Can you help me figure out what's wrong with the electric outlets in my house?

”I’ve checked the circuit breaker and they don’t seem to be on the same circuits.” Do you mean the failed outlets are on more than one circuit breaker? Was there at least one blown breaker?

Usually when somethings suddenly stops working it’s because of a single bad connection somewhere. Two different circuits on different breakers are not likely to fail simultaneously.

Outlets are often chained so if one is dead all the downstream ones are dead as well. The same is true of GFI outlets—are there any that might need resetting?

next step, call an electrician

Since you don’t know a lot about electricity, do call an electrician. They are expensive, but worth you not getting electrocuted.

Call an electrician. The breaker switches themselves could be bad.

Edit: Depending on who did the “updating”, that could mean anything from putting in new outlets and replacing the fuse box with a breaker box, but leaving the old wiring in place to pulling all new wiring. Ours was supposedly “updated” but when we opened up a wall, I found wiring held together with paper masking tape in a “junction box” made out of 2×4s. And the electrician’s business card!!!!!

I am more familiar with industrial wiring than residential but frequently lighting circuits are on a separate circuit breaker than the outlets. Gasman said that outlets are frequent (actually almost always) daisy chained. It is likely that the loss of connection begins at a particular outlet box. What I would do is go into a room and see which outlet works and suspect that the open circuit starts there. HOWEVER, if you are not comfortable with electrical wiring, find someone that is. 115 VAC is often lethal and aways painful especially if a loose wire in the outllet box you are checking is the source for the failure. Good luck, stay safe.

none of them are switched? Is there anything plugged in that may have a short? You’ve triple checked the breakers to make sure they’re set? (in some panels the left side flips one way, the right side flips the other.) And as @gasman said, check if any of th outlets, especially in the bathroom, have a GFI that needs resetting.

and BTW, hair dryers are notorious for tripping breakers.

Like ^ @zenvelo & @gasman suggested, I’d look for a tripped GFI outlet.

Yes check for a little push in reset button on a GFCI. Ground fault circuit interuptor.
Also at the main circuit panel reset I mean manually turn off then on the circuit breaker that feeds those receptacles. The problem could be a bad circuit breaker in the main panel.
Sometimes the breaker seems on but is fried internally.
Good luck.

I had a similar problem about a month ago. One of the wonderful members of Fluther walked me through how to fix it. All of the circuit breakers were in the ‘On’ setting, and the box wasn’t thoroughly labeled. I just started flipping one switch at a time from to ‘Off’ to back ‘On’ and then checking the outlets, until the right one was found. It worked like a charm. (Thanks jerv!)

Your question is back into 2010, but here is a possible resolve, I’ve seen it many a time, the outlets, (receptacles) , were back wired, meaning that the wires were pushed into the back of the outlet, (which are held by spring tension, not held down by screws), and that the circuit is has been opened by loss of tension on the wiring. Back wiring is a quick and easy way to do wiring, but in the long run, not a good way to do a quality installation.

@bubbabean Yes, I’ve often wondered how back-wiring can be acceptable under national electrical code – and in my experience used by most contractors – when it’s clearly a less secure and higher resistance mode of connection, particularly given thermal expansion & shrinkage cycles. It’s always worth the extra time & trouble to use screw terminals, imho.

Always flip all of your circuit breakers off and on. If a breaker trips, the handle can stick in the on position. Sometimes a light touch, or a mild tapping can work the culprit handle into the tripped position.