What are you using to test for voltage?

When you originally tested it did you check hot to neutral or hot to ground. You might have power but no neutral. If you test power to ground with no neutral you will read power even without a neutral

Try testing the new outlets hot to ground and hot to neutral. If you still have nothing take everything apart and test it the way you did in the beginning. All else fails cap of the old wire and run a new one. Also in an unfinished basement the outlets need to be gfi protected, it's code and safer.

thanks for the quick replies....

I'm using a voltage detector, 50-100v AC.

And I don't know what it means to test hot to nuetral/ hot to ground.... I just touched the device on the wire...... (??)

And thanks for that tip....I'll back up a bit on this and run GFI receptacles!

Your NC tester is giving you a phantom reading. NC testers have limitations and their results should never be taken as 100% truth. The wire is probably dead. If you don't know what neutral to hot/neutral to ground means and you don't know to use GFCI protection in a basement you might want to ask someone more qualified to help you, this is very basic and if you don't understand it you probably shouldn't be doing this on your own, very easy to make a simple mistake that could be deadly.

I'm not uncomfortable with this job...I just need to figure out where the issue is. I don't depend on the detector (though it has always been reliable, either hot or zero).... I actually flip ALL the breakers, including the main, when I work. My device detects, it doesn't measure...so now I understand the line ground/ line nuetral tests. I was checking here first to see if I was missing something or if this was a common problem. I'll purchase a voltmeter and measure per Niick's suggestion....

Joefixit is right If you don't know those few things you should prob call someone who does. Electric is dangerous and need to be taken seriously. If you do something wrong you could kill someone.

Thanks for the help. I'll move to a different forum.

Buy a real volt meter not a non-contact tester. You will never figure out what is going on without it.

I can make my non-contact tester howl by stroking my cat. I rely on mine to occasionally tell me that something is hot, but never to tell me that it's not.

I installed a whole new circuit and replaced the first receptacle with gfci. Easy. Thanks for the feedback on devices!