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You pull up to your house at night and notice that one of the landscape lights are not working, and you suddenly realize that you have a project for the weekend. Troubleshooting landscaping lights is a systematic process. In this case it may be as easy as replacing a bulb. Landscape lights are a series of fixtures that are energized by a cable underground. A multimeter tool helps in diagnosing these electrical issues.
Start by swapping out the bulb. Remove a light bulb from a working fixture and install it into the broken fixture. If your transformer has a timer, rotate the switch to "on". If your transformer has a light sensor, cover it with black electrical tape. This will allow the transformer to send electricity down the cable and illuminate the bulbs. If the bulb lights you simply need to replace the bad bulb with a new one. You can also stick the multimeter probes in the bulb sockets to test for power.
If the fixture doesn't light, the problem is either with the fixture or that the fixture is not receiving electricity. Dig the light fixture out of the ground and get to the area where the fixture clamps into the cable. Remove this clamp which will leave 2 openings in the cable. Use the multimeter probes and test to see if you get electricity. If you do get electricity, you probably need a new fixture, but you can try to re-clamp the fixture onto the cable at a different point (it maybe a corroded connection). If you don't get a reading of electricity, move the fixture down and try to resecure it into a fresh piece of cable. If more than one consecutive fixture is not working, you would need to inspect the cable for failure.
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