Why won't water dispenser and interior lights work on GE Refrigerator?

I had same problem after my power blinked for just a moment. I went to electrical box & the circuit breaker had not tripped but I flipped it off & back on & now everything is back on. Hope this helps someone else.

My lights and control panel went out today for the first time. I tried unplugging and plugging the refrigerator back in but it didn’t work. I tried the trick listed in this article (hold the LOCK and LIGHTS buttons down together for several seconds) and it worked! Thank you so much for your help!

If you have tried to reset the breaker and holding “light and lock” and you still have no water or display check the bottom left front of refrigerator. Remove the access grill located front bottom. You might have to have the doors open to be able to pull it out. You should see a water line and wires coming out of the bottom of the left door at the hinge.

—————UNPLUG THE REFRIGERATOR ——————BEFORE CONTINUING ————

The wires come out the bottom of doo to a connector under the fridge. Make sure no wires are broken and I the connection is tight and secure. That’s usully where I’ve found the problem. If wires are damaged you can splice together. There isn’t much extra wire, you can add more wire. You don’t need to use the connector. Make sure your connecting the correct wires together. Secure your repairs. Your done and plug the unit in. Everything should be working properly.

Unplug the refrigerator. Check the wiring at the bottom of the front left door. Pull the front bottom grill off, have the doors open to remove the grill. You’ll see a water line and wiring coming out the bottom of the left door at the hinge. Follow that under the fridge a few inches to a connector. Inspect this wires for damage. Usually that’s where I find the problem. You don’t have to use the connector. Be sure you have the correct wires a splice them together. Make repaired, secure wires and plug unit in. All should work fine.

Same happened to our GE Cafe French Doors Fridge Bottom freezer - i.e. all of a sudden the water dispenser stopped working, along with the interior lights. We tried the “sabbath mode” turn off suggestions posted in this thread to no avail. Unplugging & replugging the fridge didn’t help either.

After a few hours of reading online, we decided that our best bet was to change the mother board. My husband ordered the part online, changed it last night and voila! water and lights are working again.

My wife and I found that the left switch would not reliably recognize when the door was closed. At first, it seemed just needed more of a push but that didn’t do it. It needs to be pushed to one side. I am going to replace the switch. Now I need to find a place to find the part.

We had the same issue. We have a whirlpool with the 2 center drawers and water/ice on left door.

Pull out your middle drawer on the left. remove the bin. look inside and you'll see the wires that run from this drawer into the back. because the drawer opens and shuts constantly, it crunches the wires. we noticed breaks in the wires...so cut the casing open, put the wires back together. lights immediately came back on...but not water. so unplugged the refrigerator to reset and it all works now.

was told to buy new fridge by fix it guy. he said he could replace entire wiring but no guarantee. and the mother boards, etc...too expensive. so i asked him to just put the wires back together behind the drawer.

absolutely a huge design flaw as the wires behind the drawer cram up each time the drawer shuts. this might solve many similar situations.

on the back near the left bottom corner there r 2 plugs for the ice maker and water dispenser solenoids. make sure their plugged in. they could be bad too,pretty common

My response is not an answer. I tried what was recommended by cmccall31 and that fixed my digital display and my interior light issue on my Frigidaire Gallery refrigerator. I really thought I was going to have to purchase a new motherboard or something like that. Your advice solved my problem. I just wanted to say thanks. Arthur

I had a LG and the lights inside the refrigerator not the freezer kept going out. Would sometimes recover after unplugging and plugging back in but not for long. Two repairmen just scratched their heads. One did suggest a new board but said LG part was no longer available. Found one on ebay for $90 and took a chance. Board solved the problem and is still working. Board is the one on the left side on the LG about half way up (looking from the rear) from the floor.

Hope this helps someone.

I had the same issue as described. The GE refrigerator would not hold temperature and sometimes the lights in the refrigerator would turn off and it would stop dispensing water. The meat drawer lights would still work. Unplugging and plugging the refrigerator would work for a few hours or sometimes a day or two. Eventually we paid to have a GE repairman come out and he fixed the issue right away. Behind the vegetable/fruit drawer is a small computer looking fan that distributes air throughout the refrigerator. If this stops working it will cause all of the described symptoms. When he pulled the fan out, he said I had a first gen fan and they are currently on a 3^rd gen fan. He also did software update. It’s been two weeks now and the refrigerator is working as expected. No more temperature swings or shutting off.

My GE Refrigerator Works On The Inside And The Bottom Freezer To Keep Everything Cold…. But Not The Lights On The Inside Nor The Lights On The Outside Where I Can Push For Ice Crush Or Water Non Of That Works…. I Need Help What To Do….

It’s a little bit of a work, but the pull the refrigerator out turn the water pressure valve off, unscrew the water line, turn the water pressure back on and see if it does squirt out from that point guaranteeing that you do have water pressure in the line.

Yes, I read where you said you had pressure at the filter but let’s start from scratch.

Fixed, thanks shantonywood. I have a whirlpool refrigerator wrv986fdem00 with the same symptoms, all lights out and ice/water dispenser stopped working. Problem was intermittent for a while. I took that control board out of the drawer below the dispenser and sure enough it was corroded and damaged from spills. I tried to clean it up but didn't work. Left it unplugged and everything else works again. I never cared for those drawer functions either. Really not a good design to put that control board under the dispenser.