My experience with electricity

[PCBrandon]

The other day I brought my new MacBook home, and I plugged it into my existing power strip along with my other Dell laptop, printer, PDA, external hard drive, and a battery recharger. I was working on my MacBook and my Dell would keep going to Stand By. This is weird for me, because I have it set to never go into Standby while plugged in. So I pull it out of standby and resume my work on my MacBook. Shortly after it goes into standby yet again, so I unlock the computer to find the little battery symbol telling me the AC adapter isn't plugged in. I then notice my MacBook isn't being charged either. It doesn't take me long to find out none of my electronic devices are working.

At that point I realized I fried the power strip. I've never had a need for a UPS/surge protector because I generally have my laptop with me if I'm not at home. So I run out to Best Buy to purchase one and plug it into one of two outlets and it still didn't turn out. It turns out I blew the outlet as well. The odd thing is, the outlet above it still works. Wouldn't it kill both outlets? How would I fix that, replace the outlet fixture?

Thanks,
Brandon

[juppy]

Yeah, if one of the plugs isn't working but the other one on the same receptacle is, then the plug is probably just bad and needs replaced. Doesn't necessarily mean you blew or fried anything though. Sometimes people don't realize that they are always using the same plug on one receptacle and not the other, which leads to the used plug wearing out and not making a good connection when a plug is inserted. The other plug would still be like new though since it rarely gets used. From what you've said, that'd be my guess, that the plug is just worn out and needs replaced.

[TwoRails]

I take it you checked all the circuit breakers, yes? Usually both outlets are wired to the same circuit, but not always. One exception is if one outlet is wired to an on / off switch for a table lamp or the like (that's not entirely accurate as it could be on the same circuit, just wired up differently).

The easiest way is to open it up and check it, taking all safety precautions like turning off the breakers, double checking if juice is present with a meter, and so on. Have a receptacle handy for replacement; they are cheap.

[edfair]

If you look at the side of the recepticle, if there is a brass strip connecting two wires, or only one wire on either side you have a standard type. And your one outlet has probably failed because the contacts have lost tension from carrying too much current and overheating.

You also don't want to put too many switching power supplies onto one circuit. Switchers tend to clip the tops of the waveforms off and with enough on the line some start dropping out. I found this with a failing supply in a copy machine demo room when I couldn't stop a computer from crashing.

[Panama Red]

Most times, both sockets of a wall receptacle are connected by a jumper as edfair has described. However, I have seen some where each socket is supported on a separate circuit. These are most often in kitchens in older homes. All my receptacles above the counter top were wired that way. All the top sockets on one circuit and all the bottom ones on another.