Why do 6 wall sockets not work suddenly?

blackcloud

Hello all

I was just sitting down today and all of a sudden all the sockets went off, the lights were fine. I checked the fuse box and one of the switches were down and I tried to switch it up but it would not stay up.
So I turned everything off and then the switch did stay up. So I slowly started to turn everything back on and when I turned on the wall socket which had an extension cable plugged into it which had my laptop and a few other things plugged in the switch on the electric board turned off again. So I turned off the plug that I turned on which caused the fuse to switch off and pulled the switch up again and turned everything else on and all the sockets work ok now. Except for 4 sockets in the hallway and in the living room.

All the switches on the fuse box are on now.
I have had to plug the boiler in using an extension cable as the socket it was plugged into doesn't work now. SO I am not sure if thats safe or not.

What could be wrong and what should I do?

TheCyclingProgrammer

Is it definitely the plug socket that's causing the trip or the extension that you had plugged into it? Have you tried plugging something in directly that you know works fine on another socket (a lamp for instance)?

Something, either the socket, the extension or something plugged into it is faulty and causing the trip.

blackcloud

heres a picture

https://postimg.org/gallery/2uoeyixb6/

Crinkmeister

Broken or loose wires possibly in or near to the non-working sockets. You need an electrician to investigate and locate/fix the fault.

blackcloud

|Thanks, so basically something is causing the trip out of either

a) The extension cable itself
b) Something thats plugged into the extension cable ie laptop, lamp, electric razor.
c) The wall socket itself is faulty.

But the thing is that I am scared to test it for instance ie plugging in the laptop directly into the wall socket as what if that trips the switch again and causes another 6 wall sockets to stop working.

Crinkmeister

You have four non-working sockets without your extension lead and laptop plugged in. You need to get that fixed first. One thing at a time!

blackcloud

If I had too many things plugged in and that caused the switch to flip, would that have burned the fuse which then caused the 6 wall sockets to stop working?

Crinkmeister

You don't have fuses, you have circuit breakers which, from your picture, all appear to be in the ON position. I thought it was only four sockets that were not working?

TheCyclingProgrammer

Crinkmeister wrote: »

Broken or loose wires possibly in or near to the non-working sockets. You need an electrician to investigate and locate/fix the fault.

No need for an electrician...yet.

At the very least OP should be able to narrow down the source of the fault to either the socket (or somewhere on their ring main) or the extension/appliance.

If it's the extension, bin it and get a new one. If it's the appliance, it may need to be repaired.

If it does seem to be the socket, depending on OPs level of competence they could check for loose wires but if they aren't then yes, an electrician should be contacted.

TheCyclingProgrammer

blackcloud wrote: »

If I had too many things plugged in and that caused the switch to flip, would that have burned the fuse which then caused the 6 wall sockets to stop working?

OK, I missed the bit in your OP about 4 other wall sockets by working. As the poster above said, time to get an electrician in to locate the fault.

blackcloud

Thanks, yes its around 6 wall sockets that now are not working? 2 in the hall way, 2 in the 2nd bedroom, 2 in the 3rd bedroom, 3 in the living room. All the kitchen sockets are fine and 2 in the living room are fine, 2 in the spare bedroom fine.

So alot more sockets not working than what I thought. I am worried to test the extension cable or the things that are plugged into it incase it causes more sockets to stop working.