Wiring – How to connect one set of wire (+ ground wire) to outlet

receptaclewiring

So I've been going through the house and have been updating our outlets and it usually involved connecting two sets of wires and a ground wire. Today however, I ran into a set up that consisted of one set of wires (one black wire, one white wire and one ground wire) and am unsure how to proceed.

So here is an image I took of all of the wires that need to be connected to an outlet:

enter image description here

This was the original outlet, where the wires were inserted into the socket that I have circled in white. The white wire was connected to the left side, black wire was connected to the right side, and the copper wire was connected to the screw on the bottom.
enter image description here

And this is the outlet I am trying to update it with:
enter image description here

As of now, I have tried:

  1. black wire to top brass terminal, white wire to top silver terminal
  2. black wire to top brass terminal, white wire to bottom silver terminal
  3. black wire to bottom brass terminal, white wire to bottom silver terminal
  4. black wire to bottom brass terminal, white wire to top silver terminal

And of course, I had the copper wire connected to the grounding terminal on the bottom with each of these set ups, but none of these set ups seem to work.

Can anyone point out where I am making an error?

Thanks!

Best Answer

Are the tabs on the outlet intact? I am thinking the outlet prior may have a broken tab so the feed is not making it to this outlet. Many times only 1/2 of a switched outlet is switched we snap the tab between the top and bottom screw on the hot side take the switch to 1 and always hot to the other. In the case with 2 cables or 2 blacks and 2 whites in the box 1 is the hot the other feeds the next device , if that tab is broken on either side the next outlet will not get both the hot and neutral.

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