Mikey
Aspiring Old Fart, EE, computer & networking geek
Ultimately, of course, all power comes from your main panel. If, as you claim, everything is OK there, then the problem lies between the main panel and the GFCI receptacle. There is a possibility, of course, that there's a bad breaker in the panel. Rule this out first by testing each one with a meter or hot-wire tester.
If there's power at the panel, and none at the GFCI receptacle, you've got to start tracing the circuit to find the problem. Sometimes you can just eyeball the situation and get a pretty good idea of where the circuit travels, but often it's a tedious process of opening up lots of outlets and tracing individual cables until you've documented the entire circuit. You will eventually find either a bad connection in an intermediate junction box (good - easy to fix) or an open wire somewhere (bad - lots harder (usually) to find, let alone fix).
In your case, if there's no other problem evident anywhere else in the house, the odds are good that the problem area is not getting power from the main panel -- either the CB is bad, or there's an open circuit,
I've spent a couple of days mapping all circuits as soon as I moved in to every house I've owned, and it's saved me a lot of frustration down the line.
If there's power at the panel, and none at the GFCI receptacle, you've got to start tracing the circuit to find the problem. Sometimes you can just eyeball the situation and get a pretty good idea of where the circuit travels, but often it's a tedious process of opening up lots of outlets and tracing individual cables until you've documented the entire circuit. You will eventually find either a bad connection in an intermediate junction box (good - easy to fix) or an open wire somewhere (bad - lots harder (usually) to find, let alone fix).
In your case, if there's no other problem evident anywhere else in the house, the odds are good that the problem area is not getting power from the main panel -- either the CB is bad, or there's an open circuit,
I've spent a couple of days mapping all circuits as soon as I moved in to every house I've owned, and it's saved me a lot of frustration down the line.
