Published 2026-05-22 · Houston Garage Door Pros

Garage Door Opener Not Working: A 12-Point Diagnosis (Save the Service Call)

Quick answer: About a quarter of "opener not working" calls are fixable in five minutes by the homeowner. Work through these 12 checks in order, remote battery, breaker and GFCI, manual-release state, photo-eye lenses and alignment, wall button, travel limits, and the heat-and-surge failures specific to Houston, before you book a $95 service call. If you reach the end and the opener still will not run, that is when to call, and we will bring the part that matches the symptom.

Start with the free five-minute checks

Replace the remote battery. The LED can light while the transmitter is too weak to reach the opener. Fresh CR2032 or 9V, $3 at any hardware store.
Try the wall button. If the wall button works and the remote does not, it is a remote or receiver issue, not the motor. If neither works, keep going.
Check the breaker and GFCI. Garage outlets are often on a GFCI that trips in humid weather or after a power blip, and Houston supplies plenty of both. Reset the GFCI, check the breaker, plug a lamp into the outlet to confirm power.
Look at the photo-eye LEDs. Both sensors at the base of the tracks should glow solid. Blinking means misaligned (often from slab settlement); off means no power or a dead sensor.
Wipe the photo-eye lenses. Dry microfiber. Dust, a cobweb, or a stray leaf will stop the door from closing.
Check the manual-release cord. If someone pulled the red rope, the door is disconnected from the trolley and the motor will run without moving the door. Re-engage it by pulling the rope toward the door and cycling the opener.

The Houston-specific failures

Slab-settlement sensor drift. If the photo-eyes are clean but blinking, the slab has likely shifted one sensor out of alignment with the other. Loosen the wing nut, re-aim until both glow solid, retighten. This is the single most common "won't close" cause in Houston.
Heat-weakened capacitor. If the opener works in the morning but not the hot afternoon, the motor-start capacitor is failing under the 130-degree attic-garage load. This needs a tech, $130 to $200.
Summer/hurricane surge damage. If the opener went dead during or right after a storm, a power surge likely fried the logic board. Check that the unit has any power light at all; a completely dark opener after a storm usually means board replacement.
Stripped drive gear. If the motor hums but the carriage does not move, the plastic drive gear has stripped (LiftMaster's most common failure). The gear is a $40 part; the labor is about an hour.
Travel-limit drift. If the door stops short or reverses at the floor, the open/close travel limits need adjustment, often after a humidity swing changed the door balance. Most openers have two adjustment screws; consult your model's manual.
Spring problem masquerading as opener. Pull the manual release and lift the door by hand. If it is dead-weight heavy, the issue is a broken spring, not the opener, see our broken spring guide.

When to call instead of keep troubleshooting

If you have done all twelve and the opener still will not run, the failure is inside the unit, a board, a gear, a capacitor, or the motor. Those are not safe or practical DIY repairs on most units. When you call, describe the exact symptom (hums but no movement, dead with no lights, works in morning not afternoon) so we bring the matching part and close the visit in one trip. Our opener repair service covers LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie, Craftsman, and the jackshaft wall-mount units common in The Woodlands and Sugar Land.

Frequently asked

My opener works on the wall button but not the remote. Why?

Two usual causes. First, a weak remote battery, the LED can still light while the transmitter no longer has the voltage to reach the opener. Swap in a fresh CR2032 or 9V. Second, a logic-board receiver fried by a power surge, which Houston gets plenty of during summer storms and hurricane-season outages. If a new battery does not fix it, the receiver or antenna is the likely culprit and that is a board-level repair.

The door starts to close then reverses. What is wrong?

Safety reverse is doing its job, which points to the photo-eyes at the base of the tracks. They are out of alignment, blocked, or have a dead LED. In Houston the leading cause is slab settlement: expansive clay soil shifts the slab a quarter inch through the year, and the sensor on one side drops out of line with the other. Wipe both lenses, confirm both LEDs glow solid (not blinking), and check that they point straight at each other.

Why won't my opener work on a hot afternoon but it's fine in the morning?

Classic weakening motor capacitor. Heat reduces a marginal capacitor's capacitance, so it can start the motor in the cooler morning but not in the 130-degree afternoon attic-garage. This is a $130 to $200 fix and a common Houston summer call. If your opener is intermittent and heat-correlated, the capacitor is the first thing we check.

Can a power outage break my opener?

The outage itself usually does not, but the surge when power comes back can fry the logic board, and Houston's hurricane-season restorations come back unevenly with voltage spikes. Battery-backup belt-drive openers ride through outages and protect against this; older chain-drives on a shared garage circuit are the most exposed. After Hurricane Beryl we saw a metro-wide wave of board failures in the days after restoration.

When should I just replace the opener instead of repairing it?

If the unit is 12-plus years old and you have already had one repair, or the motor housing is rusted (common on Bay-coastal homes), or it makes a burning smell, replace it. A board repair on a healthy 6-year-old opener is $200 to $300 and buys 6 to 8 more years. A new belt-drive with battery backup is $520 to $820 installed. If the repair quote exceeds 50% of replacement, replace.