I want to cry...

[New England Eeyore]

Over the past month or so, my Cricut Expression has been giving me some problems. When I turn it on, the power button gets dimly lit, but the machine doesn't truly turn on. It's been averaging about 10 minutes for it to truly turn on. Really annoying, but I've been too busy to do anything about so I've just lived with it, until today.

I have a ton of stuff I need to do for swaps, so I decided today would be the day I called ProvoCraft to see if they had any advice. I described the problem, and the woman at Tech support walked me through the steps of resetting the machine. She told me to leave it alone for 20 minutes, and if I still had the problem to call back. No luck - still the same problem, except when I turned the machine off and on again, it took over 30 minutes (!) for it to come back on - not sure how long exactly as I walked away and did other things. So I call back, and she advises me to try a different power cord. Luckily I still have my baby bug, so I do that - no difference. So she basically said there's nothing more they can do for me, because "they're not replacing the older machines," or something like that - she kind of mumbled. Unfortunately I'm well over the year warranty (bought it Nov 2007) so I didn't really expect them to offer to replace it, but I am really upset that the thing died on me after not even 2 years.

I have a ton of stuff I need to do for swaps that completely rely on the Cricut, so this couldn't come at a worse time. I will muddle through by either using my baby Bug or waiting for ages for the big one to turn on (the only saving grace about SCAL - no cartridge switching out). But now I'm just feeling like I want to cry. To me the Cricut is an essential tool, so I know I'm going to have to replace it but the few hundred dollars that it's going to cost again isn't really in the budget right now.

Anyway - thanks for letting me vent - I knew you ladies would understand.

[StitchIsOurHero]

That STINKS, NEE!!! I'm so sorry! :grouphug:

[rlovew]

That does stink and I feel your pain!

Rebecca

[morgansmom2000]

Oh no! Even a 2 year old machine should work better than that! I got mine around the same time as yours.

NEE, if you want to try to get together some weekend, I'm happy to let you use mine, we could find somewhere to get some stuff done!

[AlexWyattMommy]

:sad: :sad: :sad:

I wonder if our industrial usage of the machine will cause all of ours to give up the ghost eventually? My DH says he is sure I will wear mine out soon.

[morgansmom2000]

:sad: :sad: :sad:

I wonder if our industrial usage of the machine will cause all of ours to give up the ghost eventually? My DH says he is sure I will wear mine out soon.

Ix-nay on that! No talk of the industrial use killing them!

[hopemax]

:sad: :sad: :sad:

I wonder if our industrial usage of the machine will cause all of ours to give up the ghost eventually? My DH says he is sure I will wear mine out soon.

I am scared to death that I am going to burn out the motor during one of my marathon paper piecing cut sessions. Sometimes it gets really hot, and I start thinking I am smelling something burning. So I have to turn it off and let it cool down. If that happens, 6 months from now, I am okay with it because I want to upgrade to the Expression. But I can't make any large purchases until we buy our house. Any Cricut death before then and I will have to be bug-less for a few months.

I'm so sorry about your big bug, NEE! :grouphug:

[mycutiepatooties]

I'm sorry. Hopefully you can get it to work long enough for you to finish up your swap stuff. That really stinks!!

Traci

[party of 3]

oh NEE that's awful news. so sorry to hear this.
:flower3:

[DisneyIsTerrific]

Oh no!!! That's really sad NEE. Good thing you kept your baby bug. At least it's better than nothing. I've got a friend who is buying my baby bug from me in October. I wonder if maybe I should keep it just incase my big one ups and dies.:scared1:

[Michellepooh]

Oh that stinks!!! :sad1: Do you want to borrow mine?

[disneynut14]

You can use mine too and have 2 baby's going at the same time. :)

[Lisa]

Suzanne, that is just sad. Have you thought about calling Provo back and asking to speak a supervisor? Your machine shouldn't be acting like that at two years old. Perhaps you can press them to exchange it. Give it a try, the worse they can say is no again.

[PinballFamily]

Sheesh - what bad news! Z2H and I would love to have you over to do what you need on our E - just give a shout. Any time - honestly.

DH (Ph.D/inventor/electronics guru and official tech wizard/weenie) - has some thoughts on what it could be (too long and involved for me to decipher much of what he said!), but, from your description of the problems, to him it doesn't sound likely for a repair or fix. If you'd like to tell him more, he could ask some questions and explain to you what he told me.

A $300 machine should last MUCH longer than a year and a half - shame on ProvoCraft!

Hugs...

[New England Eeyore]

Thanks guys. I knew you would get it. Although DH was surprisingly empathetic when he got home. (I think he's imagining how he would feel if his drill died. ;)) I may try calling ProvoCraft again, but I don't really have high hopes. I took a peek at the Cricut messageboards and saw that a few other people had the same problem with the same outcome - nothing.

To the locals that made the offers of sharing their bugs, thank you! I'm going to see how I do with the baby but if I get stuck, I might take you up on it!

[PinballFamily]

Thanks guys. I knew you would get it. Although DH was surprisingly empathetic I'm going to see how I do with the baby but if I get stuck, I might take you up on it!

Please do - we REALLY mean it! :hug:

[LindaBabe]

That's Awful! Wish I lived close enough to share my expression - I CAN cut for you though, and mail you the results, if you like. Send DS files!

I WOULD Definitely be calling provocraft again, talking to someone above the "phone answerer" position, followed up with a certified letter stating exactly what your expectation for redress is.

[Tigger1221]

:hug:- I am sorry to hear about your machine. I hope provo craft can help you out. It cost way too much to die like that.

[PamCo88]

When you speak to someone in upper level Customer Service, talk about how this seems to be some sort of manufacturing defect unless they (PC) only developed this as a throw away machine. Mass has laws to protect comsumers from defective merch. maybe you can get it replaced.

As a side question... Have you run updated virus software lately on your pc, try it, and then try downloading the firmware again. You could have had a virus the last time you downloaded it.

[morgansmom2000]

I feel like we should be having a ceremony of some sort...

Seriously, NEE, I'm not far, and I'd love to meet you!

[Iris]

Oh wow, that is just awful and I am so sorry for you.

Do you have someone around that is good with small motors? They could maybe take a look at it and see what is going on.

I have had my baby bug for quite a long time, more than 2 years and it is still going strong, although now I use my expression much more. Sounds like a manufacturing defect in your motor.

I just want to cry for you............:hug:

[New England Eeyore]

So, get this! I was all ready to call PC again this afternoon, and I turned on the Cricut, just because I felt like I should have it doing it's weird thing when I called, and it turned right on! It worked mostly normally for a couple of hours! I made the most of the time and cut up a storm. It's still doing the delay before it turns on, but the delay has gotten shorter. I give up. I don't want to jinx anything right now - I'll keep using it until it dies again, and then I'll call again. I will try to speak to a supervisor and use some of the tips you guys mentioned. I agree, this is not meant to be a "throw away machine!"

To answer a couple other questions - I hadn't updated the firmware since probably over a year ago, so I don't think it's virus related.

I don't know anyone with any kind of mechanical expertise (except perhaps PF's DH by association, apparently!) so I'm out of luck there. I knew I should have stayed an engineering major! PF - I doubt I'd be able to even understand most of what your DH says - I'll take his word that it doesn't sound hopeful.