Exterior

Problem: The Cricut doors don’t open.

• Possible Solution 1 - Gently pry them open once the power button has been pressed. If the machine is newer, sometimes it takes a few times of opening and closing the doors to break them in.
• Possible Solution 2 - Have the doors lost their automatic tension? Service is needed. 

Problem: The doors won’t stay shut.

• Solution - Make sure you have close the bottom door first, then the top door AND exerted enough manual pressure to click the doors in place.  

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Interface

Problem: The mat won't load when I push the "Load Paper" button.

• Solution 1: If you have already tried to load the paper at least once, you’ll need to press Unload Paper first before attempting again. The machine “thinks” that the mat is loaded the first time.

• Solution 2: Try pushing the mat slightly in the rollers as you press the "Load" button. This is best done my holding and pushing the mat on the side nearer the front of the mat.

Problem: No buttons respond when I push them, but the LCD is working.

• Possible Solution 1 - Make sure a cartridge is inserted into the machine.

• Possible Solution 2 - Some buttons won’t be active until a mat has been loaded. Prepare and load a mat.

• - If both of these cases are met and it still will not respond, service is needed.

Problem: I can't get a character to cut out with one of the features selected.

• Solution - Phrases and/or shifted Shapes don't always work with all of the features. Refer to the cartridge HandBook for with features work with which Phrases.

Problem: I receive a “Cartridge Not Found” or “Cartridge Error” message when inserting a cartridge.

• Solution: Try powering off and on again. This will make sure the cartridge is recognized. Occasionally, the cartridge will not register if directly swapped without the power cycle.

Problem: I get the message “Characters Won’t Fit” when I try to cut a 5 ½ -inch Shadow/Blackout image or letter.

• Solution: You will need to dial the size down to 5-inch to accomplish this. Because of the minimum margins required by the Cricut machine, it cannot cut a 5 ½ -inch proportionate shadow (it ends up being more than 5 ½ -inch)

Problem: I get the message “Characters Won’t Fit’ when I try to cut letters, but I only have a few selected and my size is only 4-inch or so.

• Solution: Try turning on the Paper Saver mode (bottom left of the keypad). It’s possible you’ve selected a “y” character or something with a longer tail. This makes it so the distance between the top of the highest character selected and the lowest point is greater than 6-inch, thus the warning message. By selected Paper Saver mode, everything will rearrange itself to fit.

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Cutting

Problem: I've put a smaller sized paper on the matt (ie 5-inch x 5-inch) and navigated to the upper right corner. But when I cut a line of letters, the Cricut returns and starts cutting way back at the top of the mat.

• Solution: After you've navigated to the upper right corner prior to cutting, you need to select the "Set Paper Size" button. This will tell the Cricut that you have selected a smaller paper size. Otherwise it still "thinks" that a 6-inch x 12-inch paper is loaded.

Problem: The cut only came out smaller than my dial size indicates. (ie. A lower case “a” cuts at about 1-inch even though the dial indicates 2-inch)

• Solution - By default, your Cricut will cut letters in proportionate to each other. However, if you want to 'break' this proportion and get any letter to cut the literal dial size, use the Real Dial Size button. For instance, with a dial size of "2" selected, a lower case "a" will actually cut about approximately 1-inch to fit proportionately with any other cut letter. With Real Dial Size selected, that same "a" would cut at a full 2-inch.

Problem: My cut results don’t read like they should. The letters are shifted all the way to the “top” of the row.

• Solution - Paper Save mode will "pack in" any selected cuts to optimize the space needed. This may result in an inaccurate "negative" image left in the paper, but if you don't need to use the negative cut, this mode works great. ie. The tail on a lower case "y" usually encroaches into the paper below the rest of the letters selected, indicating accurate read-ability. With Paper Save mode, the Cricut will automatically raise the "y" up into the same channel the rest of the letters will cut out from.

Problem: The machine makes a rather loud screeching sound while cutting. (Results may or may not be accurate).

• Solution: The mat is most likely rubbing its right side against the wall just behind the cartridge. should be secure to the inside track with no movement other than the normal left/right flow. - Service is needed.This creates the noise. Make sure that the mat is positioned straight in when it’s loaded. If it’s skewed left or right at all, this rubbing becomes a possibility.

Problem: Tearing up or not cutting all the way through the paper/cardstock.

•   - Does it looks like the blade housing bottom itself is too low. It should be at least 1/8-inch above the mat when the machine is powered on. If not, service is needed.