Sockets in one room suddenly dead — what should I check?

Question

All the power sockets in one bedroom stopped working at the same time — lights still work, other rooms are fine. What should I check before calling an electrician?

Bilal H. · Accepted Answer

Sockets on a ring/radial share a circuit, so one tripped protective device kills them all. Safe checks:

Distribution board — look for a tripped MCB or RCD labelled for sockets/that room. Reset it once.
If it holds, you're done — something briefly overloaded or a faulty appliance tripped it (see random tripping).
If it trips again immediately, or nothing shows tripped but sockets stay dead, there's a fault on the circuit — often a loose connection or a failed socket (heat/arcing at one point breaks the ring). That's an electrician's job.

What *not* to do: don't open sockets or poke around live. If you smell burning or see scorch marks at a socket, switch that circuit off and get it checked urgently.

Jason S. · Answer

Mine was a scorched socket that had arced and broken the ring — electrician replaced it in 20 minutes. Glad I didn't DIY that one.

Bilal H. · Answer

A related distinction worth adding here: sockets that have gone DEAD (like this) and sockets that still work but feel WARM or look DISCOLOURED are both usually connection problems — but the warm/browning one is the early fire-risk warning you want to catch before it fails. There's a separate thread on whether a warm, discoloured socket or switch is dangerous. If yours are warm or marked rather than dead, don't wait for them to stop working — heat behind a faceplate is the thing to act on.

Sockets in one room suddenly dead — what should I check?

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