House breaker tripping

[Russell]

The upstairs bedroom, hallway lights, outlet, smoke detector breaker has tripped at least three times the last with a pretty good "pop". Is this something I should call an electrician? Pull all the outlets and fixtures and hope I see a bad wire?

What's the procedure to troubleshoot a house circuit?

[DanStokes]

First of all look for a hot "appliance" which is what my electrician buddy called switches and plugs. If you have an IR temp device (I'm remember that you do) this is a perfect place to use it. We had a hot switch in the kitchen in Ann Arbor and there was no obvious cause for it - it still turned the light off and on. Dick (the electrician) came over and changed it out and the issue went away. He said that they don't always let the smoke out but the resistance inside a given appliance can increase and generate the heat. Don't let this go as it can burn your house down.

Dan

[Tubbed Pacecar]

Yup, get it sorted, you don't want in letting all the smoke out in the middle of the night!!
The breaker on my Tig kept tripping, fricken ANNOYING....so I got the big bro, who's a journeyman electrician to come over....turns out the breaker was bad....the panel is an OLD Federal, no new breakers to be had, but an electrical surplus place in South Edmonton had "used" ones......and charged me $55.00 for a used breaker
I could walk into Home Depot and buy a Siemens breaker of the same amperage for under $20.00 at that time...but wouldn't have helped, cuzz they won't plug into a vintage Federal panel.....the only upside is, it hasn't missed a beat since swapping in the used one

[Russell]

I took the IR gun to all the switches outlets and light fixtures. The can lights were a little warmer than the rest but they are also half in the attic so I didn't think it was alarming. I will get a new breaker tomorrow hopefully that what it is. It's one of those CH breakers with the test button.