The box in the bathroom has three pieces in it; it has a GFI plug and two decora-style light switches. One switch controls the fan and the other the lights. There are two sets of electrical; the GFI is on a different breaker than the fan and light. And yes, I have both breakers turned off while working in the box.

First confusing problem: Every single wire in the box seems to be black.

Second confusing problem: the wire that runs into the upper screw on the fan switch doesn’t actually end at the switch… they’ve stripped about an inch of the wire and looped it around the screw.

I know I apparently need to dig around in the box and find a neutral wire for the switches. I’m guessing that the wire that is clipped has to be the one going to the fan itself, which makes the stripped but not clipped wire the hot wire… is that correct? And is that normal?

Part of my problem is my cable modem/router are on the same circuit as the light/fan so when I turn the breaker off I lose them…

Thanks for any help you can give me.

P.S. The house was built cheaply but I *should* find a neutral wire in there somewhere, right?

I went and bought a new levitron weather resistant GFI outlet, 20 amp to replace it with. Hooked it up the same way the old one was. There are only 3 wires, green, white and black, and it’s dead too. It doesn’t light up, and reset button doesn’t work. Now, the pool light works, which is also tried to the 20 amp breaker in the basement, so I know the breaker is good. What can I doing wrong or what can I try?

Thanks.