My Cricut is not working right!

[TPCShauna]

I've been having tons of problems with it. My Load Last and Set Paper Size buttons aren't working at all. The rollers are warping the edges of mats and the mats aren't loading right. It takes 9 or 10 tries to get the mats to load and when it does finally load, it goes in crooked! It wasn't cutting through my paper so I changed blades and now I have the paper depth set on 6 and the pressure on 5 and it will barely cut through cardstock when normally I set it on 5 and 4.

I called Cricut and they said that I am probably overloading the transistors because I change cartridges while the machine is on. Apparently, you are supposed to turn the machine off whenever you change a cartridge and you should never start up the machine without a cartridge in in. They want me to "reset" it and that is supposed to take care of all of the problems including the cutting issue and the rollers. If that doesn't work, I have to call them back when I am sitting next to the machine because they have to "hear" it to figure out what it is doing.

I'm totally frustrated with it right now and I'm less than impressed with customer service. I had always heard that they were so responsive and the woman was completely lackadaisical about the fact that my machine won't cut.

Did y'all know you were supposed to change the carts only with the machine off?

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Mine is giving me fits right now... it's where one area isn't cutting and it's rumpling the paper.. How did they have you reset it?? If you don't mind me asking..

I'm not having issues w/ the paper load.. I never change the paper size...
As for changing the carts w/ machine off.. yep, I do that.. habit.. no real reason..but I started that at the very beginning...

 

[TPCShauna]

That's just one of the issues I'm having. I used almost a whole sheet of paper yesterday to cut out 7 - 1" words. GRRRRRR.

To reset:
With machine off, set speed, pressure and size dials to 1.
Turn machine on.
Spin each dial from 1 to 5 and back again three times.
Turn machine off, unplug, then plug back in.

This is supposed to reset everything.

We'll see!

 

[Faerie]

I was told to reset, with the machine off, put each of the dials up to the top and all the way back down 7 times.

I have always turned my bug off when changing carts too.

 

[going2disney]

I have been having some problems also. Mine doesn't seem to cut deep enough and I have the blade set to 6 and the depth 5 and use 4-5 speed. It also does not cut about 1/2- 1cm piece of most images/ letters. It's very frustrating. I'll have to try resetting it.

 

[GBShorts]

I've heard up and down 3 times, push cut, then turn it off. Who knows what the official word is though.

I, too, have been "Hot changing" my cartridges-switching them while the machine is turned on.

I called CS last Friday because I had a mat that half the sticky came off when I peeled off the top plastic. While I had her on the phone, I asked her about my "bubbly lid" (she mailed one right out) and about changing cartridges with the machine turned on.

She said NOT to change them while it's turned on, that it would harm the machine. So far mine has seemed okay, but then again, I've only had it maybe a month and used it maybe 10 times (many cuts but it's only been turned on about 10 times).

I'm sorry your machine isn't working and that you were unhappy with CS. When I called on Friday, the lady I spoke with was SUPER happy and mentioned her boss was gone until Tuesday. She said she'd call me back tomorrow with more details about that faulty 12x24 mat since she hadn't heard of there being problems with those before.

While she was really nice, she also was very quick to answer and sometimes didn't listen to everything I had to say before she cut me off...and wouldn't stop talking when I would go to add information about something she said.

 

[New England Eeyore]

I did know about the changing cartridges because I read it either on the Cricut Website FAQs or in one of their Chirp newsletters. It said if you're machine freezes up at times (which mine did occasionally) it's probably because you're not powering off when you change carts. Since I learned that it has not frozen up on me at all.

I was having the paper loading problem until Faerie told me about the soft reset. Once I did it (the seven times version) no more problems.

 

[TPCShauna]

I tried the soft reset CS told me and it didn't change the button issue or the cutting issue. Then I tried the soft reset Faerie mentioned and that fixed the button issue.

I thought I might be having a problem with the new blade I installed. Normally I cut my Bazzill on blade depth 4 and pressure 4 for a new blade. This one is new and I must have blade depth 6 and pressure 5 and it is still barely cutting. Since it was new, I thought it might be defective so I bought more and they are doing the same thing.

Also, my mats are still loading crooked and the rollers are warping the edges after 8 to 10 runs even though I am turning them.

While I don't feel that CS was all that helpful, I wasn't unhappy with them. I just feel like the kind of blew me off by saying that this reset would fix everything. It did fix one problem (even though her version didn't) and everything else is still acting up. Now I have to lug my machine to work so I can call CS during their limited hours so they can "listen" to my machine and tell me it's something I'm doing wrong.

I'm more disappointed and irritated than anything.

 

[marlynnp]

Are you sure the green balde holder in down in place correctly and the arrow is facing to the front?

 

[TPCShauna]

Are you sure the green balde holder in down in place correctly and the arrow is facing to the front?

Yes. I've fiddled with it, DH has fiddled with it and someone at my Saturday crop who has a Cricut fiddled with it. We were comparing her blade mechanism with mine and mine "rides" higher than hers. The rollers are also scraping up my mats where they load them so I just think something is wrong. Besides, I've changed blades before and this never happened. I just think this is something new.

 

[marlynnp]

does your blade mechanism have a little slack where you can push it up a bit? wondering if yours is somehow stuck up

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Mine is giving me fits right now... it's where one area isn't cutting and it's rumpling the paper.. ...

Mine does this after I've used the mat a few times and use the thinner paper. I've had it completely slide off the thicker paper. Even cleaning the mat and using the temp adhesive doesn't help a used mat. You all don't want to know how many mats I've gone through already.


I only knew about the "hot change" because some on the yahoo cricut board told me that was why my machine would freeze up. It has not done it since I started change the carts at off.

The Cord Scrapbook Studio has a Cricut that will not longer cut and they have been very dissatisfied with CS of Cricut as the machine is still not fixed.

 

[TPCShauna]

does your blade mechanism have a little slack where you can push it up a bit? wondering if yours is somehow stuck up

No. I tried jiggling it and once I put it in there, it is completely tight. Even DH couldn't see any way of making it go down more. The weird thing is that the mechanism is in the exact same place as it was before I replaced both blades and it's not working.

The Cord Scrapbook Studio has a Cricut that will not longer cut and they have been very dissatisfied with CS of Cricut as the machine is still not fixed.

That is total BS. If it is under warranty, then they should fix it. I will raise holy **** until they do something about this problem. I am not going to be blown off.