We have several outlets throughout the house & some outside that stopped working. There are no GFCI outlets anywhere in the house. We flipped the breakers - that didn't fix the problem. The house was built in 1984. My husband checked each outlet. None appear wet or to have shorted out. Any ideas on what's wrong and how to fix the problem?
My husband tested each outlet with a tester. He took each one that wasn't working apart to see if it showed any signs of a short. But found nothing.
Yes, he flipped the breakers off COMPLETELY for the entire house. Then back on.
Wow. Thanks! You've given some great ideas. The outlets are all in different rooms & different areas of the house, and a couple outside. So, probably NOT on the same breaker. The house has had no remodels or additions since the original construction. Outlets stopped working after a particularily hard downpour. Thought it might be outside outlets, but these were dry. No outlets marked "GFCI". How can we tell if they are GFCI if not marked? Thanks everyone!

First of all, you do NOT have a short if a breaker isn't tripping. You have an OPEN circuit. This means that somewhere there is a wire that is not connected, a GFCI oulet that is tripped, a faulty breaker, or a wire that has been chewed off by rodents, etc.

This problem can be a bear if you aren't sure of where the wires run in your house. First off, take your tester and check voltages coming out of your breakers. If you find one that is not passing voltage, you got lucky. Replace the breaker.

Next, check to make absolutely sure you don't have a GFCI recepticle tripped somewhere. This recepticle could be anywhere including your outside recepticles.

If this isn't the problem, now it is time to bring in an electrician to troubleshoot which wire or recepticle is giving you problems. If you are comfortable with doing this, you could also open any adjacent recepticles and see if a wire is not connected.

Good luck!