20yr old home bathroom/outside outlet

[owen502]

My two bathroom and one outside outlet are not working at all. I have 120 power coming out of every circuit breaker. There is no power on the wires coming into each of two bathroom and one outside outlets. For some reason between the ground and hot terminal I get 3-4 volts on my meter. One bathroom and the outside outlet each have 4 sets of wires and the other bathroom only has two sets, so i figure that one is the end of the line. None of these are GFI outlets nor is the breaker a GFI as far as I can tell, they all have power coming out of them.

My 1st question is: Was it common for a GFI to be installed somewhere inline?

The only thing I found in the attic that I cannot identify is something attached to the attic light fixture that looks like a transformer and is labeled "thermal overload". It has two smaller twisted pair wires coming out of it and going in two directions. It goes down into the wall so I dont know where it goes. The wire does not look like its the same wire as it is brown, and the one at the outlets has a white wide cover. Is there any idea what this might be?

[HayZee518]

The wide white plate is a goof plate - larger to cover a larger wall opening. The outside outlet should be a gfci receptacle. The transformer probably is a doorbell trans. Something somewhere has loosened up under a wirenut. The bathroom should be on a dedicated circuit but it looks like it isn't. Pull all outlets on this circuit that's dead and just go through them one at a time. See if you can locate a junction box before the bathroom. Might be buried in the attic insulation.

[owen502]

Is it possible to have a GFI outlet without a test or reset button? I had already opened each outlet and tested with my meter on the bare wires. I looked under the insulation, but as far as I traced the wire, it goes under a attic flooring. I can see about 10' of the wire before it goes down in the area of the closest bathroom outlet. I am not sure that is the correct wire. I see two, so I assume one is the lights and the other is the outlet.

Am I looking for a GFI junction box or does that exsist?

Your right about the transformer thing, it is the doorbell. Thanks

[kactuskid]

Check every where in the house for a GFCI receptacle. Could be in the basement, the garage, another outside receptacle. Keep looking, you'll find it, sometimes they're kinda hidden and not easy to find. If all the bathrooms and outside receptacle are not working I'd guess they're all tied in with a GFCI. Also try opening all the way the breaker for this circuit and then closing it, sometimes they don't reset otherwise.

[HayZee518]

Some real early gfi's were made by Square D and looked just like an outlet but grey in color, or brown - One whole outlet space was where the push buttons - test reset were.

[owen502]

I fianlly found the GFI. It was in the garage on the same wall as the breaker panel. I dont think of that as being a garage because I made it into just another room. There are some bookshelves on the wall with stuff on them. It was behind some of the stuff. Thanks for the heads up to look in the garage.

[kactuskid]

Yippee, that's great. Thanks for the info