You're sure its the outlet?

You plugged the lights into a different circuit outlet and they work? You plugged another device into the suspect outlet and it did not work? You mentioned you have GFI receptacles.. Quite often all GFI's are wired together from one to another.. So, all GFI's are working?

If everything else checks out, I would only guess a connection came loose inside the box the outlet is wired in.. A wire can come loose and kill the outlet without arc'ing and popping the breaker.. that only happens if a bare end touches the bare end of the other wire..

Do you have a voltmeter? Can you find the junction box that outlet is tied into? You can always check the outlet with the voltmeter and work your way back to the junction box, then to the breaker box.. If its GFI and all the GFI's are connected, could it be the last one in the chain? You mentioned you checked to see if any of the GFi's were popped.. Hmm.. I'm gonna hafta think about this more.. I've wired GFI's, but only have 3 wired together in our house - bathroom - bathroom - kitchen.. Plus a GFI on the hot tub, but its a separate GFI breaker I wired by the hot tub to be in code..

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