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What is wrong with my breaker switch? It will only turn on half way?

My breaker keeps tripping. We replaced the breaker and it is still tripping.
We had some one out to check it and he checked all the plugs throughout the house and he could not find what was wrong. We plugged a fan up in the bedroom and it threw the breaker. We turned the breaker back on and it stayed on. Later on when we plugged it back in it threw it again and now the outlets in my bedroom will not work. We checked the ceiling fans and that's not the problem. The breaker switch will not go to on without sparks and it will only go half way. We tried again and the ceiling light tried to come on, but it threw again. Do you know what might be causing the problem?
mary, July 2009
first off, do not force the breaker to the on position,or something major will happen.If it is just the one room, unplug everything and shut off lights and the ceiling fans.Now go and reset the breaker, and if it stays, on ,thats good. Now go and turn each item on,one at a time, until the breaker trips. if it trips,leave the last item off.Now, reset the breaker, and if it stays on, leave last item off. The last item might be at fault.usually the ceiling lights are on a different breaker than the wall outlets. The wall outlet, where the fan was plugged into, may be faulty.Also the new breaker may be broken, if it fails to reset, with nothing turned on.before,with all on, the breaker may have been overloaded with everything trying to run.

miner, July 2009
Are you talking about a circuit breaker controlling one circuit, or an rcd controlling a group of circuits?

If it is a group of circuits which circuits are in the group?

Does it only trip when something in particular is plugged in or switched on or is it seemingly random?

Adam, July 2009