Small addendum:
While it is likely the outlet into which the vacuum was plugged is the culprit, it is also possible that ANY upstream outlet could be at fault.
If you have, say, six outlets that are "piggy-backed" and "backstabbed," and you plug anything into outlet #4, #s 4, 3, 2, or 1 could have just died of shame and refused to pass on the current.
Also possible is a bad forwarding connection at, say, #2 even though #2 works properly.
*It sounds as though your home was built in the 80's. At that time it was allowed in the electrical code to have all of the receptacles that were required to have GFI protection on one circuit, except kitchens. I have found that it is very common in homes from that era to have the outside receptacles, the garage receptacles and the bathroom receptacles to all be protected by one GFI. Sometimes even the basement receptacle is on that same circuit. The builders saved money on material costs that way. The current electrical code now requires that the bathroom receptacles be on a separate 20 amp circuit.
I recently had a customer call me because the receptacles in her three bathrooms stopped working and she could not find a GFI anywhere. I went over and looked around and found the GFI receptacle behind some boxes in the garage. Resetting it energized the bathroom receptacles.
Being halfway between off and on is typical when a breaker trips due to overcurrent. Another thing to note is that if there is no voltage coming into a GFCI, you will not be able to set and then trip/ test the GFCI since input voltage is needed to operate the internal citrcuitry inside the GFCI.
This place resembles that remark, at least in the 1978? addition. Outside outlet was dead, and it looked weathered and cracked, so I swapped it out with no joy. Sitting there cussing, the penny dropped and I remembered a thread on here a few years ago about outside outlets being linked to bathroom. Sure enough, press the little button on the outlet in the seldom-used second bath, and the outside outlet came back.
Not gonna bother to rewire it- no inspection to speak of in this township, and it doesn't cause me any problems since I got a decent extension cord for the leaf blower. I won't claim the wiring in this place meets modern code, but it is a hell of a lot safer than when I moved in, with the various repairs and reworks I have done, cleaning up after previous owner. Next project is to clean up some hillbilly wiring in basement so I can heat those strings again, and fish a wire to put a light in stairwell.
Have your dad make the breaker more conveint for you, by law it should be. Back stabbed means the wires go into the back of the outlet.
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