I'm really disappointed in my Silhouette Cameo. *UPDATE

What kind of paper are you using? If it is Hobby Lobby paper - that is THE worst stuff ever and it will not cut good.

Make sure the white cover part of your blade is screw in tight. It is a very small flat piece that covers the blade area.

Are you changing your blade settings? You have to manually change the blade setting by either using the little gray ring that comes with the blade, or the hole in your machine where the blade housing fits in.

Paper can use many different settings. I cut cardstock on anything from 4 to 7 depending on the thickness of the cardstock.

I really have never had super great luck cutting light weight paper.

What kind of paper are you using? If it is Hobby Lobby paper - that is THE worst stuff ever and it will not cut good.

Make sure the white cover part of your blade is screw in tight. It is a very small flat piece that covers the blade area.

Are you changing your blade settings? You have to manually change the blade setting by either using the little gray ring that comes with the blade, or the hole in your machine where the blade housing fits in.

Paper can use many different settings. I cut cardstock on anything from 4 to 7 depending on the thickness of the cardstock.

I really have never had super great luck cutting light weight paper.

If your blade is in correctly, you have your settings correct (both on the machine and in Silhouette Studio) and you are still getting bad cuts, then I would buy a new blade. Or have them send you a new blade.

If it was me I would go out and buy one but that is because I have a store close by where I can do that, but I'd still want them to send me a replacement one as well.

What settings are you using? I know you said you used different ones, but that could mean 1,2, or 3. I know for SU card stock you need at least a 5 or 6. I love my cameo and I want you to start loving yours as it is quite an investment. What speed are you using?

I'm so sorry to hear you're having problems - I've had a Silhouette for years ( I started with the original, now have Cameo) and I've had a few problems along the way but I usually get good results from Customer Service. My best advice is to keep calling them and/or e-mailing them. It is entirely possible some part of the machine is defective. If you don't get anywhere I'd package it up and send it back. There's no point in wasting time on something that just isn't working. Good luck and let us know how you resolve this.

If you don't know what I mean by locking the blade unit into place, that could be your problem.  The blade holder has a blue thing on the outside part of the holder.  That blue thing is the locking mechanism, and it rotates.  To put your blade unit into the blade holder, the blade holder's blue locking mechanism is rotated to the left.  After you put the blade into place, you twist that blue locking mechanism to the right, while making sure the blade unit stays in place and doesn't pop back up while turning the locking mechanism (I press gently on the top of the blade unit until I have turned the blue locking mechanism.  The locking mechanism does sort of click into place if it is done correctly.  If it is not locked correctly, nothing holds the blade firmly against the paper at the right pressure, and the blade will not cut through your paper.  I have had one or two times when I thought the blade was locked down, but it had sort of popped up a little when I turned the locking mechanism, so it wasn't actually down all the way.  If it is not locked into place, the blade just sits loosely on top of the cardstock or paper (or whatever you are trying to cut), and it might scratch the surface, but it might not even do that.  It has to have the right pressure to cut.

Please do not think I am questioning your intelligence.  I am not.  When you are new to a machine, there can be some things that are simply not obvious.  The Silhouette is my 4th cutter.  I assumed I could figure it out easy peasy, but I still made mistakes like any other new owner.

The position of the fin on the blade unit is not supposed to make a difference, but it seems to make a difference for me.  I position mine to the right, in the 3:00 position when looking straight down at it.  My DD had hers positioned differently, and it made a difference for her, too.  We were trying to figure out her problem via telephone, since she lives 2,000 miles away.  It was hard, because I could not actually see what she was doing.  I was just guessing based on what she told me.  The same is happening here.  We do want to help you.  Yes, some of us might have overlooked that you had already tried changing the blade.

I agree with iowgirl that you have to make sure your software settings match your blade settings.  DD was also overlooking the Textured Cardstock option, and the Cardstock option did NOT work for the cardstock she was cutting.  She sounded just as frustrated as you until she finally realized what she was doing wrong.  Now her machine works very well for her, and she is very happy with it.

I hope something here helps, whether it's my advice or someone else's.  It's a good machine, but it does have a bit of a learning curve.  It's totally worth it, though, if you can hang in there and figure out what the issue is.  It's often different things for different people.

Let us know when you finally get it to work.

Can you explain a bit more about why you changed the USB cord? I have an old Portrait, and I have had bad cuts (it's like there are interruptions or hiccups in the cut) when I've had a problem with my cord... It's almost like the directions from the software/computer wasn't being delivered to the machine in a smooth/complete/consistent way... I could change nothing and cut the shape perfectly just by cutting from an SD card instead of the computer so I knew it had to do with the cord...

I read through all of the responses above and I'll try and make a few new suggestions. Are the rollers locked into the correct position and is the lever down? Also, one time, on one of the FB groups, I read that someone left a small piece of styrofoam (it was almost unnoticeable) in their machine after unpacking and that was affecting the cutting.

Some machines are just duds. The cutting mechanism may not be working correctly. You should not have to work this hard to get a Good cut. I would exchange for a new machine before you give up. I have a cricut, not a silouette, but some people have had faulty blade housings, cutting decks, bad software, not obvious problems. When the machine was replaced, the new one worked just fine.

I agree. My Cameo cut nice right out of the box.