Short Circuit? All power depends on one outlet

[diane330s]

We recently bought a 30 year old house and it has developed an interesting electrical problem. In the basement there is an outlet that seems to control whether or not power makes it to half of the area. If we have something - anything - plugged into this one outlet everything works fine. But, if we remove everything from that outlet, half of the downstairs loses power.

The only thing I know of that recently happened in that area is that the outlet immediately to the right of the "controlling" outlet had a night light short circuit and melt the light sensor. There was a terrible "electrical fire" smell coming from the night light. It has been removed, but now the only way to keep power flowing is to keep something plugged into the other outlet.

Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

[HayZee518]

ONLY THING i CAN FIGURE IS THAT THIS OUTLET IS WIRED WAAYY WRONG! you are relying on a load to complete the circuit. shut off all the power to the house and remove this ONE outlet. see how the wires are connected and get back to us BEFORE you do anything! Put the outlet back into the box (don't do anything to it just yet} and switch on the main. I need to know the color of the wire(s) connected to what terminals of the outlet. or the absence of wires on the outlet screws.