and you can still reset it. Usually it takes feeding the other half of the split phase back at the breaker to kill it, but they are mechanical and do sometimes just die.

-rick