Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - Ceiling fan inoperable

My son's bedroom has a ceiling fan that is controlled by two wall switches, one for the fan, one for the lights in the fan. The lights are totally dead, no voltage present in any of the three receptacles - I tested with a multi-meter. Took the ceiling fan off the mount, insured good connection with the ceiling wires, checked all connections. In the wall switches, good voltage on the switch that works the fan, no voltage on the switch that works the lights, replaced the switch, same result. The fan switch feeds light switch with a single black wire, the light switch has a red wire feeding off into the wall and going up, assume it goes to the ceiling fan unit. Do not know about any ground wire? There are some exposed copper wires in the wall receptacle.

Is it possible someone pulled the pullchain for the lights on the fan? This would over-ride the wall switches.

Did this ever work correctly?

I hope when you said that a red wire ran into the wall that this was in a cable and not just a wire added after the fact.

Is it possible someone pulled the pullchain for the lights on the fan? This would over-ride the wall switches. I tried the chain several times.

Did this ever work correctly? Yes, up until a few weeks ago.

I hope when you said that a red wire ran into the wall that this was in a cable and not just a wire added after the fact. Yes, it's in a cable.

The hot black wire is coming off the fan switch and connected to the 'light' switch. I'm not getting any juice off the side of the 'light' switch whether it's on or off, could it possibly not be grounded correctly? Is that what the bare copper wires are for?

Is it possible a GFCI has tripped in another room or in the garage that controls this circuit?

The switch should still work whether it was grounded or not.


Where are you tking your voltage measurements? Between what 2 points?

I'm touching the two side terminals on the wall switch for the light, nothing. I also checked the light sockets on the fan, nothing. The fan switch has good voltage, the light switch is powered by a black wire coming off the side of the wall fan switch, the black wire runs into the back of the light switch, while the red wire runs off the back of the light switch and runs up into a cable through the wall. Is it possible there's no ground in the ceiling?

I'm touching the two side terminals on the wall switch for the lightThat is never a valid test.

Test between each of the switch screws and ground (two separate tests).

As stated before, the presence or absence of grounding at your ceiling is immaterial.

It was the switch inside the fan.